The dos and don’ts of community: What digital entertainment can learn from the live sector

Social media has fundamentally changed – and the consequences matter whether you’re a consumer, a content creator, a regulator, or a marketer. Here’s why:

1. Social platforms are now passive entertainment

Content creation remains a niche activity, and simply posting for friends has become less desirable. As the polished standards on the feed increase, one wrong move can turn users into a viral meme that may push them away from the platform.

2. Entertainment consumption is now social-first

Social platforms have become the default format for nearly all digital activity. As a result, it is one of the strongest drivers of discovery, especially for Gen Z. On one hand, it means audiences are centralised. On the other, it intensifies the challenge of engagement; capturing attention has become increasingly difficult in an environment of constant scrolling and competition for likes and clicks.

3. The next generation may be post-social

Emerging regulation could keep Gen Alpha away from social platforms until they turn 16. This could effectively push them to establish new habits away from social media altogether. It’s likely that their socialising habits will move to games.

The hyper-consolidation of format is having a flattening effect on entertainment quality, which reduces its perceived value to audiences (and the amount they are willing to pay for it). It is also a sign of potential disruption opportunity, as audiences seek well-rounded experiences. Social media allows for surface level engagement, but building real connections between creators, platforms, and audiences requires something deeper.

In effect, there is a strong need to reintroduce context and tangibility in a digital world that has stripped most of its content of both.

Here’s what can be learned from live events:

1. Discovery is good, but quality is more important

Social and streaming platforms emphasise discovery to please stakeholders, but they need to balance this carefully with recurring touchpoints that allow audiences to develop a relationship with the media. Curation is critical: ensuring content is good rather than just new is a key, perhaps fading, art that ensures longevity.

2. Consistency is the key to community

Being able to run into the same people in the same spaces is crucial to building the bonds for a stronger community. This is as true in a live venue as it is on social platforms.

3. A flood of newbies kills the vibe

Anyone in London will tell you that the second a great spot gets posted to Instagram, you can never go there again – it will become full of trend-chasers and content creators. Curation doesn’t just mean content: it means people too, especially in digital spaces. Reddit’s moderators are a key part of its ecosystem, but bigger one-to-many social platforms such as Instagram and TikTok have only the algorithm to rely on – which can overwhelm viewers quickly.

4. The unobserved is often the most authentic

Gen Z has grown up with smartphones filming at the slightest hint of novelty. Constant recording doesn’t make for a good time: it just makes for good photographs. They aren’t the same thing, and in fact, pursuing one often means sacrificing the other. While there’s not much social platforms can learn from this, marketers and creator teams would do well to remember that sometimes what is not recorded and shared online can be far more powerful than what is.

Social platforms are changing, morphing from private spaces to public ones, and behaviour is adapting accordingly. To look forward at how to navigate this new terrain, it would help marketers and strategists to look back at the way events and fan communities have worked before.