From Zombie posts to Vibrant comments: Welcome to the Age of Communities!

After years of Instagram analyses, our first TikTok study back in 2021 baffled us in 2 ways: (1) the weight of viral posts (the top 5% of TikToks cumulate ~90% of engagement), and (2) the vibrancy of their comments (likes-on-comments can add up to 20% of likes). 

Assuming comment dwellers spend a lot more time on a post than other viewers, we can estimate a third to half of consumer time on TikTok is spent in the comments, sharing with peers or search-led follow-ups. (i.e. forms of engagement much deeper than ‘likes’)

The way we first described TikTok to clients back then was as a “combination of Instagram & Reddit, with temporary communities forming under every viral post”.  Today, comments are to videos what stuffing is to raviolis: not the most visible part of the experience, but they are what viewers look most forward to and remember most fondly. 

It’s clear now that TikTok ushered us in the Age of Communities, transforming consumer journeys in part because comment interactions are simply more convincing than the branded video itself.

Since then, Reddit IPO’d and quintupled its market value in just 8 months, while Instagram decided (at last) to emulate TikTok and allocate more reach based on content relevance than who follows an account.

Follower count and posting frequency now matter much less even on IG, while content excellence matters much more than ever before. Brands that master content barely if ever sponsor, while peers with with weak content skills must waste ad budgets on “zombie posts,” ie. content with few or no active comment threads.

The activity in the comments consumes so much time that it’s adversely affecting reach and engagement of all other content: if your IG reach and engagement rates fell in 2024, it’s a sign that you are producing less deeply engagement content than your peers. 

So where are Communities built? 

The way to build communities has always been offline, through great “community-building” ads, events, and superior products worthy of advocacy - think Dr Pepper, Red Bull, pre-Xitter/Cybertruck Tesla or Apple. But these strategies can take time, and results are not guaranteed.  

Complements more than short-cuts, both top notch owned social and off-line marketing designed with social amplification in mind can turbo-charge community building and ignite trial. Most** top performers today succeed on both.

Contrary to paid influencer posts that benefit creators’ equity more than the brand’s, viral owned posts build credentials for —and a community around— the brand posting them. Brands that don’t master owned and hope their Earned investments will make up for it are in for a long, disappointing wait.

A diverse* range of earned (paid) partners should still be part of every marketing mix, but brands should remember that a thriving owned strategy pays out extra dividends in the form of engaged communities nurtured in the comments. These communities may start out as “temporary” across individual posts, but over time many turn into on-going advocates both on- and off-social.

*e.g. via gifting, seeding, samples, sponsored posts, partner posts etc.

**except perhaps some fragrance brands whose sampling efforts outpace their content skill building