The Non-Instagram Paradigm Shift in social media
Social media is a commonplace in this digital age. Almost every phone has at least one social media installed. Such is the dependency of human race on social media that not even a single day can pass without looking at a reel on Instagram, navigating through the professional updates on LinkedIn or reading some controversial tweet from a celebrity. The onset of social media addiction has led to multiple platforms being born and competing with each other for user’s attention. This only results in greater revenue for them by monetization via ads and sponsorships. In a nutshell, the social media has become a business while capturing the imagination of the people around the world.
There are 3 specific social media applications that are truly competing for supremacy in different respects. While the intent of each of these 3 applications is different, they are still fighting for the same user pie. The 3 musketeers are Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Looking at these 3 applications, it is unanimous that Instagram will come out as the clear winner in terms of the number of users that are active during the day (Daily Active Users (DAU). While the absolute numbers are high, but the growth rate tells a completely different story. Instagram is a comfortable third with 4.4% growth since Q1 2021 as opposed to LinkedIn (6.9%) and Twitter (11.1%). Yes, Twitter is growing its daily active users at a faster rate as compared to Instagram and LinkedIn pips Instagram in this measure as well. While, this may seem shocking, but the user expectations and profile has a very important role to play in the success of a social media application. This Non-Instagram new age social media paradigm shift can be attributed to
1. Global economic and Pandemic scenario: While LinkedIn has existed since time immemorial, it came to prevalence owing to the pandemic and present economic situation where a lot of people were on the lookout for jobs and motivation. LinkedIn proved its ability as a professional network to enable people to get jobs and also acted a means of motivation where a lot of authors would write their stories of life. This inculcated an interest amongst the people to log on to LinkedIn during the day to get motivation but also be on the lookout for better job opportunities. In fact, multinational companies are now using LinkedIn as the main tool to hire candidates.
2. Restlessness to get updates: The present generation thrives on impatience. Be it a sports update or any specific movie release or any political update, we want it in a jiffy. While Instagram does provide such updates, but Twitter exceeds expectations by providing updates in seconds. This ultra-fast medium of updates is causing a lot of people to browse through twitter to get Formula 1 updates or Rishi Sunak’s progress in his bid to become the prime minister of UK.
3. Need for Image + content: Instagram is a tool which relies heavily on photos, videos, and stories (reels). The maturing population across the world is now striving for content where they can read some content as well related to a photo. As per the universal heat map, people now tend to focus on the written content more as opposed to the imagery. LinkedIn enables just that by providing content from people across the world with/without photos.
4. Staying in Touch Indirectly: While social media gives us updates of our peers in terms of their personal lives, we are often intrigued by their professional lives as well. This could benefit a person to get a reference or maybe connect for some other business. LinkedIn again steps in by providing professional update of the person even though you may not be in touch with them.
5. Connect with world leaders (not only celebrities): Instagram provides us with access to a celebrities' gym routine, cooking routine and their airport looks. However, the current political situation around the world is making people more interested in the lives of political leaders as well. Politicians are generally away from Instagram, but tweet heavily on Twitter. There will not be a single day when you would not see a tweet from Shashi Tharoor or Justin Trudeau from their official account. This allows the curious public to get a glimpse of the lives of the world leaders as well. In fact, world leaders and authors like Simon Sinek end up posting golden content on LinkedIn which an Instagram user would be totally unaware of (in case they are not using twitter or LinkedIn regularly). This unique ability of Twitter and LinkedIn to give a glimpse of the world leaders along with celebrities to the world is one of the reasons for this social media paradigm shift.
There could be another social media application on the horizon that may come to dominate the user’s daily lives. Paradigm Shift is going to be a constant in social media universe and we need to acknowledge that Instagram’s craze will remain, but the other social media applications like Twitter and LinkedIn are no more alternatives, but independent entities in our lives as well.
