In the age of social media, and especially with the influence of TikTok, user-generated content is being manufactured at an all-time high. Anyone and everyone is free to post whatever they want whenever they want. This shift in the social dynamic that allows voices to be shared is keeping brands on their toes. Now more than ever, consumers have the tools necessary to share their testimonies and publicize the quality and necessity of products and brands.
Anytime an influencer posts about a certain brand or product, they are inviting discourse around it that impacts the public’s perception. If the consumers disagree with the promotion of a product, they now have the ability to voice their opinion and virally gain traction. Social media users have created a mob mentality that gives them the opportunity to decide if a product is worthy or unworthy regardless of advertising efforts. It has become clear in recent years that virality is hard to manufacture due to how much users value authenticity, so advertising is already predisposed to fall flat on social media without the proper research and implementation.
This recent phenomenon has its upsides, as it allows the quality of a product to speak for itself if it deserves recognition. It has also been seen where a product rises up as a common favorite without millions of dollars in advertising because it gained virality through popular acceptance. This was seen recently with the trend of “dupes” on TikTok, where users would promote less expensive alternatives to viral name-brand products. Social media puts the power of advertising into the hands of consumers to share their favorite products with a more reliable testimony. Consumers used their voice to help others find affordable options that allowed them to participate in trends when they may not have otherwise been able to.
However, on the downside, it is now much easier for consumers to “cancel” products. A few years ago the St. Ives Apricot Scrub came under fire for containing ingredients that can be harmful to sensitive skin. While the product does not contain any harmful chemicals or undergo unethical testing, the words of skincare amateurs effectively set the public against St. Ives Apricot Scrub. This reaction would not have been possible without social media, especially with the rise of user-generated content. If someone has a negative experience with a product and publicizes it, that can quickly turn into a boycott even if it was nothing more than a fluke. The use of a mob mentality to “cancel” different ideas, brands, products, and even people has created an atmosphere that enforces the concept that everything is black and white.
Not only are consumers now able to post about brands and products, they are now more likely to post. The popularization of TikTok brought a new casualty to social media. Users are no longer expected to edit and filter every piece of media, but rather post more authentically and more frequently. Before this shift the average social media user would post every now and then when the occasion arose, if at all, but mostly browse the content created by viral creators. Now users post whenever they feel like it, they are not searching for an opportunity to go viral, they are just sharing their lives and experiences.