What to Watch: Social Media Hasn’t Peaked — It’s Growing Up

Social media may be down, but it’s not out. In their second-quarter earnings reports, some of social’s biggest players revealed declining user figures, with losses in daily active users across Facebook, Twitter and Snap Inc. numbering in the millions. Cue the hand-wringing. The downturn across the social giants may seem like a sign of things to come — as if the sector has peaked and is fixing to head into the sunset. But don’t buy it, say the experts. “If you look at how much marketers are publishing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, that’s still not peaking,” said Mario Natarelli, managing partner at marketing firm MBLM. “Consumers themselves are still very active on those platforms. You’re not seeing triple-digit growth, but the time spent, the level of engagement is all there.” As a single metric, user counts only paint a partial picture. Clearly engagement matters too, maybe even more so, and that activity hasn’t fallen, it’s grown. “The average U.S. consumer was engaging more with branded content now, than before. So for the numbers at least, all signs point straight ahead and upward,” said Tania Yuki of social intelligence firm Shareablee. “In terms of consumer engagement on social media, retail and fashion massively outpaced the

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