Once upon a time in marketing land, social media strategy was a relatively neat affair. You picked a few platforms, targeted users based on their age, gender and location, threw in some eye-catching creatives, and hoped your paid spend would do the rest. It was tidy. It was trackable. It was safe.
And it’s become increasingly ineffective.
On social media, the scroll never sleeps, and your brand is up against not just other brands, but meme accounts, micro-influencers, and even your audience’s own content. Add to that the fact that more than 80% of ads fail to reach attention threshold, and you start to understand just how loud and chaotic the social battlefield has become.
If modern marketers are going to stop the scroll, it’s time to bin the old demographic playbook and embrace a new era – one where the rules of engagement are built on connection, creativity and cultural nuance. Here are six new rules of audience engagement on social media.
- Move on from demographics
Forget “Women aged 25–35 living in Gauteng.” That’s not a community – that’s a census entry.
Today, social media doesn’t work on identity alone. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts aren’t just showing people content from accounts they follow – they’re serving content based on interests. That’s a fundamental shift – social media is evolving from a “social graph” to an “interest graph”.
That means it’s no longer about where someone lives or how old they are, but rather about what they love. Whether it’s skincare, soccer, anti-capitalist memes or finance bros who love time-tracking hacks, there’s a niche for everything – and a hyper-engaged community already talking about it.
Brands that find these micro-communities – and speak their language – win.
- Connection beats targeting
Yes, your data is brilliant. You can track clicks, time spent, even hover behaviour. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. When targeting feels like surveillance, people get creeped out and unfollow.
The best social media strategies today don’t stalk, they resonate. And rather than feeling like ads, they feel like recognition, leaving the audience thinking, “This brand gets me.” If your brand sounds like a real person in their world, rather than a marketer trying to infiltrate it, then you’re doing it right.
- Don’t just create for your audience – create like them.
You can’t fake fluency. Speaking to a cohort like sneakerheads or Gen Z isn’t about throwing in a hashtag and hoping for the best. It’s about understanding their humour, their references, and sometimes even their chaos.
Case in point: Nutter Butter’s unhinged TikTok and Instagram strategy or Duolingo’s green owl with a flair for cultural parody. These aren’t random viral hits. They’re carefully crafted pieces of creator-like content, designed to feel native, lo-fi, and part of the culture they’re in.
4. Be brave. Maybe a little weird.
On social media today, perfection is passé. Over-polished, brand-approved content often gets lost in the scroll. But brands that dare to be a little audacious – that lean into the weird, raw, and wonderfully offbeat – are building real traction.
Gen Z especially isn’t buying what you’re selling if you’re still clinging to your corporate tone of voice. You don’t need to throw your CI guidelines out the window (unless you want to), but you do need to relax your tie a little and let your brand breathe.
- Chase action, not platforms
It’s tempting to follow the hype. A new platform drops (oh hi, Threads) and marketers flock like seagulls to a chip packet.
Instead of getting distracted by where people are, focus on where they do. Ask: where does my audience explore? Where do they validate? And where do they convert? Often these are three different platforms. Gen Z, for instance, may scroll TikTok for inspiration, check Instagram for social proof, then place an order via WhatsApp. Your social strategy isn’t a channel strategy – it’s an ecosystem strategy. One that meets your audience at every moment that matters.
- Hashtags aren’t dead, but discovery has evolved
Chill. You don’t have to #hashtag #every #single #word. While hashtags still serve a purpose – especially for building niche communities – the discovery game has evolved. Algorithms now prioritise content semantics, keywords, audio, and viewing behaviour over the humble hashtag.
Want to be found? Think like a search engine. Optimise your captions, audio, and structure. And remember hashtags are now one tool in your social SEO toolbox – not the toolbox itself.
In today’s social media landscape, the goal isn’t so much mass reach as meaningful reach. That means getting precise: Find your people. Speak their language. Make content they’d share even if your logo wasn’t on it. And use data insights to give them recognition, not stalker vibes. Scroll-stopping content starts here.