This is late stage social media

Reasons to be hopeful + the big opportunities for brands

Hi! I’m Matilda Lucy, a London-based digital strategist supporting businesses to grow sustainably beyond social media. If you’re interested in working together on your 2025 growth and marketing strategy check out my website or book in an intro call.

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There was no one single event that got us here—it’s been a culmination of social media’s oversized role in the commodification of everything, the loneliness epidemic, the decline in kids’ mental health, the looming Musk-Trump administration ETC! Welcome to late-stage social media.

The big Q is where do mirror selfies live if not on social?

I first read the term “late-stage social media” in this Digiday article last year. Platforms that started as genuinely social turned into entertainment platforms and are now primarily commerce platforms with a disappointingly small side order of socialising.

From platforms for socialising to platforms for buying

But you know all this! I’m interested in looking at where we go from here because I’m hopeful (dare I say excited?) about the possibilities both for humans and, with my strategist’s hat on, for brands looking to make an impact beyond profit online.

The ultimate move by social platforms has been to convince users they aren’t real people and advertisers they can’t succeed as businesses without being on their apps. Now is a great time to think critically about what’s working for you and how you could choose to spend your time and marketing $ differently.

Why I’m hopeful for users (preferred noun humans)

I’ve recently deleted IG on my phone. I knew that seeing 500 people drinking matchas and 100 ads for supplements per day was rotting my brain in an abstract way but now I can feel the alternative. It feels (after an initial twitchy couple of days) like a big exhale. I’m still hooked on TikTok but life is a WIP.

The big wins for humans thinking more critically about social media usage are self-evident:

• Spending less time on apps, more time offline: Less screen time, more clarity + more reality.

• More time socialising in smaller online settings. Connecting rather than broadcasting.

• Buying less: When not bombarded by ads.

• Comparing yourself to strangers less: Say no more.

Your dog?

Why I’m hopeful for brands 

I see a serious opportunity for brands willing to lead the way in meeting people not only where they’re at - we know that’s still mostly socials - but where they’re enjoying life; anywhere that’s not socials.

Here’s what’s possible for businesses excited by the idea of leading the way in building growth models not centred around social media over the next few years:

• Slow, authentic growth as a key competitive edge. People are more discerning than ever before about where they spend their money. Demonstrating rather than talking about values is a competitive advantage.

• Building on from social success. Get granular on analysing why what has worked well for you on social over the years has done so and think about how to map this into other IRL and URL channels. This is not about starting from zero.

• Reduced reliance on paid social ads. And being at the mercy of algo updates and rising acquisition costs.

• Owned media development. Incredibly fun and compounds in value e.g. your website, newsletters as products, email etc.

• More collaboration and co-creation, less broadcasting and posting. 

Now is the time for consumers and brands to think critically and creatively about where we spend our time and money. There are more interesting and fruitful paths ahead of us than the ones we’re leaving behind. Who’s coming?