Like most millennials, I love social media. It’s the quickest and easiest place to get the topline on anything from my friends’ lives to current events to pictures of Chrissy Teigen’s new baby, Luna. Being a millennial in PR, I really love social media. The platforms provide a tool for client work as well. They serve as a new place to identify and even connect with journalists or uncover critical information relevant to my accounts.
What I like most about various social media outlets is the intended use for each. My professional connections fair well for LinkedIn while a quick comment or thought on a current event is well suited for Twitter. When I have something I want to share, it’s almost an automatic thought of “where I’m going to post this”.
This being said, I am not a huge fan of social media outlets constantly morphing into one another. Each update inches platforms a little closer together. For example, the recent changes to Instagram switches the way the feed is presented. Instead of posts being in chronological order, Instagram is taking a page from big brother Facebook and presenting top stories first. Twitter has also jumped on board slightly by presenting a “what you missed” section before getting back to your normal feed. While seemingly harmless to some, it can propose annoyances and concerns to others. If you’re looking to post something timely, maybe even on behalf of a client, will we be left wondering if this timely picture or thought will be seen?
These updates don’t necessarily enhance the outlet, at least in my eyes. They simply provide a more unified experience across various channels. For me, the morphing of social channels blurs the lines of what to post where. Experiences are less self-created and more uniformly molded for you.
If all social media outlets acted like each other, people would only use one outlet and the rest would eventually die out (Zuckerberg, we’re on to your plan). All in all, I enjoy having the option and choice of suitable content for various types of social platforms.
What would you prefer: distinct social media outlets or a one-for-all outlet?