Predicting a niche future
How a bunch of weirdos came to love the internet and build out internet niches for better (and for worse?š„“)
The internet has, for the most part, always been filled with early-adopters, who may be a little bit strange. And this isnāt a bad thing.
Starting out as ARPANET as part of the Department of Defense, the internet was created by scientists to share information faster than ever before. Communication has always been part of the internet - with the origins of email dating back to 1965. (Wild, right?).
Throughout the internetās history, itās ebbed and flowed between a niche product, and a mass consumer product. While at many times, the goal of the internet was to get the most information out to people as possible (take, for example, the impeachment), thereās also various pockets of the internet that have always been rooted in developing niche communities (think, 4chan, and subreddits). These communities, for better or for worse, have thrived because of the internetās limitless nature and ability to allow so many people to create.
That being said, the overall trend of what people want out of the internet, has also ebbed and flowed. I would say that in the last 10 years, we wanted the internet to hit as many people as possible. Thatās how algorithms worked and targeted us. We strategized for reach and won our hearts with vanity metrics such as likes. Social media bred, and reproduced like rabbits, with news headlines taking space over who was tweeting what. We entered a stage of mass reproduction on the internet. However, this is not what will continue.
Weāre in a stage of pivoting. Instagram is removing likes, influencers are being called out and audited, and digital products like Facebook groups, personal newsletters, and even Whatsapp groups are taking off. The internet is pivoting back to niche and subcultures. Hereās a few other ways that people are predicting this.
Welcome to your personalized world.
The one thing that hit hardest for me in my masterās degree progress so far; good journalism is about facilitating conversation.
That means taking time to listen and authentically build your community. Matthew Kobach, social media manager of the NYSE captures this well.
Many of the reasons I believe that these online-first predictions are taking off, is because of the increasing number of digital natives not just entering the workforce, but entering mid and even senior-level positions in organizations. We donāt need to explain the internet or the tools that are on that, but rather, we want more meaning out of it ā or weāll leave.
No more chasing trends for trend's sake
In an article for Adweek, Pam Wasserstein, president of Vox Media stated the following.
āThe 2020s may offer a course correction to some of the trends of the last decade such as fake news, generic content and chasing scale for scaleās sake. After this onslaught, audiences are hungry for relationships built on trust, and they are willing to pay where they perceive sufficient value. Quality and brand differentiation will be critical in developing these ties with consumers; we will all have to work harder to ensure that our product is worth paying for directly.ā
The part that stood out to me, relationships built on trust. And we see it more often than not. How many times have you let out an audible "OOFā to a social media post that sounded like your dad wrote it? Exactly. Weāre not interested in something thatās trying to be cool.
I tweeted this out after a frustration of experiencing posting for the sake of posting. Sure itās national cheeseburger day, but is that authentic, or even relevant to your brand or even your freaking personality? Probably not. In 2020, letās do better. Donāt just post for the sake of posting.
Know what the people want
One thing that I think weāll see more of in the coming year, is continued success on giving people what they want. One killer example of this, Baby Yoda. Seriously, the big-eyed, absolutely adorable creature won over Star Wars fanatics hearts (and even nonfanatics hearts) by just merely existing. When he took over the internet, gifs of Baby Yoda were initially removed, albeit due to confusion, but by simply having the gifs on the internet, Disney allows the fandom to spread. In PR school, they would have called that a āmajor earned media win.ā
Large growth for Niche Platforms
One platform that I believe has flown under the radar for many is Discord. The messaging app, sort of the slack for gamers, has experienced tremendous growth over the last year and only will continue to grow.
The app has expanded to allow for communication among niche communities. Many of the subreddits I follow on Reddit are now involved with a discord channel, and journalists (myself included) are using the platform to be part of these niche communities.
The growth happened because the company created a product that solved a need (better communication between gamers) and spread through wonderful word of mouth. By one report, in May of 2019, just 5 years after launching, the product had 250 million monthly users.
I can only imagine that this app will continue to grow. With its ability to connect people of a niche community, and have active conversations - we can only predict growth. Of both the good and bad. Infamously, discord has also been used to help spread alt-right messages and host white supremacist groups (not cool, dude).
Quick Links
āWhen in doubt, buzzwordā is the motto of the cheeky Advertising Thesaurus, because weāve all sat in a meeting where they preached authenticity, actionable insights, ideation, holistic approaches, and whatnot.
CES is happening - there will most definitely be updates in the next newsletter about weird wearables, surveillance, and sex toys.
Samsung has a 292 inch tv called the wall, and IMHO, this feels egregious and completely silly.
Gwyneth Paltrow is bringing Goop to Netflix, and Iām a whole lot of āhello questionable health, and vagina eggsā
On that same note, some are claiming the 2010ās were a decade of health and wellness misinformation, and I could kinda get behind that.
So whether youāre blaming Gwyneth for this decade, or ogling over a wall-sized TV, those are just some of the things that weāre setting our year, and heck, even decade up to be.
As always, if you liked this post, you should probably share it with your friends, and if youāre reading this from a link ā feel free to subscribe! see you on the internet, my dudes!