I coined the term digital campfires. Now I help brands build them 🔥 Creating community-powered pathways to attention, relevance & loyalty with Gen Z | ex-FB & IG | Speaker, YouTube | Contributor, Harvard Biz. Review
I have this weird talent. It manifests as being able to intuit large-scale cultural shifts that are going to happen approximately five years into the future 🔮 In 2010, I intuited that magazines were ceding in cultural importance to digital media, so I left print magazines, where I had assumed I'd stay forever, and went to work at HuffPost. Five years later was arguably the height of the digital media boom. In 2013, I intuited that digital media was ceding in cultural importance to social platforms, so I left HuffPost and went to work at Facebook. Five years later was arguably the height of the social media boom. Now here we are, nearly five years after my first piece for Harvard Business Review, when I wrote these words about "digital campfires," a term I created to help marketers understand this new type of online space to which Gen Z audiences were flocking, and figure out how to show up there, too. The piece was prompted by an intuition. This time with the data to back it. And today, everywhere I turn I see the talk of the rise of niche communities, the fragmentation of media and talk of the "end of big social." It's been nearly five years, and while we're not quite at the height of the communities boom, we're getting there. What's your weird talent? P.S. Here's a 🔗 to that first HBR piece, all very much applicable today: https://lnkd.in/gAVt6NiU ---- Hi, I'm Sara Wilson 👋 I help small to midsize brands generate attention, relevance and loyalty with Gen Z by creating community-powered flywheels. 🛞 💸 Want more posts like this? Click my name + follow + 🔔
Reza Bird
3mo
Can you just give us a heads-up on what’s coming in the next five years? Please? 😉
Jennifer Roebuck
3mo
🤔 - I called the end of fashion in 2021 and that’s playing out. The end of ecommerce and that’s morphing into slower growth and a need for innovation and a rise in new immersive experiences that help people escape.. not sure what that means as far as superpowers go..
Marek Tobota
3mo
I love the idea of digital campfires. Based on my digital ethnography experience it even seems that content serving algorithm fatigue is progressing. Models have more and more data, are more and more accurate, and the content served can be increasingly discouraging. Just as Netflix, which improved its offer based on machine analysis of preferences, reached a state of audience fatigue, so now Facebook often arouses mixed feelings among users. And the network is full of new platforms that try to offer an alternative, we also have the renaissance of Reddit, and the largest players are also trying to secure areas where participation is over performance. Participation over performance, fluid identity and safe haven are trends in looking cozy social media space and interaction driven by same interests. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/make-social-media-again-marek-tobota-ib6zf/?trackingId=VoFM2bovTee%2BuRegr6vGlw%3D%3D
Amazing take. Hence, why we are establishing a bridge OS<>Oasis So much exciting times ahead
Chief Digital Officer | Founder, Greatest of All Digital | Frmr The Chernin Group Operating Partner | Nike GM | Venture Backed CEO
3moFinding people like you 👀❤️