Is social media dead? | Ep. 21 Content Magic with Lindsay Smith

In this solo episode, I'm diving into a question I've been thinking about for awhile: are we, as business owners, witnessing the death of social media? 

Many of my clients come to me because they are exhausted with creating social content only to see little to no return. Why are we so obsessed with those tiny squares on our phones?

I'm getting into importance or short form content and long form content, the comeback of previous types of content (or did it ever even leave?), and how to make meaningful connections with your audience. 

Tune in to find out if social media will continue playing a large part of marketing or if it's on the outs! 

04:35 Avoid burnout, embrace diverse content strategies.
07:04 Social media trends shift towards promotional content.
11:29 Launching a program requires more than emailing.
14:24 Avoid social media, seek inspiration offline.
15:44 ChatGPT and AI are changing creativity and social media.
20:28 Businesses need leads and the right people.
22:34 Blogs and long form content are returning

Lindsay [00:00:01]:
So, if social media is dead or dying, what are our choices?

Lindsay [00:00:06]:
If you have an online business, you're creating content. And the way you create content is more important than ever. It's really noisy out there, and learning to stand out is the only way. Hey, I'm Lindsey, and I'm the host of the content Magic podcast, all about being an entrepreneur and creating kick ass content to market yourself and your business. I have a not so secret superpower for copywriting, marketing, and content, and I've helped hundreds of folks just like you show up with a ton of confidence in the online space. I've been doing this content thing for 20 years, and I believe the real magic is a combo of intuition, creativity, and strategy. You can create content for your business without losing your mind, I promise. So, tune in every week for tangible content tips, inspiring guests, and some real spicy opinions.

Lindsay [00:00:58]:
Probably mine. Ready to dive in? Let's go.

Lindsay [00:01:01]:
Hello, and welcome back to content Magic. It's me, Lindsay. So, it's just me today, because this is something that's been on my mind, and this is a question I want to ask all of you. Is social media dead, or is social media dying? And the reason I'm asking this is because I'm noticing a lot of clients. A lot of my content clients come to me because they are burnt out with social media, and they are. And usually they're burnt out because they are following some sort of prescription that someone gave them, and they are following a bunch of shoulds, right? So when I talk about content and I talk about being a content strategist, when I usually, when I say the word content, people immediately think social media, and people immediately go to Instagram. Sure. Yes.

Lindsay [00:02:10]:
Instagram is. Can be one tiny part of your content strategy. However, when I say content, I'm referring to a much bigger picture. I'm referring to your email list. I'm referring to, you know, a lead magnet or an opt in to build your email list. I'm talking about. This podcast is content. I'm talking about, you know, other ways of marketing yourself.

Lindsay [00:02:41]:
I'm talking about going live. I'm talking about trainings you can do. I'm talking about, you know, being a part of a program or other people's programs and. And training in there. You know, this is all. This is all types of content or digital marketing, whatever. It's all. It's kind of all, kind of all means the same thing.

Lindsay [00:03:03]:
So, okay, let's take Instagram, for example, right? So I think when you think about it, and this is another copywriter told me this. She was like, it's a tiny. She's like, all you people live in a tiny little square on my phone, and this tiny little square on our phone, we put so much pressure on it, and for what? And I think, I mean, and if, you know, I've been. I've been doing content stuff, like, since before Instagram even existed. And I remember when Instagram started or whatever it was. And tell me if you remember this, if you're as old as I am. Instagram was like, you had all these different filters, and it was like, you. You posted photos and you applied, like, some cool filter to it so it looked like, you know, like a grainy image from a movie or something.

Lindsay [00:04:03]:
And that's what it. That's what it used to be. And it's shifted so much, and it continues to shift all the time. And at the time of this recording, we just. There was, like a meta blackout of doom for, like, a couple hours earlier this week. So this is another question. Why do we put so much pressure on the way we should show up? And there's that wood that would. There's that word should.

Lindsay [00:04:35]:
So. And usually this is why people are burnt out, and this is why clients come to me, because they're following a list of shoulds, because somebody told them, or, you know, some free masterclass or, like, a seven dollar download random thing, or somebody who does not even have any, like, marketing or content background. It's just like, oh, this is what you should do. And if you've been hanging around a little while, you know that I don't believe in that. This is the way you should do it. I think there's many, many different ways that you can use content. And actually, it's funny, I have a friend, her name is Jasmine, and she's not on Instagram or Facebook at all. She uses LinkedIn a little bit, and she is, like, a wealth of information for all of these other platforms that I've never heard of.

Lindsay [00:05:33]:
So there's other opportunities, and I've been talking to a lot of business owners, entrepreneurs, who are kind of like, yeah, I've sort of had it with the social media stuff. And. And, I mean, LinkedIn is its own beast, right? Like, it's still. You still kind of have to play the social media game. However, it is a different audience over there, I believe. And I saw somebody. I saw a creator this morning say something like, 2024 is, you know, she was listing all these, you know, ins and outs. The 2024 social media is gonna die or something.

Lindsay [00:06:18]:
And, and I don't know if it's like I've been seeing these types of posts or this kind of types of information, because I've been thinking about it. So then you see it more, you know, like when you want, like, you know, you're like, oh, I'm gonna get a new mercedes, or whatever. And then all of a sudden you see mercedes everywhere. It might be just because I'm looking for, like, that confirmation be like, oh, yeah, this person exists. This person agrees with me, right? So it could be. It could be that, or it could be, I don't know, is it a trend? And this is, this is a question, and this is another thing I saw. So I've sort of been playing on threads a little bit, which I kind of like because there's no images. And it's like when threads first came out also, it just was like, whatever you want.

Lindsay [00:07:04]:
And people kept using the word unhinged, whatever that means. And what, over the past few months, it has shifted, and now it's become more promotional. And I'm noticing, like, a lot of people that I follow on Instagram just repost the same stuff on threads, and it's become like a, oh, join my free masterclass. Oh, here's how I help somebody make a million dollars in 27 seconds. So it's that. And this is what happens with these platforms, right? They just keep shifting, you know, and I don't know, like, even like a year, 18 months ago, maybe two years ago, I made a free training on how to create reels. And now, which was an awesome lead magnet because a lot of people were like, I don't know how to make reels, and a lot of people didn't want to make reels with not their face on it. So I had this, like, awesome lead magnet, and now it's, like, obsolete because, I mean, there's simply people want to know how to create reels, but now Instagram is, like, favoring static posts and, you know, and I just heard yesterday that, you know, Instagram is poo pooing any kind of, like, link and bio or if you direct people to tap a link in your bio because.

Lindsay [00:08:24]:
And it's taking them off the platform because Instagram wants to keep you on the platform, obviously. So, you know, you have to find, like, these sneaky ways around it. And, like, every platform wants to keep you on their platform, especially all the Zuckerberg ones. So all this to say, like, for, I've been working with a client and, you know, she, she was, you know, she was trying to kind of play the Instagram game, and then she wasn't having any fun. She felt like her content was very dry. And then we kind of discovered that she feels more creative in long form content. Like, she started a blog, and she's starting to create an email list. And she has two segmented email lists, people who are her current clients, and then a bigger list of people who have been on her list for ages.

Lindsay [00:09:25]:
She's just never emailed them, so. And that's another thing, too, right? Like, this idea of long form content versus short form content. And so when I worked in advertising, we had the same thing. There was, like, we also had short form content and long form content. So, like, short form content would be like your headlines or your taglines, you know, and then long form content would be more like website stuff. Like, so you need, like, an about page and a services page and a depending on the client you work on. Or, you know, I remember L'Oreal was a huge client I worked on at various different agencies, and it was always like these, you know, email newsletter type stuff. Like, I remember having to write newsletter things for Garnier all the time, and that was, like, more long form content.

Lindsay [00:10:13]:
And I was always better at that step than I was the headline writing. Not that I couldn't do the headlines. It just took, like, you know, you'd have to write, like, a hundred headlines to get one good one. And still to this day, like, when somebody asks me for a tagline or, you know, a mission statement or, you know, recently I wrote a bunch of taglines for a client for her podcast. And still, like, you know, I think I gave her 20 options because you just. That's the, that's just how it is in advertising now. It's a bit different when you. When you talk about, like, promoting yourself.

Lindsay [00:10:47]:
So Instagram is very short form content y, and I would argue that, like, you know, LinkedIn, I think there's some, like, newsletter feature that you can write, like, more long form content. So I think that's another thing that nobody is talking about. So we're following all these shoulds, right? And there's also this expectation of. And I was talking about this with my friend Jan. She's a business strategist, and I've been working with her. And so, you know, I've been talking about launching a new program. And, you know, in previous years, it would just be like, okay, I have this new program. You post it on social media.

Lindsay [00:11:29]:
You email your list, and you're like, okay, why isn't anything happening. And I'm realizing that it's, I mean, whatever. I didn't. You don't know what you don't know, but it's so launching a new program, you can't just, like, put it onto the world and then sit back and cross your arms and wait for the cash register sounds to come in. There's so much more to it, you know, and the audience, like, have you built an audience? You know, the very first program that I launched was called the copy Code. This was like, three years ago. And, you know, the audience I had was like, they were not, they were not bought into me as, like, moving into this role of, you know, like a lot of people, I moved from done for you content stuff to done with you content stuff. So I didn't have the right audience for that.

Lindsay [00:12:26]:
Maybe I do now, three years later, because I've been working on building it, but there's so many other factors you have to consider. Anyways, I forget where I was going with this. Is social media dead? So are you. And this is the other thing, too. Social media is just one tool in your content strategy toolbox or your marketing toolbox. It's just one small tool. And I think, you know, there's a lot of people, a lot of service providers who go all in on many platforms, and that is their main source of marketing. And I think, you know, it's all the eggs in one basket or whatever the analogy is.

Lindsay [00:13:11]:
And I like, I don't know. I think I don't know. And here's the other. And I know I keep saying Instagram. Instagram keeps shifting so much that, you know, and if you've been hanging around, you know, that I don't teach, like, tactics. I don't teach you how to go viral. I don't teach you how to get 10,000 followers. Like, I'm teaching you sustainable content, stuff that withstands the trends.

Lindsay [00:13:44]:
So, you know, we're talking about clarity, we're talking about messaging, we're talking about, you know, intention. We're not talking. There are people out there who will teach you to go viral if you want, and following some. And again, I find it super prescriptive. You do this, write this caption this way, use chat GPT to come up with this many words, and it's like this big long list, and I find it very complicated. So I'm all about making the whole content creation thing so much easier on you. Oh, here's another thing I saw. I'm jumping all over the place.

Lindsay [00:14:24]:
Another thing I saw on threads and I'm going to assume she was someone young and she was new to business and she was like, three things I wish I had known when I started my business. Scrolling social media is the worst place to get ideas for content. And I think I kind of took that for granted because I was kind of like, isn't that like, common knowledge, that that's the worst place to get ideas? And I will tell you to, like, put your phone away and go for a walk or drive your kid to school and listen to a podcast. You know, like, it's your phone. Is the, like, leave your phone at home on purpose and see what comes up for you, right? When I worked for radio, like, when I was a radio and tv reporter, the producers would always tell me, like, you're not going to get any ideas, Lindsey, sitting behind a computer, like, you have to go out and find the idea. So I take the company car and go out and, you know, drive around and, you know, find ideas. And it's the same, you know, 20 years later, it's the same system for coming up for ideas. And I've had people ask me, you know, when I launched the copy code, I had somebody ask me, how did you come up with that name? Like, what app did you use? And I was like, what? And this was before chat.

Lindsay [00:15:44]:
GPT was like a huge thing. I was like, the app is my brain. And people like, I don't know, I think we're discounting this, this idea of creativity. And now with AI, it's so easy to, like, bypass that creativity and just ask a robot to give you ideas. Also, P's, the robot is going to give you terrible ideas and everything is going to be like, up, level and level up in the journey and it's going to have a rocket emoji and people are going to know that it comes from AI. So if social media is dead and or dying, what are our choices? And I asked this in my Facebook, my Facebook group recently. I was like, is the point of social media to move people to your email list? Is that the point of it? And I think more like, and I think it's so much like this and this. I don't know if anybody talks about this.

Lindsay [00:16:50]:
The, like, what are you using these platforms for? What is the intention? Are you, is it like, is it like brand awareness? Is it you want people to, like, binge all of your content on these social media apps that you're on and, you know, they buy into you because everything you give away is so valuable. Is it. You know, I spoke with a client yesterday who, she is a coach. She has a super successful business, and she hasn't used Instagram in, like, you know, three years. So all of her business comes from referrals. So, you know, like, what? And this is the other thing, too. And this is usually something I ask when content clients come to work with me. Like, where are all your clients currently coming from? And I've had people say to me, I hate Instagram, and it's perfectly okay to get off it.

Lindsay [00:17:53]:
Like you will. And maybe we have, like, an attachment. Maybe we have an attachment to these social platforms, because like I said in the past, they are all technically free except for our time and energy and, like, your canva pro subscription or whatever. So when I compare that to my career in advertising, you know, it's people's jobs. Like media buyers is somebody's job. Say that. Say they buy the media, they buy the billboard space or they buy the newspaper space, or they buy the, you know, the radio time or the tv time or whatever it is. And then you, the, the creative people, like me and all the art directors, you come up with the ideas for that stuff.

Lindsay [00:18:48]:
And these are like millions and millions of dollars. Like, it's the same as, I don't know, there's this comedian who was it? And he's like, I saw live. I don't remember his name, but he's really funny anyways. And he talked about how, you know, there's Wi Fi and planes now, and he's like, everyone has everything they need, and they're miserable. And he was making fun of people on an airplane, whining that the wifi was down, or maybe it was a train. I don't remember. And so I. Is it the same? Is it the same? Like, we have everything available at our fingertips and we are, like, obsessing over it.

Lindsay [00:19:31]:
And how do we stop obsessing over it? How do we stop obsessing over what we're putting out on social media? And this program I'm in, I've been sort of doing a bit of market research and asking the other women who all have amazing expertise, real world expertise, that they've shifted into an online business. And most of them are like, of these 20 people, of these 20 win win. Maybe one of them said, yeah, I love creating content for social media. Most of them were kind of like, yeah, I don't get the point. And there was someone who. She was like, I did a series of Instagram lives over six weeks. Like one a week for six weeks, and it was miserable, and I hated it. And nothing changed.

Lindsay [00:20:28]:
Nothing happened. No leads, right? Because we are here to build businesses, and that requires leads and the right people. If you're a service based business, if you're a product based business, it's a little bit different. But the right people coming to us and buying the stuff we sell, like, that is what a business is. So I don't know. And again, like, am I surrounded by people who am I looking for the. Not the belief, the other thing, the, like, the approval? Or am I looking for the evidence that social media is dying, or is it really happening? So this is something I've been thinking about, and the reason I'm thinking about it is because, you know, I want to best help my clients. And maybe, and I've said this before to a lot of clients, like, yeah, whatever social platform you're using, if you want to just, like, keep the lights on, sure.

Lindsay [00:21:42]:
Throw something up once a week and just leave it at that. And this is the other thing, right? And this is something I've been talking about with clients as well. This idea of long form content, right? Like, this podcast is long form content. A blog post is long form content. And I find it interesting that the blog post, like, blogs are coming back, right? Like, I joked about this, that all the nineties fashion that I wore in high school is coming back. Like, the cargo pants, the, like, wide legged jeans, doc martens, plaid shirts. Like, all this stuff is coming back, and I'm over here in my leggings and my hoodie, which is my everyday uniform. So I don't, this is totally tangent, but I can't.

Lindsay [00:22:34]:
I would not if somebody put me in a pair of cargo pants. Oh, I don't, I don't think I could leave the house. I am not Lindsey from 1995. Anyways, um, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah, blogs coming back in, right? Like, the first blog I ever created, I was 25, and I'm 44 now, and it was on blogspot. So is that what's coming back in her blogs coming back in? Because long form content sort of lives longer and, you know, YouTube videos, too, right? Like, I had a client, you know, she's. She's considering using her long form content and make, using that stuff for YouTube video, you know? And some of the podcast gurus are like, oh, you have to put your podcast on YouTube now because it's a search engine and blah, blah, blah. So, again, all these platforms, are they coming back in style or whatever? And with good reason, right? Because those things live on forever and ever and ever. Like your Instagram post or your Facebook post or your LinkedIn post or whatever social platform you enjoy.

Lindsay [00:24:02]:
It kind of shows up once in somebody's feed and then they move on. I don't know. And think about, you know, I know we all do this doom scroll. I had somebody tell me it was maybe a therapist. I think that, like, anytime you pick up your phone, you know, grab a like, word search or like a word search book from the dollar store or like crossword book or whatever, pick that up instead. Or, you know, have a book near you that you pick up and read instead. So try that, people. What was I talking about? I forget the trends coming back in.

Lindsay [00:24:40]:
Oh, yeah, the doom scroll. So what stops you when you're doing a doom scroll on your phone? And again, it's a tiny square in your phone when you think about it. And why does this tiny square in our phone, whatever it is, Facebook, like Instagram, whatever it is, like I'm looking at my phone, they're tiny little squares. Why do they have so much power over us? And how do we undo that power? So that's it. That's my question to you. Is social media dying or dead? And why do these little tiny squares in our phone have so much power over us? And what can we do about it? All right, toodaloo, everyone. We'll see you on the next episode.

Lindsay [00:25:27]:
Thank you so much for listening. If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share this episode on social media. And don't forget to tag me on Instagram. Lindsaysmithcreative. And if you do all three, I'll be your best friend forever and invite you to all my birthday parties. That's it for today, and I'll see you next time.