The times have changed, and social media is not a part of our lives. Instead, we are living in the era of social media. Things are different now, liking and disliking are now expressed through double tapping on the picture or reacting to something. We don’t even have to reply to comments and messages now, we can just click on them and choose our reaction for it on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok, in short in every digital platform. Everything is digitalized, even our emotions and expressions.
Meta has changed the world, or even if we say that Meta is shaping the world that also wouldn’t be a wrong statement. Some years back, we used to spend our time on social media for fun and interacting with people and our friends. It was all about fun and having a good time, gaining your friends’ attention, and posting your favorite songs on your wall. But this is a thing of past time now.
Social media is a market now
Social media is no longer for teenagers to have fun and post their favorite songs. It is a whole market now and people are earning through social media. There are creators who create content on social media and monetize that content, do PR and advertising for the brands and earn through their social media posts. Then there are businesses that are running solely on social media, they do not have physical stores, they just create pages and post their products over there and receive orders.
When we started seeing people blogging on social media, some of us used to think what a waste of time and how free these people are, neglecting their studies and careers and investing their time and energy in something virtual. But the time changed with the speed of light and now boom! All those bloggers and creators are millionaires. Turns out those people were smart and knew what they were doing and what was coming for them in the near future.
This market is still growing and expanding and we cannot imagine how big it can get. We just know that there is no stopping it but just growth. The world now belongs to digital creators and digital marketers. There is so much more under the sea than the tip of the iceberg we see. These are some technical things used for digital marketing which many people don’t even know about.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- SEO Blogging
- Meta ads buying (Promotions/advertising)
- Pay Per Click (PPC)
- Social media Algorithms
There are now digital marketing and advertising agencies that provide services above-mentioned services to brands and companies. They handle their social media accounts and market them digitally with the help of content, design, promotions, and SEO.
Tiktok: the latest but the most used platform
The people who were born in the 90s have seen some major changes occur in the world in terms of technology. Literally, the whole world has revolutionized in front of us. We saw the invention of mobile phones and then smartphones, from desktops to laptops and tablets, and we have seen so much. Just like that, we saw the craze of social media platforms like ask FM, then Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Then there came something different, which we first called musically, and then it became Tiktok. People started making short videos of them dancing and lip-synching on TikTok. Just like the other bloggers and creators, we thought they were crazy people, but here we are, living in a world where tiktokers are the highest-paid people in the world. Anyone can use this platform to showcase their talent and for people like you, you will get famous and rich of course.
What made TikTok so popular?
Short videos instead of static posts which are understandable by everyone and every age group. A person with any kind of social background can be entertained by TikTok videos. Where there is a lot of useless and cringe content, there is a lot of useful, helpful, and entertaining content on TikTok as well. It was the basic selling point of TikTok, its short videos, trends, DIY videos, short tutorials, funny and comedy videos, and whatnot. People literally became celebrities through this platform, and Seeing the popularity of TikTok all around the world, some other giant social media platforms tried to replicate its USP.
Instagram reels
Instagram was first majorly used by celebrities to post their pictures. Instagram overthrew Facebook and all of the younger generations switched to Instagram. It became a cool factor to post pictures of themselves and their food on Instagram. Then Instagram launched the stories feature just like Snapchat and many people switched to Instagram to post stories and make highlights. It was a pretty cool feature.
Back in 2019, Instagram surprised everyone by launching Instagram Reels. They announced that now people can post their videos with cool effects on Instagram too and you can scroll the reels just like TikTok. The initial length of reels was 15 seconds but then recently they increased the duration to 90 seconds. Many people had so many things to say about this.
Criticism on reels by celebrities
Some celebrities like the Kardashians said that let Instagram be Instagram and not make it TikTok. Some other celebrities said that the reel algorithm is annoying to them if they want to see random videos they can see that on TikTok, if they are using Instagram they want to see what they follow, not some random videos. After this criticism, Instagram rolled back and they claimed that they are not replicating TikTok, the reels are different and have different features and scope than the TikTok videos. They also changed the algorithms of the reels.
The rise of reels nowadays
Deep down we all know that reels are now an integral part of Instagram and all we do on Instagram now is scroll through the reels. The static posts are almost dead now as they are not as engaging as the reels. Reels get more reach than static posts. For all those people who did not like TikTok and they never used to see TikTok videos, Instagram reels have become a guilty pleasure of all those people.
Not just we watch the reels, but we also create the reels as it is surprisingly so much fun. Going out with friends? Just record short videos of every part of the day, join them, put a good song in the background and you get yourself a reel just like a song video. It feels good when you see all those clips together about your day.
Not just about the day, people are making all kinds of reels just like TikTok. There are Instagram reel trends, now they also provide you the reel templates you can use the template and insert your video in it. You can find all types of entertainment stuff on reels now. So whatever Instagram claims, we all know that Instagram is the new TikTok now and people like it.
