Has social lost its shine?

There’s no denying the power of social media. It continues to offer an avenue for brands to not only engage with customers, but influence them with the right branded content to help them make decisions. With 82% of the population being active social media users according to Ofcom, there’s huge scale too.

But social has lost some of its lustre over the past couple of years thanks to struggles with fake news, scams, brand and user safety. There’s also been big shifts across networks as younger users abandon the grand daddy, Facebook.

Fake news kills social’s credibility

The rise of ‘fake news’ has surged in the last five years, but really came to a head on social media during the pandemic.

According to an Ofcom report commissioned in the first week of the UK lockdown back in March 2020, nearly half (49%) of individuals used social media to access news and information about Covid-19, and 46% stated they had seen false or misleading information related to the pandemic.

The recent proliferation of fake news has resulted in consumers trusting social media less – and this clearly has a knock-on effect for advertisers using the platform.

At a time when social media users want brands to be reliable and authentic, they can’t be sure they can trust the content companies are pushing, with 70% of people in the UK saying they ‘don’t trust’ a lot of what they see on social platforms, including posts from brands.

Rise of a discerning generation

With social media losing its credibility, people are turning to traditional news sources for their news, even if it’s just to verify what they’ve already seen. Ofcom’s report says that social media users “use various sources to triangulate the trustworthiness of news stories”.

And it’s the younger generation who are the most diligent when it comes to determining whether or not a news outlet is trustworthy. In a 2021 Gallup survey, 83% of respondents aged 18-34 said it was very important that a news story provides links to research and facts to back up its reporting, compared to 65% in the 55+ age group.

Shift away from advertiser-friendly channels

The biggest casualty of this rising demand for accountability is undoubtedly Facebook. Once a hub to Millennials and Gen Z, Facebook is now perceived as a ‘boomer network’ by young internet users.

Facebook is attempting to turn these perceptions around, says its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. “We are retooling our teams to make serving young adults their North Star rather than optimising for the larger number of older people,” he said last year.

But it might be too late. They’re already jumping ship to video-based social platforms like TikTok and YouTube, which is not only a concern for Facebook, but brands too given the vast majority (90%) of people tend to skip pre-roll video ads that appear ahead of online video content and try to avoid sources where those ads are unskippable.

The battle for attribution

As per social media analytics platform ListenFirst, most marketers (46%) can only “sometimes” tie their social media marketing efforts to ROI. About 33% said that they could “mostly” do so, while 7% claimed that they are never able to make the connection.

And yet, despite most brands suggesting they can’t put an exact figure on the value of social media, more than 50% of respondents said they’ll be increasing their spend on the channel in 2022.

Branded content: the solution to social media’s limitations

Brands can engage with consumers another way, via channels that are deemed relevant and trustworthy to their audience – without having to strain to appeal to them on social platforms.

Native advertising often has to play second fiddle to social media marketing, but it’s shown to provide a significant ROI – something social media can struggle to prove. Indeed, branded content, served in premium publisher environments, yields on average a 50% brand uplift, Nielsen found.

It’s effective because it contains compelling and useful information that audiences are already seeking out, not to mention that it’s distributed in a familiar editorial environment – somewhere audiences can trust.

Native is also a lot more traceable when it comes to ROI, with our end-to-end tracking solution removing the need for cookies.

Contact us today to learn more about branded content campaigns built for brand and performance.