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By Alan Yung
Porter’s Five Forces analysis model from the late 1970s has been discussed over the last few decades and can be applied in various analyses. Namely, the five forces are competitive rivalry, potential new entrants into the industry, the power of suppliers, the power of customers, and the threat of substitute products. This model can be employed in the context of social media, where most marketers spend their time daily.Undoubtedly, social media is a part of the lives of many people, from toddlers to the generation that experienced World War 2.
Whether actively engaging or passively viewing social media content, for-profit and non-profit entities actively spread the word through social media. This includes users who are actively engaging, which amplifies the impact of social media. Here, we are not discussing a social media platform or a company that fits the analysis model; rather, it is the content or posts by marketers or anyone actively engaging in social media content.
Hypothetically, the Five Forces may be applied to understand competitive intensity in content posting, attractiveness, or why certain content ends up receiving less attention.
Social media content and the act of posting are constructed or hindered by the Five Forces. The content posted targets an audience that only has 24 hours a day. For instance, the news from Macau Business targets all Macau residents who regularly read English news. Content posting aims at readers and results in the number of minutes engaged with the reader. A myopic view might see it as a competition among English news media vying for the reader’s attention. Zooming out, we see numerous content posts taken minute by minute from each reader. These posts include not only English news but all sorts of content, such as a 10-second video that may seem trivial but consumes time. Any post relevant to an audience becomes a rival for attention.
When we regard social media posts as a business or industry, we can fit social media content posting into the Five Force analysis. All content on social media competes for the audience’s attention. English news competes not only with other English news but also with other content on the platform. A 10-second non-sense may divert an English news reader’s attention to some cyberspace far enough to forget about the news itself, not to mention posts that lead nowhere until the viewer is exhausted.
There are always new entrants into the industry. Except for illegal entities, most entities create content posts for various reasons: to attract business, share views on social good, spread the gospel, promote propaganda, or simply express emotional status. Users create new accounts, pages, groups, or channels for content posts with intentions that may not be known to the audience. Social media tends to keep the audience within its walled garden, but cyberspace hyperlinks always let users go elsewhere, keeping the audience wandering from one service to another until the digital gadget runs out of battery.
The power of suppliers can be the platform providers who limit what you can or cannot do. Social media platform policy changes affect the direction and creativity of social media content. The ever-changing algorithm of a social media platform may cause a social media post to end up with no audience at all or unexpectedly receive a significant response. Who controls the situation? The programmer who does the coding does.
The power of customers is as simple as the audience. Audiences who like your content may keep moving from one post to another or one video to another until some other content breaks the chain. Customers are likely led by the popular trends of society and force social media content creators to produce content that fits customer tastes. Overnight, if there is breaking news or issues, the trend will shift dramatically, and creating something to fit the trend will keep social media content moving forward.
The threat of substitute products, as in the time economy, means anything can draw people’s attention and make them move away from your content or product. It is not just social media, but any media or content that shifts your audience’s focus is a threat.
With limited information and knowledge, trial and error on social media is a must; being consistent and persistent is the key to making it happen. There are always SEO services. While using SEO, others may use similar services as well. If everybody seems to optimize their content, hypothetically, all content will become average after SEO services. Everyone keeps using SEO, and no one can stand out from others.
Consistency and persistence are two ways to make your effort on social media work. During typhoon time, social media usage surged. People’s time devoted to work life shifted to digital gadgets. No matter how good your social media content is, one breaking news post may draw most of the traffic away, or your post should be a breaking news type of post. SEO may not take the weather into account, and your ad hoc action may get you some rewards on social media.
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