Social Media Has Changed & This Is What You Need To Know

0:00Everyone sounds the f***ing same. People want to feel like they like, know and trust you. When everyone sounds the same, they scroll past. Who are you? What are you stand for? What are your characteristics? What makes you uniquely you? If you try to skip that step by just trying to find the viral formula or using AI, you're never going to hone the skill. You have so much opportunity literally on every tool at your fingertips to completely either change your own life or help impact and change other people's lives. There's no better time than now to be authentically yourself online. Welcome back to the Oilers Talk podcast. I'm Kate and I'm Gemma, a space for no BS conversations for the women who want more. Today we're introducing a brand new series for the next four episodes, which are really excited to get into all around social media because the last three episodes

1:01that we've done covering social media strategies and growth have had the popped off essentially and we've had so many questions and we know that this is a conversation that you want to hear. And today's episode we kind of want to kick it off by talking about the social media landscape in 2026, what has changed and what to focus on and then each episode is going to have more of a particular focus that will help you piece it together so you can kind of take everything from the four episodes to really do whatever you're wanting to do on socials grow, show up more authentically and build a community. Yeah, so if you're someone who is wanting to get into social media, maybe you already have a bit of a social media presence and you're really wanting to grow, I just think the next like four weeks that we spend together diving into social media, you are going to get so, so much out of it. And like Jim said, this comes off the back of two episodes that went viral on YouTube actually and you guys have been absolutely loving them sharing with sharing them with like your friends, tagging us in your stories and we want to say thank you firstly, but we really think that

2:06the next four weeks is going to be so good. So let's get into, I think it makes a little bit a sense if we start with our background of social media. So if you're tuning into this episode and you've never heard of us before, hi, I'm Kate. But we pretty much, well, I've had my social media account, my Instagram account for probably close to 10 years. And when I say I've had it for 10 years, I haven't actually been using it in the capacity that I use it in now for that full 10 year period. Obviously when Instagram came out, it was very much just like a photo app where you would post like memories and travel content and like photos of you and your friends going out on the weekend, which is what I use my social media for. I would say more of a personal account. And obviously as, you know, social media has grown and my business has grown, my kind of social presence has changed. And I really utilize the platform now as a way to grow my social media, grow my business, grow my personal brand, grow the podcast. And really I always say this, but I feel like I own social media my life. Like it is allowed me to have so many opportunities over the last maybe

3:10five years or six years since I've started taking it way more seriously. Yeah, I think I'll run it back to when I first thought of my account, it would have been a similar time to you, but I did Instagram coming out. I don't know, but I'm going to say I've had my account since 2015. Yeah, so it's going to have to be like 10, 11 years. But I had two accounts. So I had my personal account, which was where it was private and I didn't really post like photos of what I'm doing here and there. And then I had gem motivates, which was me doubling in the fitness industry in 2015 when I started to get into the gym. But I just like wanted an outlet to post like motivational memes and things like that. And back then, the sort of me posting myself on social media was terrifying. We'll get into that deeper in another conversation. But essentially started with just like posting static photos of quotes. Then it went to me wanting to work in the fitness industry and having to learn like how to actually utilize this for my business. And then I eventually posted

4:15on it and changed my name from gem motivates to coach Gemma. And that was a decision based on the fact that I am becoming a coach. And I want to be known for something and I really liked that handle. And then from there, I've had to trial and error how to essentially utilize it for what I want it for, like to grow a community, to grow the podcast, to grow my business and to connect. And like Kate said, so many cool things have happened because of social media. So going back to gem motivates, where I was just posting like, you've only got 24 hours in a day, like make the most of it to like 2026. Like in that time, I've like, I've gained a best friend with the podcast exists because of social media. Like I went on a TV show because of my DMs and social media. I've had really cool opportunities that have come across because of a conversation or a connection via social media. So when we talk about why we think it's so important to actually take this platform seriously and not just say to yourself, like it's cringe or that it's too hard or that it's too late. Like we

5:16need you to understand how much potential is here if you take it seriously and why we think it's so worth you investing the time and the energy into figuring out like how to hone that for your goals. So that's why we kind of really excited about this series. I feel like you missed a really important part. Oh, tell me. You said that you made a best friend and a podcast, but I think the biggest thing is that like we have transformed thousands of women's lives through the work that we do from our social media platforms because we have, you know, the opportunity I would say to be able to connect with women, to be able to spread our message, to be able to get people incredible results, whatever it is that they're trying to achieve. And I think that that is like an insane thing to think of. And I know that a lot of people when it comes to social media feel really overwhelmed. And you know, they complain that content is really hard and it's saturated and you know, it's fake in whatever the story is. But at the end of the day, I look at the lives that I have impacted. And I think how fucking yeah, like I do not believe the platform is fake. Obviously, yes, of course,

6:20it is a, you know, a highlight reel. But at the end of the day, you have so much opportunity literally on a free tool at your fingertips to completely either change your own life or help impact and change others, other people's lives. And I think that is pretty special. Yeah, 100% like it's allowing us to meet people that we would never have a chance to meet. Like we encourage women in multiple different countries. Like that wouldn't be possible if you couldn't connect and find us so easily. And then essentially we build this relationship online, which I think is really cool. And it's so much, it's harder to meet people in person to the volume that we get to meet you guys. So I think it's definitely something that we don't take for granted. And we also are very grateful for because of the opportunities it has brought us. And like back to that, like we would have started with accounts with zero followers. We'll talk about whether or not we think followers matter in a second. But like we've been able to both grow communities over like 2020 K. And I think that's really cool. And like by the way, by the way, from today's episode, we're at 4000,

7:21you know, followers on our potty Instagram, which we're really excited about. So yeah, it's essentially we view it as like building a community, growing, growing at impact, creating awareness. Yeah. So we want to kind of dive into now what's actually changed when it comes to social media. And what are the things that we feel like are really important if you are somebody at the moment who either wants to grow their social media, get into creating content, maybe start a business, maybe start attracting your ideal client and all of those good things. So the biggest thing that stands out to me is like I was saying before, social media used to be a platform where you would probably just share personal things about your life. It was very much a photo app. It is now transformed into something that allows you to grow, scale, start, build a personal brand, create communities and build connection in a space that allows you to literally have access to the whole world. And I think the biggest thing that stands out for me, like when I think about my journey on social media, like I was saying before, 2020 is where I really started taking my social media more seriously. And that's when I really started looking at it more through

8:24a business lens than necessarily just an app to post photos on. And I think the difference between 2020 and 2026 where we currently are at time of this recording is the rise of the personal brand. Now, a lot of people get onto social media and think that they need to create lots of viral content. They need to have the most amount of followers. They need to have the most amount of likes and views on their reals. But the reality is if you are not in my opinion, building a really strong personal brand that is authentically you that allows you to then curate and build an engaged keyword, engaged community, the followers and the virality and chasing that metric as a measure of success is probably not going to get you anywhere far or anywhere meaningful. I feel like a lot of people use social media and like I was saying before, they feel burnt out, they feel like it's hard, they feel like content is a waste of time because they're chasing the wrong metric, they're looking at the wrong thing and they're not looking at, okay, cool, you know, we said before we have

9:24about 20,000 followers on Instagram. Realistically, that's not a lot in this day and age, yeah? Like, but I'm very, very proud to say that I have a fucking engaged community on Instagram. I'm getting comments, I'm getting people DMing me, I'm building connections, I'm having conversations with women, I would much rather have only 20,000 followers than 500,000 followers with no engagement because to me, that's not a measure of success, that's just a metric that strikes my ego and makes me feel really good. Yeah, I think it's all about building something that is somewhere you want to be, like we enjoy socials and we don't really get quote unquote burnt out because we're posting authentic to us. So we're not feeling this like this, this push and pull disconnect between like copying what other people are posting and then it's like you don't even, you know, even standing behind your message. I think that's really important. So we've spoken about that a lot, but just in terms of like we are authentically ourselves, we put ourselves out there and that really allows us

10:25to feel comfortable actually creating different styles of content. I think that is really important. Again, that's how you're going to find those people that you want. And if you do get caught up in the views and if you do have a really big like ego attachment or you're too emotionally attached, it's going to prevent you from remaining consistent enough to build what it is we're talking about. So like we, you know, when we post, we're not like only posting because it needs to get a certain thing. We're posting because our message is important and we want to have a continued connection with our community. Like that's what we're thinking about. But if you're posting and then you're like that post wasn't good and you kind of pull back on your consistency because that's what you're looking for, that's really going to stunt your growth. So I think consistency with what it is that you're posting and being authentic with your messaging and what it is that you're about is like the number one core of what you have to do. And then the other thing I was going to say is because we're thinking of like 2020 posting to now. I think there's a really big theme of like keeping up with the times because things change really quickly on socials in terms of like the style of content

11:30and how we consume. And I think you need to be cluely to this especially if you have a business or you want to grow a personal brand. So what I mean by that is, you know, people posting carousels that have education and things like that, like they're really popular now, but we're not as popular in 2020. It was like more reals or people had really curated feeds. And then now it's kind of people are getting a bit fatigued by that because it's not realistic. And then people are craving more like the messy middle, the showing the behind the scenes. And it's kind of like you need to make sure you're not so fixed in one way of doing things that you kind of get left behind. And you need to not be afraid to try different formats. That's what I see a lot of people do quote unquote wrong when it comes to creating content and getting on social media is not keeping up with the times, right? They are either focused on having this beautifully, beautifully aesthetic curated Instagram feed, which yes, back in 2020, I feel like that did matter. People were really focused on the aesthetic side because we saw that transition of Instagram being

12:33just a photo app into actually, you know, they bought in short form video, they bought in reals, they bought in Instagram stories and it started to shift and change. But I feel like in 2026, people still caught up in that. And again, they're focusing on the wrong metric, the perfectly curated aesthetic Instagram feed, the followers, the likes, the metrics that really in the grand scheme of things don't matter too, too much. And you know, you can go viral like I was saying before to the complete wrong audience. And I think when it comes to 2026, something if you're listening and you want to grow business, for example, something you need to understand is like the sales cycles at the moment have been the longest they have ever been in 2020. You could get away with posting a photo of your iPhone case and selling it out on your stories like this. Now we see the rise of the personal brand and people want to feel like they like no and trust you before they move from a following you on Instagram to actually wanting to buy your product, offer or service. And that sales cycle has

13:34become a lot longer. So what you need to do is the founder, the business owner, the content creator, the person who wants to get on social media is you need to be able to think about how can I make that sales cycle shorter? And the easiest way in my humble opinion in 2026 is focusing on connection, focusing on being authentically yourself, building a really strong personal brand that has associations for your audience to start remembering you, having a repetitive message. Who are you? What do you stand for? What are your characteristics? What makes you uniquely you? And that is going to allow that sales cycle to become smaller, meaning you're going to be able to grow quicker, you're going to be able to make more impact, make more income, do whatever it is that your goal is with social media. Yeah, and I think, sorry, I also think that there's no better time than now to lean into your individualized experience, messaging, mannerisms because 2026 is the time where there's more AI than ever. And it's only going to get worse. And the impact of AI has been that everyone

14:39is trying to cheat the system by using these templates and by using this messaging and by asking for copy and by getting hooks written for you and doing all of that. And that might have a time in a place to help the creative process. But when you forfeit your creative process to AI and everyone else is doing the same thing, what happens? One, we have a huge volume of content. So we have more stuff being pushed out ever, which is probably impacting the sales cycle because there's constantly like 10 fold the amount of content. But secondly, everyone sounds the fucking same. And when everyone sounds the same, what happens to the person reading, they scroll past. But then if you think of Kate Morris' Instagram, I'm very distinctly stopping because it's you and I know that I'm speaking and listening and connecting to you. And like that's what the point we're trying to get across. It's like there's no better time than now to be authentically yourself online. And the other point being as well, if you want to actually master your craft and get better at the skill, like we have gone through the

15:40process of like learning how to edit, learning what video formats work and stuff like that. If you try to skip that step by just like trying to find the viral formula or using AI, you're never going to hone the skill of getting good at your individualized messaging. And again, you're just going to sound like everyone else. Mike, Mike drop. I feel like that wraps up this first episode because we have three more off the back of this. And we are feeling fired up and we are ready. But otherwise we'll be here forever. So if you love today's episode, make sure you stick around next Thursday 5am for us second social media mini series. And if you're over on YouTube, like, comment, subscribe, Spotify, rate the putty fire stars show it with your friend tag us on your socials. And we love you so much. So we'll see you next episode. Bye.