TikTok, YouTube, and the Ghost of Content Creation Past
How to make the new world order of social media work for you
Anyone that’s ever produced online content for any purpose will understand just how difficult it is to attract, and more importantly, retain an audience’s attention.
The uphill climb becomes steeper yet for those producing online content for a business entity, as increasingly, branded content from all but a handful of specific companies is being abandoned by younger generations, who prefer their parasocial relationships to be with ‘authentic’ online creators, and not corporate mascots (Unless you’re Slim Jim, of course).
This shift in viewership preferences by the demographics who are the heaviest consumers of online content — Millennials & Zillennials — has led to what content marketers have dubbed “the death of organic reach” on almost all social platforms in recent years.
On the one hand, there is some truth to this.
Viewership of non-sponsored posts has plummeted for hundreds of thousands of content accounts across all social platforms in recent years, and many like to blame the all-powerful, all-knowing algorithm for these drawdowns in non-paid viewership and interaction metrics.
