The history of social media has long been defined by continual evolution and iteration, but now shifts across the value chain are becoming more substantive, heralding a new era. Social platforms themselves are changing, and so too are the attitudes, expectations, and behaviours of their users, with audiences’ appetites for carefully curated, heavily edited posts turning sour, and their thirst for authentic, participatory content growing stronger. We are moving to a new, creator-first era which will require marketers to rethink strategy and that will see most value reside with influencers who best reflect the values of their audiences. This is the era of social           

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Addison Rae, Aldi, Amber Heard, BeReal, Big Brother, Brookieandjessie, BTS, Colin the Caterpillar, Discord, Dixie D’Amelio, Don’t Worry Darling, Elon Musk, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Florence Pugh, Footasylum, Footasylym Locked In, Friendster, GkBarry, He’s All That, IGTV, Instagram, Johnny Depp, Ken Russel, Kim Petras, LinkedIn, Marks & Spencer, Meghan Trainor, Meta, Musical.ly, Myspace, Netflix, Olivia Wilde, Pete Davidson, Redbyrd, Sam Smith, SixDegrees, Snapchat, Super Follows, Taylor Swift, Tefi Pesoa, TikTok, Tumblr, Twitch, Twitter, Twitter Blue, Vine, WeChat, WhatsApp, WordPress, Yahoo! GeoCities, YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Zebr, and Zine