I’m incredibly proactive and discerning who and what gets to show up on my social media. To me, Instagram is a way of diving into a world full of wonder, learning, and participating in the good vibes of other people. It’s a way to give my dopamine-challenged brain (hello ADD) a wonderful boost of what it is struggling to produce itself. And it’s an even better way to go beyond the narrow horizon of living in a medium-sized, kind of homogenous, German city during a pandemic.

One thing I can’t control very much is the amount and type of advertising I’m forced to watch. And that can be jarring. Like sitting in a nice quiet park watching the birds and then, suddenly, having a bubble of displaced spacetime continuum pop up beside me, only for a second or so, placing a bustling souk with yelling vendors right on the bench beside me. Just ouch.

Even with everything muted on my phone, the “yelling” of product placement and sponsored ads is deeply felt. It carries an old economy feeling, very old economy. Of newspaper boys standing on little soapboxes screaming to get their fresh-off-the-press goodies sold. All before child labor laws of course.

Social media is so similar to that world back then. Then, a time of busy crowds of people, hurrying along, by foot, their minds absorbed by a plethora of thoughts. The up and coming vendors, all trying to make it in a world that is slowly opening up to them. Where before there was an economy-controlling aristocracy and a tight monopoly held by medieval guilds, there was now the opportunity to strike out on your own, try to make it in the world of rapid transformation that were the first industrial revolutions.

We are no different today. The technology might look different, the size of the markets, the global reach of innovative products, the more diverse makeup of the buyers, it all might be light years away from the market squares of one hundred years ago. But the dynamics have ultimately stayed the same. You need to grab the attention of the distracted. You need to tell busy people why they need you. You need to woo them. You need to beat the also-always-screaming competition. You need to hustle, on- and offline. In short, you might live more comfortably, but in the end you’re still that little newsboy on his soapbox.

And that’s one of the things that won’t survive the 21st century. For the developed world, nothing that smells of desperation, feels like grasping, jars you with an energy of being shouted at, right into our faces, none of that will be acceptable in the future. As we go beyond mere survival, joy and laughter and peace and gentleness will become the themes of our private lives. The steady emotional backbone of a super-busy modern life that is brimming with the potential derived from having access to the entire world.

We will suffer if we can’t find that quiet. We will yearn for that balance between global jobs and international friend circles and being a simple, easily overwhelmed human being. And the very obvious thing that will be easiest to do to find that balance is to let go of the drama that is social media, and it’s uncontrollable advertising.

And yet, as authentic entrepreneurs, we still have a story to tell. We have solved problems dear to our heart, and we want to pass on those solutions to others. Or simply express our very essence through the services and products we offer. Whatever our motivation, we’d like to connect with people for an exchange of deeply authentic goods. Ideally worldwide. But how to do that without shouting in their faces?

How can we pleasantly reach people through social media in the future? That’s not an easy answer. But I think there is a lot to learn from kittens. There are wonderful accounts of people taking in kittens and nurturing them until they can be adopted. Of course, netizens are crazy for any type of cat content, and kittens are cat content on cuteness steroids. But that’s not what drives these accounts. If they do not take in these kittens, they will be euthanized. Almost no shelter has the time and resources available for round-the-clock kitten care. And so, these good souls open their houses and hearts and seemingly unlimited potential for sleep deprivation to take care of these fluffy tiny things. While the rest of the world happily watches along. And purchases food and litter and toys from their Amazon wishlist. Donates money for expensive vet bills. Or simply sends warm words of love when the frail little fluff ball didn’t make it.

There is a sincerity there. A deep authenticity. A genuine care for the problem being solved. All shining warmly through the screen of my phone, enveloping me in an energy of homeliness and goodness. Providing me nurture for that steady, gentle, peaceful emotional backbone of my private life. Adding a beautiful positive energy to my day. And yes, I am very much willing to pay, better: support, the continuation of that energy. And people steeped deeply in their own authenticity and sincerity give off a similar vibe, so ..... .

So let's attempt at answering the question, how will social media advertising develop in the 21st century? I am highly convinced we’ll be dealing with many more people being acutely aware of their social media diet. Of how it makes them feel. Of asking themselves what they need in their lives to bring about much needed balance in an breathtakingly fast changing world. And their answers will be a resounding “peace and beauty and quiet”. Not necessarily in the meditation-sunken, Buddhist monk sense. More generally speaking: energetically. And for advertisers, for entrepreneurs, for influencers, for them all to understand that, they need to find their own balance first. Living authentically is a natural tool for that. And we have first examples of people already doing that, like beautiful kitten-fostering Instagram accounts.

And so, taking all of that together, I think social media for the authentic entrepreneur in the coming decades will be about sharing their own honest, reflected, authentic energy with the rest of the world. In its inspiring and uplifting fieriness, in its reflected vulnerability, in its truthful joyness. These will be the words we use.

And people will self-select into it all. No more convincing. No more fighting for attention. That type of energy is too unpleasant and belongs to the past. In short: organic growth at its finest. Which also means: micro-communities. A complete fragmentation of the market into small, seemingly infinite parts. Not like old-timey market stands. More like inviting a group of acquaintances and friends into your digital living room, hanging out, supporting each other, sharing honestly, connecting over the common interest that is deep down fueling your product offering.

Yes, scaling will still be possible, but it will mostly depend on you and your team’s desire for connecting with your common interest peers. Energy needs to be held. It takes time and effort to become accustomed to holding space for an ever-increasing number of people. Your marketing, and thus your scaling, will be slower, but more sticky. Anything in comparison to our world today will have to be slower if it is to carry the energy of balance and uplift. And that in turn will impact investment models. Financing opportunities. A whole shift in market dynamics.

The transition to that will be messy. A chicken and egg problem. Consumers asking for it, millennial and younger entrepreneurs wanting to do things differently. But everybody is only slowly evolving into these new roles and new ways of thinking, new ways of purchasing, of showing up. There will be a back and forth between increase in demand, then not enough demand to make it scale or even stick. Frustrating uncertainty. Not to mention the resistance from our financial systems, marketing schools, corporate ways of previous centuries yet still (somewhat) alive in the here and now. Yes, it’s going to be messy and unpredictable. But it will happen. Otherwise, it would mean we are going to live in a world where chaos reigns supreme. And though a part of the population will always choose that, the crowds craving balance are growing with every burnout, every broken promise of the hustler economy, and with every world-shattering disaster.

Buckle up people, it’s gonna be a crazy ride. And yes, one of the side effects will be a deep change in social media marketing. Get off your soap boxes, stop believing you need to convince people, take the time to authentically explore what makes you and your product tick, then just share that. And deeply embrace the community that wants to come along for the ride. Or at least, do that in a couple decades..... . Until then, I highly recommend studying these new dynamics by following a bunch of cute kitten accounts on Instagram ;).

—-///—-

From Daily Shot of Insight Sep 1 & 2, 2021

Sign up for regular insights Mo-Fr under by choosing one of the plans 👇. Or get one Daily Shot per week (free) by signing up for the newsletter.