Hello Reptile Entrepreneurs,

A lot has happened out there in social media land. Even with just the platform we have been focusing on, Instagram. So today I am doing a state of the social media landscape episode where I am going to review a summary of the changes that have gone on within the major social media platforms and what they mean to us. I will then discuss some of the influences that are driving these changes and what that may mean for us in the future.

My name is bill Strand and yu are listening to the Reptile Entrepreneur Podcast

First: New Features

Social media is always in a state of change, but that change has sped up dramatically. We are now getting new features every month if not every week if you are on Instagram. We are in a strange era because these new features are not necessarily because they fulfill a certain vision for where they want to take the platform, but are heavily influenced by what the competitors are doing. This is exactly what I tell you not to do in your business! But we have to acknowledge that social media is built upon the trends and whims of humans with miniscule attention spans and zero long term vision so all of this frenetic energy is prob ably because they know exactly who their customer base is and are excellent at what they do! We grouse about it because it is so far out of our understanding that it looks haphazard and knee jerk when we are just trying to figure out our little corner of the world. So, go ahead and grouse about it all you need to. Get it out of your system, and let’s go on with some news items that will be affecting you and your social media outreach.

Let’s start with Instagram, the king of absorbing other platforms’ features and sometimes even doing it better!

Instagram

The first thing that I really like and I encourage you to think about working with is that Instagram removed the 30 character limit to the name of your account. You have a unique account name for your profile and that doesn’t change. Instagram calls that your Username. But in your profile you have a field that Instagram calls your Name. This is part of your profile and shows up in searches and in direct messages, but, more importantly, it is searchable. What I mean by that is that the Instagram algorithm will look at your name to try and figure out what your account is about. So, now my name can be Bill Strand-Chameleon educator. Or Bill Strand – Start-up support. You now have much more freedom to include keywords in your name. and this becomes a permanent identification mark. Joe Blow, crested gecko breeder. Nancy Smith, premium cork bark. I recommend that you a void using this valuable real estate to repeat your company name or whatever your username is. So what do you put in there? Well, ask yourself the question, under what search results would you like to show up? When your perfect customer types in the search term  that describes what you offer you want to show up. If it is spray paint then have “spray paint” in your name field. It was challenging before because you still have to make it easy to read and not obnoxious for humans to read. Because humans are your prime focus! And getting something that humans will warm up to with keywords in under 30 characters was a burden. Now that restriction has been lifted and that is a good thing for us. Now, whenever the training wheels come off there is an element of danger. That 30 character limit was placed so we didn’t get ourselves in trouble by posting long names which would look horrible in places around the app. So, whatever you put in as you name, make it a short as possible and then do a search for your account name and see what it looks like.  You get 37 characters on the iPhone before your name turns into ellipses (that is those three dots) so, when you go off the screen your name is no longer serving your human viewers, but only the keyword searchers. In fact, let’s do a little experiment to show you what I am talking about.

I want you to type in Chameleon in your Instagram search. And then go to the Accounts tab. Scroll through the accounts listed. Almost everyone repeats their Username. I encourage you to use your name field to add more information that includes keywords and entices the person searching to select you out of the crowd. Because it doesn’t matter how many followers you have, how much work you put into your account, or how many decades of experience you have, on the search list you are equal with everyone else on there and you have to stand out. You have a profile picture, a username, and a name field. Use them all as if that was your entire representation. Because, in certain circumstances, it is.

In other news, Instagram has extended their reels to include 90 second videos. Which is great for those of us who are more education than entertainment. But what does this really mean for us? Well, it is unclear why they made this change. Presumably, it has to do with some bigger plan. But the time length of short form video is entirely random. Why a 15 second limit? Why 60 seconds? Why 90 seconds? And why create a designation between short form video and long form video. What is magic about that delineation that keeps shifting? These platforms are trying to find the right balance between keeping the attention of viewers long enough to keep them hooked on the scroll, but not so long that they get tired and leave the app. Vine, tiktok, Instagram have all found that they can keep people glued to the scroll if they can switch things up before you get tired. It is the constant tug on the fishing line that keeps you invested. And, that is why there is such thing as short form video. It is that first taste before your brain starts to wander. The problem is that the shorter the video the more superficial the content. So you end up with a bunch of dopamine dealing content creators and a brain numb user base. Which is great if follower count is the only thing you care about. But if you want creators to put down roots and invest in your platform you need to give them the space to expand their creativity and get deeper into their content creation. So where is the perfect balance between giving creators space to create and losing the endless scroll? Well, that is the golden question and that time changes as people adjust to the last time limit you set. Because we as human beings change what we like based on how much of it we get. And so that people who couldn’t get enough of 15 second video last year are now ready for something different. Now they are ready for 30 second or 60 second or whatever. So expect the time limits to constantly change because we humans constantly crave variety and we get tired of what was new last year.

So, what does this mean for you. This is significant for us on the retile community who are more education based. We still have to entertain, but this gives us the ability to expand our presentation. Now, there are no guarantees that the viewer base will love the longer videos immediately.  You can’t just do the same thing for longer. We have to take this new format and figure out how we can use it in a different way than we did before. The canvas is blank. Go ahead and fill it!

And the final thing about Instagram I will mention is good news. They are making more and more noise about supporting creators on their platform. Instagram mentioned last year letting creators take their follower with them and Adam Mosseri, the Instagram CEO, did a TedTalk where he talked more about this and other ways of supporting creators. The details are not worth going into right now until they are actually implemented, but it is good news that Instagram is taking the creator situation seriously. We now have the pilot program of the creators fund where you can get paid for Reels views. It is in its infancy so it is invitation only, but the fact that it exists is a sign of things going in the right direction.

TikTok changes

I know Instagram gets the main label of changing all the time, but our friend TikTok is doing its own growth as well, and, I have to tell you they have a much harder path ahead of them. Instagram has a user base used to being battered about with new changes every month or even week. The TikTok crowd may not be so easy to shift. But, here is my list of new features for you to know about.

The first is the ability to load up 10 minute videos. This is a huge shift and one that will take sometime for the TikTok community to figure out. They grew up thinking in less than one minute. Now they have to think in multi minutes? Maybe it will or maybe it won’t take off. I see resistance to it now, but that may fade away when ad revenue is attached to each video.

There is also a new integration capability with Later and Woocommerce. Later is a software platform that allows you to schedule your posts on Instagram and now on TikTok. The significance of this is that TikTok is making itself more business friendly. That continues with an integration now available with Woocommerce which is one of the most widely used ecommerce platforms. You find Woocommerce widely used with WordPress websites. This allows you to list your product line on TikTok and make posts about your products. So get ready for the marketing onslaught. This significance of this is that TikTok is seeing that they need to add depth to their offering and grow beyond being the app of the endless scroll.

Upheaval in the Social Media World

So, where are all these changes leading to? It all comes down to needing to constantly grow because if you aren’t growing you are dying. And that takes change. Often this change is organic and the platform grows as the user base changes their habits, but the last years have been change forced by competition. And that can be jarring for everyone.

Of course, the highest visibility forced make-over is Instagram trying to get their still image users to become short form video producers and consumers. They have decided that that is the way to success for them. And it is no use saying “it will never work because they will never be TikTok”. It will work because they don’t have to be TikTok. Instagram just has to be close enough with short form video so that people who like that don’t leave for TikTok. And the more short form video they push the more people will acclimate. So, regardless about how you feel jilted for a younger model, it will work. Enough people will adapt and new people come on that the ones that can’t adjust will be replaced. It is harsh, but such is natural selection.

But don’t think you’ll escape that by going anywhere else. Have you noticed that those new features are TikTok trying to add on Instagram or YouTube features? From Stories to now integrating your website products to allowing 10 minute video? Do you get the feeling like we are headed for the great convergence?

For all the noise about Instagram vs. TikTok I am going to throw in my opinion that Instagram is actually doing much better in its drive for that great convergence. Instagram has had a long history of integrating the best of other platforms. Instagram account holders are already multiple tools users. TikTokers, on the other hand, are new to different formats. I am amused watching the reaction to TikTok introducing the 10 minute video option with some users protesting and promising that if they ever run across a ten minute video that they will swipe away or unfollow. There! That will show them!

Of course, you know why Tiktok introduced the option to load up to ten minute videos, right? It is so they can attach ad revenue to the creator. With the current habit on TikTik of just endlessly scrolling through short form videos it is difficult to attribute ad revenue to a certain creator like YouTube does. On YouTube you choose a video, watch an ad, and watch the video. Monetization is clear. That creator gets credit for that ad. Well, what happens when an ad is thrown into the stream of consciousness that is the TikTok feed? Who gets credit for that ad? Even YouTube, with its short form video called Shorts, hasn’t figured that one out as their shorts shelf is not part of the monetization pool where creators can get compensated. All we get with Shorts is exposure. That is kind of a joke because of how often people want you to work for free and they offer exposure as the benefit you receive. Well, on YouTube shorts, that is exactly what you get. YouTube will artificially push your short form video and you may get subscribers from it. But, anyways, Why does long form video matter for TikTok? Because TikTok is acutely aware of what happened to Vine.

Vine

Does anyone remember Vine? Vine was the original short form video app. It exploded onto the scene January 2013 allowing six second videos to be posted. It was ridiculously popular and stars were born. Names you may recognize today started on Vine. But Vine wasn’t able to properly monetize the platform for these huge stars that moved to other platforms that were better able to support their stardom. And so Vine shut down just before their fourth birthday in January of 2017. At this time, the app known as TikTok was a few months old. Its merger with musica.ly a year and a half later would shift the entire social media landscape into what we have now.

TikTok is acutely aware that they are in the exact same position as Vine was when it started its downward spiral. They are on top of the world, insanely popular, creating tiktok stars… and have no way to keep them. They know very well that if they do not figure out a way to pay their top creators that they will come crashing down. So, you will see multiple attempts- from creator funds to long form video- to get money to creators. And their biggest threat to them moving forward and surviving are, ironically, their 1 billion active users. If the users do not embrace long form video then TikTok will have to find other ways to compensate their biggest creators. And, to be clear, their best creators are already getting millions of dollars a year. But this money is coming from brand deals and other outside sources. These entertainers can go build accounts on other platforms and maintain their income stream. The only way for TikTok to keep its creators is to make sure a substantial part of the creators’ income comes from being on the tiktok platform. It kind of stinks giving someone their big break just to have them leave you behind because you can’t help them grow to the next stage. But that is what Tiktok is facing.

Do you know why the most stable social media platform is youTube? They are introducing new features, but they really don’t have to worry about competition like Tiktok and Instagram and Facebook? Because they have given YouTube creators careers and that income is tied directly to producing content on the Youtube platform. It is a stable system. I mean, the income isn’t necessarily stable and it has all sorts of ups and downs, but once you start getting paid by YouTube there really isn’t another platform you can go to to replace it. I get a consistent paycheck from YouTube every month. Regardless of how much work I put into Instagram or TikTok I won’t get that. So, with every move I make, Youtube is always on my mind.

The good news is that both TikTok and Instagram are well aware of the precarious position they are in and are working hard to figure out a solution. Their creator’s funds reward you for how many views you get. Now, I am part of Instagram’s pilot creator’s fund project which is refreshed monthly, but this is highly artificial and I have no idea what the next month will bring. This is by invitation and not tied to ad revenue. So I have no sense of stability with this program. So, compensating creators is in the beginning stages. But at least they are being started and explored.

And how will TikTok’s attempt to bring in long form video work? To be determined. Instagram tried it and failed spectacularly. You can still post long form video on Instagram. And I do, because I am the patron saint of all obscure Instagram features. You can find me in the corner with the other two people that love to use Guides. Anyone know what Guides are? Anyone?

Well, TikTok has a huge challenge ahead of them because not only did they build themselves up to a 1 billion active user base on short form video, but they are a vertical format so they either have to train their users to turn the phone horizontal or else they have to train their content creators how to make long form video in the portrait mode. They cant just hijack the YouTubers because YouTubers are all making video in horizontal landscape format. TikTok has the unenviable task of changing the habits of their users and creators. So, all of you complaining about Instagram changing things around? Don’t think you are safe from this on TikTok. Change is a coming to TikTok. It has been coming. And it will be coming even stronger because TikTok’s survival is tied to it. Now, TikTok is in no way in as precarious a position as Vine. Vine was a side project owned by Twitter and it wasn’t worth the expense to continue. TikTok is a national pride of China and I can guarantee you that the government will not allow it to fail. So, don’t bet against them being able to play the long game with any changes they need to make.

So, the fact is that we are surfing some major social media upheaval. Put on the sunscreen and let’s hang ten.

So, there is a lot going on out there and swirling around us as we are just trying to figure out how this all works and then they change things on us. The name of the game is to evolve with the times while holding on to our core purpose. If you have been listening to this podcast during season 2 you have heard a lot about purpose. That is the reason why you do all of this. If you have been able to make that purpose clear in your mind then all of this chaos surrounding social media is only a series of new tools coming your way for you to experiment with to see if they serve your outreach and your true followers.

I am sure I will be doing an update episode like this again in the near future considering how dynamic the social media landscape is. But, that is what this podcast is all about. Keeping track of the changes that affect us and helping the entrepreneurs in the reptile community find success. Because that is how we will get stronger as a community.

Take care of yourself, take care of our reptile community, and let’s see what we can build.