Social media users have continued to seek out private spaces within their preferred platforms—and social platforms continue to create and prioritize those spaces. These groups are generally like minded people with similar interests aiming to foster deeper relationships compared to more traditional platform behavior and broader interactions with peers. Many people have migrated over to platforms like Geneva and Discord, and even the old tried and true Reddit forums and Facebook Groups, for these more niche, interest-based connections. Could this be related to the rise of entertainment-based social content and the subsequent de-emphasis on the social and communal aspects?
With the rise of closed communities come challenges for social listening methods. It’s fairly simple to monitor public conversations on social platforms, but tracking conversations in closed spaces is uncharted territory with inherent risks of violating user privacy. But one thing is for sure—social listening strategies are being put to the test with new challenges, and will likely need to be reconsidered to get a true sense of how people are communicating.
While platforms continue to evolve their listening skills, they’ve clearly leaned into building and honing their closed community offerings—not only in making those spaces available, but also in rewarding those personal interactions. For example, Instagram has publicly stated that shares are key for boosting engagement. It’s no secret that users communicating through private chats and direct messaging, and the content that feeds those needs, are being prioritized in our respective algorithms. Now we just need to figure out an ethical way to capture and analyze the sentiment and context of these conversations in these emerging private online spaces.
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