Picture this: it’s 2010, you’ve spent your afternoon uploading half your camera roll onto Facebook albums, Vine trends are starting to take off, and you’re figuring out what the hell Instagram is and why everyone is suddenly posting their morning coffee with the world’s heaviest contrast filter.
Fast forward 15 years, and the landscape looks completely different. Social media isn’t just a pastime anymore. It’s where culture happens, where brands build trust, and increasingly where people go to learn, shop and be influenced – whether they realise it or not.
From simple status updates to strategy
Back then, social was simple. Status updates, tagging friends, oversharing on your feed – it was all SO straightforward. Now, it’s layered, fast-moving and driven by strategy. Every platform has its own language, its own algorithm quirks and its own audience mindset.
And the biggest shift? People want brands and creators to show up exactly as themselves, not like a polished ad. The platforms reward that, and audiences demand it.
How we’ve evolved
We’re more connected than ever, and connection looks different now. Social is how we keep up with friends, follow our favourite creators, cheer on colleagues, and discover brands we’d never find otherwise. It’s also how we research everything from where to eat to what to buy – often before heading anywhere near Google.
Take Instagram. Stories gave us the opportunity to share real-time, imperfect moments. Reels reshaped the algorithm and made short-form video a non-negotiable for brands and creators. Then came shopping features, turning posts into product journeys and making Instagram just as much a storefront as it is a social platform.
TikTok took everything that Vine was offering but took it up a level with an algorithm that knows what you want before you do, and built-in editing, voiceovers, duets – meaning that suddenly we didn’t need ten apps to produce one social video. TikTok became the birthplace of trends: fashion, workouts, niche obsessions, a random Nan going viral for DJing on her kitchen hob (iykyk). Virality stopped belonging to the biggest accounts and started belonging to the best content and this shift was huge for creators and brands.
And then there’s Facebook. And no, it hasn’t disappeared – it’s evolved. Marketplace is now a digital car boot sale meets local retail hub. Groups have grown into powerful communities where people genuinely engage, share advice and build connection. Facebook isn’t the cultural hotspot it used to be, but it’s evolved into something practical: a place for buying, selling, sharing and staying connected.
Features that actually help us
If there’s one evolution that’s genuinely reshaped how we use social, it’s the rise of features that serve real behaviour. Saves, collections and boards shifted platforms from pure consumption to curation — social became a space where we can organise our lives, not just scroll through them. Pinterest still leads the way here: boards for weddings, recipes, outfits, quotes, and the crazy DIY projects we all know we’ll never actually try.
But the most significant shift? Social search.
Today, TikTok and Instagram aren’t just entertainment platforms, they’re search engines in their own right. People use them to find recommendations, compare products, learn something new and get honest reviews in seconds.
This fundamentally changes how brands and creators think about visibility. It’s no longer only about performing well in the feed; it’s about being discoverable when someone actively wants what you offer. Relevance, clarity and value matter more than ever, because showing up in search is quickly becoming as important as showing up when your audience scroll through social.
And as analytics, creator tools and collab features have grown more sophisticated, the expectations on brands and creators have grown with them. Publishing is easy; being found, trusted and chosen is where the real strategy happens.
So where are we now?
Fifteen years on, social isn’t just where we post pictures or scroll through updates; it’s where we search, learn, shop, laugh, and connect. It’s become a discovery engine just as much as a content engine. People now turn to TikTok and Instagram to answer questions, find products, validate decisions and get recommendations they trust.
And that shift has changed everything.
Social has moved from a passive experience to an intentional one. Audiences aren’t just waiting for content to appear in their feed, they’re actively seeking out answers, ideas and inspiration. The brands and creators who win today are the ones who show up clearly, consistently and usefully in those moments of search.
Want to show up in the moments that matter? Let’s make it happen. Get in touch.