Tech Whisperer

By Zack Jackson

Executive Summary:

Own your audience – and seek direct lines of communication with customers.

The short form video war and what it means for you

In the past year, TikTok has put a significant dent in Meta’s world of social media dominance. Facebook’s user numbers shrunk for the first time in the history of the company, and Darth (Mark) Zuckerberg is freaking out. In retaliation, Meta is turning up the heat on TikTok and going all-in on short form video, significantly boosting reach and engagement for organic content posted via Reels.

Here’s a crazy idea … had they not squashed the hell out of organic engagement to force people to buy more ads, this never would’ve happened in the first place! In the “good old days” of Facebook/Instagram when you could simply post good content and have organic growth, and it made you WANT to spend money on ads to spread that content even further. Now I feel like I’ve gone to a restaurant where I’ve ordered a meal and they’ve served me a bunch of hot garbage but tell me, “well if you pay us a little bit more, then MAYBE we’ll bring you some better food.” Awesome!

We’ve seen this pattern before … when Facebook first started crushing organic growth, people gravitated to Instagram. So, what did Facebook do? Bought the company of course! Because if you can’t beat ’em, copy ’em, steal their market share, crush their growth, and then buy ’em out!

Facebook then began to apply the same practices to Instagram. Oh, you actually want someone to SEE your post? Give us money and then MAYBE we’ll let our algorithm robot overlords expose it to a couple new people. Pleasure doing business with you! The battlefield is set yet again … this time against TikTok. So, what will happen next? Will Meta win this battle too? Will TikTok be able to weather the storm?

Regardless of how this all shakes out, the real message here for the growth and success of YOUR brand is one that we preach over and over here at The JPG Agency … OWN YOUR AUDIENCE! Social media platforms have a place in your marketing strategies, but they should be a supplement to your primary objective of creating a direct line of communication with your audience that engages with them on YOUR terms.

Sure … you can make a post on Facebook, or TikTok, or [insert next big thing here] but you’ll always be relying on that platform to actually deliver that content to people. Meanwhile, when YOU are the one who owns your audience, you can reach them and not rely on someone else’s algorithm to do it for you. It takes TIME to achieve, but once you have that direct line of communication, you own it FOREVER, no matter what new trend emerges.

Zack Jackson is co-founder of The JPG Agency small business creative firm. Reach him at zack@thejpgagency.com.