Optimistic action > “social media is dying” takes

Five ideas for 2025

Hi HNY! Hope you’ve had a fun and restful break.

This post is a snapshot of the ideas I’m carrying forward into 2025. The themes that I hope will help us navigate our online/offline lives and think critically about how we define and achieve successful growth this year.

We know that the world is on fire and that our digital lives are a part of that. I’m entering this year with determined optimism that it’s within our collective power to use our digital tools for good. To connect with new people we wouldn’t otherwise, foster deep connections, find out about cool weird shit and generally enhance our offline lives.

Hiiiii from a freezing beautiful blue sky day in London.

1. Optimistic action > “social media is dying” takes

Last year, I had a lot of conversations about the murky state of the internet: the enshitification of social platforms, the flood of AI-generated slop etc etc. We’re well aware of the state of play so what are we going to do about it?

I believe that if social platforms currently support you to achieve your mission, then use them! If they suck your time and aren’t worth it anymore, then build elsewhere. There’s no right or wrong approach as long as you’re thinking critically.

As

Seth Werkheiser

often says, the internet is a tool, not a destination. It’s up to us how we use the tool. This year I want to do more making. More scheming. More testing of digital tools that serve to connect us to people and things we love.

2. Approach content creation like a 10,000-piece puzzle

No one piece of content can - or should - capture everything you’re about. Instead of trying to cram your whole identity into every essay, video, or post, think of each one as a puzzle piece. When viewed from above the pieces show a much bigger picture.

This approach takes the pressure off any single post and diminishes the value of going viral. It’s also always a work in progress because has anyone ever finished a puzzle with that many pieces?

3. Craft your own KPIs

Get clear on why you’re building what you’re building and what success looks like to you. If (like me) you love experimenting and tracking, create a KPI dashboard with your own success metrics beyond CAC and conversion rates. Number of runs in the woods? Days spent at galleries? Number of new collaborators you work with each month? Quality of new insights learned about the people in your community? Build a dashboard that reflects the reality of the project or business you want to exist.

4. Ask more questions

Be more curious with the people you want to reach whether they’re potential clients, collaborators, or peers. Keep questioning the systems we’re all building and operating within because they are broken. Get inquisitive with everyone you meet, because use it or lose it now applies to our ability to genuinely connect and hold meaningful conversations.

5. If in doubt, do less

2025 is all about prioritising depth over scale online. Vanity metrics do not matter.

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Hope these ideas resonate with you as you move into January and the rest of the year. I’m so excited about what’s to come for Broken Growth 2025 and am really grateful that you’re joining me here.

If there’s anything you’re keen to see more or less of here let me know.

Let’s be having you 2025.

Chat soon!

Matilda