S6 Episode 2: Celebrating Facebook's 20th Anniversary: Facebook @ 20 with Jason Mander from GWI

Speaker 1: 0:00

In today's episode, we're casting our minds back to 2004, when Nessa landed the Spirit Rover on Mars. The last episode of Friends, Ed. George W Bush was re-elected US President and the number one hits were LMC's Take Me to the Clouds Above in the UK and hey Ya by Outcast in the US. Over at Harvard University, computer science student Mark Zuckerberg is coding in his dorm room. Lately he's been nurturing a reputation as a minor un-fonte terribile on campus after creating a short-lived site, FaceMash, which allowed students to rate each other's hotness. Today, Wednesday 4th February, he's about to push publish on the Facebook, which would later become simply Facebook. So what does Facebook look like at 20? What can we learn from this social networking phenomenon? To help me answer this and more, I'm joined today by Jason Mander, Chief Research Officer at Leading Global Consumer Research Platform, GWI, to dive into their vast research platform and take a deep dive on Facebook at 20. Welcome, Jason.

Speaker 2: 1:07

Thank you, it's great to be here.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Now back in Season 4, Episode 1, we actually had your CEO, Tom Smith, on the show speaking about the future of market research. But for those not familiar with GWI, could you give us an overview of what you do?

Speaker 2: 1:20

Yeah, absolutely so. As you mentioned, gwi is a global consumer research platform. Each year, we're speaking to millions of people across more than 50 countries, asking them a wide range of questions about their digital lives and lifestyles so pertinent to today. What social media are you using? What phones you have? How are you interacting with brands? Which apps are in and out at the moment? We compile that together, use technology to serve it in a platform to allow our clients to get a 360 view of how people are feeling, what they're doing and what the opportunities are for brands.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Now let's turn to Facebook. At 20, you've been looking at the social network for some time now. I know you've developed a number of key takeaways using your unique insights platform. So let's look at the demographics of Facebook. If I look at my own use of the platform, I'm a Gen X. I'd say I'm mainly used to keep up with friends and family back in Australia. I know my parents, reggie, look at my stories and posts. Ironically, they're all posted via Instagram, but it helps them keep up with my activities in London. So let's maybe look at how the different generations have changed over the last years and what groups of people use it today. So maybe, looking at your research, you could tell us what's changed over the last five, 10, 15, 20 years for boomers, gen X, gen Y and Gen Z.

Speaker 2: 2:37

Not too much to cover. Then let's start with some overall pictures. So in the UK at the moment, three quarters of us use Facebook every month, which is, I think, quite an impressive figure. It's about two thirds of us use it on a weekly basis and about half of us are using it daily. So to set the record straight, facebook adoption is still very strong. It's still very popular.

Speaker 2: 2:59

Look within generations and there are differences and there's definitely been different adoption curves over the last two decades. So the recent growth perhaps unsurprisingly has come from boomers. If we were to look at the last decade, their usage is up by about 20%, so 20% more people using it in that cohort than before, and within that group it's a very clear favorite. As you go into younger generations, there's more of a pack at the front competing with each other In boomers. Very much Facebook is their go-to place and there's still more growth to come in that group. About two thirds of them are using Facebook at the moment. If you were to compare that to, let's say, instagram, about a third of boomers. Tiktok only about a tenth of boomers. So very much Facebook is a clear playground for boomers. More growth to come.

Speaker 2: 3:50

At the other end of the spectrum. There has been a decrease in Gen Z or Z or students, using the platform. To be clear, a lot of them are still on it. Still about two thirds of them are on Facebook in some form, but that does represent a decrease from what we would have seen 10 or 20 years ago. So what that tells us is that Gen Z haven't been adopting it in quite the same way as the cohorts who went before them have. In the middle we have your Millennials and your Gen Xs, where, largely, adoption has remained stable, certainly over the last 10 years. It's still a very popular platform. About three-quarters of both of those generations are using it. We haven't seen the declines that we've seen in the younger groups, but we have seen an array of other platforms explode onto the scene that now compete with Facebook. So for those cohorts, probably, usage of Facebook has become more specialized. They're perhaps not using it as frequently or intensively as they once did, but they're still very much on it.

Speaker 1: 4:53

Now demographics, and social demographics is something I'm really interested in. We've had a number of people talk about the different generations, so we've talked about boomers, x, y, z and Z. We've now got the alphas and the beaters. What are they doing with Facebook? Do they even care about Facebook?

Speaker 2: 5:09

They yeah, they do. I mean, I've been working with this type of data for about 15 years and pretty much every one of those years especially in my last decade you'll see headlines saying Facebook is dead. Facebook is dying. People are deserting Facebook and really it doesn't stack up and that is still true among today's younger consumers, if we talk specifically about 13 or 15 or 15 year olds, because many platforms still have a limit that means you need to be 13 or older.

Speaker 2: 5:42

Facebook and Facebook Messenger are not the most popular among those groups, but still around half of that demographic are on Facebook. For a platform that's 20 years old, I'd say it's pretty impressive to still have that reach. Very clearly, though, for the kids, it's a battle between TikTok and Instagram, for Topspot and Snapchat is chasing very, very closely on their heels. So those are the three platforms in favour with children, but they still see value in Facebook. Yes, you'll hear them talk about it ironically. Yes, you'll hear them probably mock older people for using Facebook in certain ways, but they're still on there. They're still logging in looking at what's going on. So it's not dead. It's just not as popular as some of the alternatives.

Speaker 1: 6:29

Now, many would know that Meta actually owns Facebook as well as Instagram and WhatsApp, and someone argued that their billion-dollar purchase of Instagram in 2012, and their $16 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014 was quite strategic. Does your research support that?

Speaker 2: 6:45

Absolutely. I think most people saw the Instagram acquisition coming and it made a lot of sense. The WhatsApp one was less known about in advance. In fact, it happened in my first week at GWI and I was rushed to go and talk about it on a TV channel because people were just taken aback by it. But in both cases they were incredibly strategic moves. If you look at the top four platforms in the UK today, they are Facebook, facebook Messenger, instagram and WhatsApp. So Facebook has got well, sorry, meta has got all of them. Even more pertinent than I would say, nine in 10 Brits aged 16 to 64 are on at least one of those four platforms and among GenZ it's 96% who are using one of the Meta platforms. So put 100 GenZs in a room, 96 of them are going to be on one of those four services.

Speaker 1: 7:44

Do those other four don't have a phone. What are you doing?

Speaker 2: 7:47

I know right, it does make you wonder. There is still that hardcore demographic that avoids social, so that must be where they what accounts for those four. But yeah, it's hard to say anything negative about those decisions. They were very, very smart moves and Facebook has a very strong track record of seeing what's growing in popularity and either acquiring it or developing features that are going to compete with it. So the fact that they acquired those two services meant they could just enjoy the organic growth that was coming from them and give both of those services the investment, the support, the infrastructure that comes with being owned by Meta.

Speaker 1: 8:27

So we know that it's not just about sharing photos and stories and crazy cat videos. It's about messaging as well. So let's look at Facebook Messenger, which is obviously up there. There's a lot of daylight between the other messaging platforms. How does it compare with Apple's iMessage? It's under fire at the moment for not being completely compatible with non-iPhone, but where does where the other messaging platforms fit in, with Messenger, for example?

Speaker 2: 8:50

Yeah, messenger is an interesting one In terms of just being a pure messaging platform. It's never quite competed with WhatsApp, and that's true in most of the countries that you'll go to. There are some exceptions. Nevertheless, like I said, facebook Messenger is one of the top four services. It is pretty popular and it does outrank iMessage if you stack them all up. So Facebook Messenger in the UK would come third. Imessage stacks up around about seventh. Actually, though, if you go younger and look at Gen Z, that flips and iMessage overtakes Messenger. I think, especially for those younger generations, but actually for most of us, if you're looking for pure messaging, you're probably gonna go with WhatsApp or something else. It's now the other uses of Facebook Messenger that I think have kept it relevant and keep it in that leading pack.

Speaker 1: 9:38

Now, what's amazing since I spoke with Tom back in season four is you just have amazing access to these stats. It might be worth talking about the methodology the statue reeling off here. You've clearly got from somewhere. How do you capture this wealth of information and make sense of it?

Speaker 2: 9:52

Sure. So if we focus in on the UK each year, we interview around about 50,000 UK consumers every quarter with a trending set of questions that asks them, like I said at the outset, what social media services are you using? Which is your favorite? Why are you using them? How much time do you think you spend on them? We can, because we ask the same questions in the same way every three months. We can see how trends are growing, decreasing or staying the same. All the answers are self-reported, so people take surveys. They know what their idea is disclosing and it's from their perception. So if we ask them roughly how long do you think you spend on Facebook per day? It's their estimate. We're not tracking them or monitoring them. Anyway, it's all self-reported, voluntarily disclosed data.

Speaker 1: 10:40

I'm sure if I looked at my Apple screen time, it would tell me exactly how long I spend on these apps. In fact, I actually have an app called Rescue Time and it's now got smarter and smarter. It can actually tell you exactly what you're working on, whether it's positive or negative, and when I look at it it kind of scares me to think well, how much time I'm spending on social media.

Speaker 2: 10:57

I know, right, I mean. What blows my mind is that people estimate that they spend about two hours per day on social, and that's almost certainly underreported. So what the actual true time would be.

Speaker 1: 11:09

I think many of us wouldn't want to know, so probably my favorite non-business social network is Instagram, and I'm a Gen X, so how popular is Instagram and what are the key demographics that use it?

Speaker 2: 11:21

Instagram very, very popular. Overall in the UK it ranks fourth about six in 10. People in the UK are using it, but pretty much the younger you go, the higher up the rankings it will go, and for Gen Z at the moment in the UK it's my number one platform. It's also seen as very culturally influencing, so it's definitely seen as one of the trend-setting platforms.

Speaker 1: 11:44

And what can compete with that? Because it's very image-based. I mean Snapchat. I don't know about that. Where does Snapchat and Instagram? Do they fight with each other, or is it just Instagram all the way?

Speaker 2: 11:54

It's a difficult one, isn't it? Because generally, social platforms have become known for not niches, but you migrate to one for certain things more than the other. Instagram, very closely associated with pictures, TikTok, videos, Snapchat's sort of a bit of everything. But again, the younger you go, the more popular Snapchat is. And actually, when we were talking about acquisitions earlier, you have to think that maybe meta regrets not managing to get Snapchat when they were trying to woo Evan Spiegel all of those years ago, because Snapchat hasn't taken off so much in the older demographics but in the youngest generations and in today's teens as well, it's still a very, very popular app.

Speaker 1: 12:40

One thing that amazes me is the content. So I know a lot of people. I'm a bit of a purist. I like filming things in landscape, which is 16 by nine television format. A lot of people film it in portrait or vertical mode. I read recently that creators are now favoring the 16 by nine for TikTok. Are you seeing any stats that support video formats and what's popular and why?

Speaker 2: 13:02

We don't go down to the sort of dimension level, but we do go to sort of category, and the preference for videos is very, very clear If you look at which features are being used most. They all. All the reporting data we get leans towards people favoring videos. It's just a more engaging way to consume content and the fact that people can pull in videos from all the types of genres that they're looking for they can watch sports and news and comedy all within their social feeds. It's like an aggregator service. Bringing in the content they want to consume just makes it wildly popular.

Speaker 1: 13:39

So TikTok's out there. What would you say the biggest demographic? What would you say the biggest demographics that use TikTok? And is this cannibalizing Instagram and Snapchat over time?

Speaker 2: 13:50

At the moment, tiktok is definitely a younger person's app, so Gen Z, gen Alpha are the biggest consumers of it, but you have to expect that to broaden over time. Most social platforms start like this the earliest adopters are the youngest generations, and then you see it broadening, just like Facebook itself has done. The fact that TikTok is so concentrated on video means it does have an obvious growth trajectory throughout the older generations, because all generations favor that. So TikTok is definitely one to watch, but it's not necessarily the case of as one rises, another one falls.

Speaker 2: 14:33

What we've always found in our data is that people are very comfortable being multi-networkers, so, on average, using seven, eight, maybe even nine different platforms throughout the day or week, depending on what exact behavior or actions they're looking to do. So as TikTok grows, it might cannibalize a little bit of the video content that's going on in the other platforms, but don't expect them to stand still and don't expect people to only go to one place for a certain type of thing. We also have to remember that when you're logging into these platforms, you're not necessarily choosing what you see in your feed. A lot of it's being served to you. So if a platform sees an area where they might feel a threat. It's very easy for them to up the curated content that's coming to you to push you more back that way.

Speaker 1: 15:24

So we're sitting here in the UK. Obviously, I'm Australian. Facebook started in the US. So let's look at the differences between Facebook in the UK, us, eu, even Australia. Where do you see the differences? And is it regional? Is it cultural? Give us a view on where it depends. Give us a view on how it changes as we look across different countries.

Speaker 2: 15:44

Sure, so across those sets of countries, but actually across far more countries than that, you tend to see very similar patterns. It only really gets disrupted in a handful of places where there might be an important local player or there might be restrictions, which prevents some of the services we're talking about operating. So in Australia, uk, eu, us, in all of those countries, between 70 to 80% of the populations are using it. Australia does top the table, I have to say Correct 78%, but none of the others are particularly far behind, and broadly. I don't normally like generalizations like this, but broadly it holds true.

Speaker 2: 16:24

What we would call the Western markets or the most mature economies all behave fairly similarly. Sure, with some exceptions, like WhatsApp has never really taken hold in the US, but the profiles are broadly the same. In your emerging economies, again, they all sort of cluster together digital first population, so you'll actually probably see higher adoption rates among internet users there. Within the countries you asked me about, the overall adoption might be the same, but some of the behaviors or features that people are using are a little regional specific. So in Australia I looked at the stats before so I knew you were going to ask me about this Things like marketplace are more popular than the others Groups, events. Those types of things are more used by Australians than the others.

Speaker 1: 17:15

So think about what's up in the US fascinates me A lot of US friends and while they use the ones that are here use what's up a lot, when they go back they'll say I know one uses what's up. Why is that? And what is used in the US instead?

Speaker 2: 17:26

Do you know? I have never managed to get to the bottom of this we have an office in the US as well, so I speak to my colleagues in New York all the time about it. So, as international travellers, we'll all use what's up whenever we're travelling together. That's how we communicate, but for communication inside the US it still seems to be a combination of messenger or just iMessage Text yeah, I'll text you.

Speaker 1: 17:49

So we know that Facebook relies on advertising to survive. Do you have any insights on how effective Facebook advertising in 2024 is compared to, say, 10 years ago?

Speaker 2: 17:59

It's a tricky one to answer because obviously Facebook or Metta itself will have an unrivaled view of how it's doing. What I would say is that time spent on social overall has continued to trend upwards or remain very high and stable. More and more time spent online is via a mobile, and, although there were a couple of closed shaves a few years back, the social networks have managed to overcome ad blockers and the other things that might have had a real impact there. So all the stats I see show that advertising is working there better than ever. They're able to curate their ads better. They're able to use all of the data they hold to serve the most relevant things. Relatively few people opt out whenever there's a new push for privacy and actually, with the impending death of the cookie, it's been dying for years, but this year may well be the year that it finally gets fully killed off you would have to argue that the social networks are very well placed to capitalise on that.

Speaker 1: 19:04

It's all about first party data and if you're on a social network, you're giving away your first party data Exactly, whether you know that or not, yeah, or if you know, it is first party data, so your research spans many years. What's Facebook used for now versus, say, 10 and 20 years ago?

Speaker 2: 19:19

Yeah, I mean, I do know what. I was actually at Oxford when Facebook first came to the UK. It started over here in Oxford and Cambridge, so I saw that early wave of behaviour and it is now, in hindsight, bizarre to think how people were using it. People spent their days poking everyone, posting every photo they'd ever taken in their life, inviting everyone they knew to every event they could think of. It was the place where you literally went and seemed to dump every bit of information you were holding in your head at the time and for many years really, that continued.

Speaker 2: 19:57

As Facebook itself has got older, I think its usage has matured as well, and a lot of the behaviour that we were pulling out there for everyone to see is now much more curated. A lot of stuff is posted privately via services like WhatsApp. We know why and how we're using social networks, so we're a bit more intelligent. Ironically, you do see boomers behaving a little bit like millennials were back in the day, still maybe posting things they might regret or over-sharing. Really, I think overall, social networking has become more specialised. We are smarter at it and we know which services to go to, for which types of things and when. I log into Facebook. Now I know the types of people that will have posted and I know what they will be posting about. It's become much more predictable and there are patterns.

Speaker 1: 20:55

Some years ago, this tab appeared on my Facebook page. It said marketplace. I wonder, what is that? And your insights point to the fact that one of the secondary uses of Facebook has become commerce, with Facebook marketplace becoming quite popular Now. As an aside, I was speaking to a friend last night. She's moved house, she's trying to get rid of a desk. She's using Facebook marketplace. She says it's a very bad experience. Another one is to use a gum tree and eBay. Now I had to think about this and I'm interested in your insights, but also your view on this, because Facebook marketplace doesn't seem to have a rating system. No one cares, no one turns up, whereas gum tree and eBay we rate each other. So if you don't turn up, you don't pay, you get penalised. So first of all, you can maybe look at where Facebook marketplace has evolved and what you see as differences between those sorts of different marketplaces.

Speaker 2: 21:43

Yeah, I mean instantly. I've been using gum tree this week and I'm not sure that rating system works very well. If you look at it from a pure stats point of view, somewhere like eBay is obviously the most popular to be selling things. About 50% of Brits are using that. About a quarter of us are using Facebook marketplace. Smaller percentages are using things like vintage gum tree, but they're on the rise. I think probably the most significant stat is in our ongoing research 15% in the UK say that they purchase secondhand items online on a weekly basis. So there is a big market for it and Facebook marketplace.

Speaker 2: 22:25

Obviously it wasn't an accident that it evolved into this, but I don't think it was one of the original purposes. It was probably an opportunistic reaction to what was going on and the fact that you can connect with people in your local area who are already signed up to that gives you a very big reach and there's some familiarity that goes with selling within there. I would say the unreal liability of marketplace is no better or worse really than most of the others, maybe with eBay as the exception, but a lot of the others. It's kind of much of a muchness and you're listeners are probably aware of the whispers that are coming through that the UK government is looking to capitalise on the secondhand selling thing, and actually Facebook is probably one of the places that might benefit from that. It's not been asked so far to submit records like some of the others had, so actually it might become even more popular for secondhand selling, at least in the short term.

Speaker 1: 23:25

Interesting insight there. Let's turn that off. Let's turn now to Connections. Many of us use Facebook for Connections and connecting with each other. What has your research shown in this area?

Speaker 2: 23:39

Again, it's different services for different things. So one of the questions we ask is like why do you go to, or which platform do you go to if you're looking to do this type of thing? And one of the things we ask about is connect with friends or family, and Facebook and Facebook Messenger are still very central to that, I think because of the cross-generational appeal of Facebook. If you're a younger person, chances are your relatives from older generations that you want to connect with are on Facebook. Many of them may not be on the other services, but there's a difference. I think. If you're talking about day-to-day communications with your smaller network, you're probably going to WhatsApp or texting. Facebook, I think, is for that tier of people slightly more removed, with whom communications is not so frequent, but it is seen as a very important place to connect with your family and keep in touch with them.

Speaker 1: 24:36

As I said, my parents look at it. My 88-year-old father replies on my stories. I wake up and he's commented once again on the Albert Bridge, so I know that they use it Now. Interestingly, I didn't teach them how to use Story or Messenger, they just worked it out. So the boomers actually can self-educate.

Speaker 2: 24:53

Some more success than other.

Speaker 1: 24:55

based on my mother-in-law, I'd say but so 20 years is a long time for a social network to exist in. How has Facebook shaped social media?

Speaker 2: 25:09

I think it's hard to appreciate quite how much Facebook has influenced things. I mean for those who are around. You'll remember it wasn't the first. There were other things out there. God bless my space and Friends Reunited and the other names are no longer with us.

Speaker 2: 25:26

Facebook could have gone the same way, but it didn't. It capitalized on our need to sort of consume more and see beyond the network that was defined by our old school friends or niche communities. It really managed to pull everyone in, from the younger demographic and then, over time, has stayed relevant so that all the older generations, one after the other, have come into the fold as well. It proved that a social network could be cross-generational and it proved that it was an incredibly attractive place for advertisers to come and speak to people, which allowed all of the other social networks really to follow in its wake.

Speaker 2: 26:07

There's a question that we've asked in a recent wave about how sort of influential and culturally important people think various services are, and, my goodness, facebook is right up there. People do think Instagram's slightly more influential, but people think that they spend that. People in the UK generally spend most time on Facebook and if we ask people about their conversations in the last week that might have mentioned a social network or been caused by something they saw on a social network, facebook comes out as the top one, so just hugely influential and still more pertinent over our day-to-day lives now than I think it's given credit for.

Speaker 1: 26:49

You mentioned there that Instagram is somewhat more influential. How do you measure that influence?

Speaker 2: 26:55

So this is where it comes to self-perceptions, right. This is what consumers across the UK think when we ask them about it, and it's kind of self-perpetuating. As soon as you hear that something like Instagram is considered influential, you suddenly I think it's like self-serving. You then think, yes, of course it is, and that sets the trends. So I would say it also helps, I think, how often social feeds and snippets are now shown in media stories and on the news. So you're seeing Instagram and Facebook content break out of its confines and influence media more widely.

Speaker 1: 27:34

So, jason, I've got a sample size of 1. N equals 1. What is your most popular social media network and why For me?

Speaker 2: 27:40

personally, it's got to be Instagram. Why is that? I have to say I'm a lurker, not a poster. I find it a very good way to kill a couple of minutes without being too sucked in. I think if you go to TikTok, the rabbit hole is a bit too strong, whereas on Instagram I find it quite easy just to stop. So I only spend as much time there as I want to.

Speaker 1: 28:01

You'll have to tell me how to stop scrolling on Instagram. I haven't quite mastered that yet. So we're here to talk about the future Facebook at 20,. With an eye on the future, what social media trends are you seeing and who do you think will be the dominant social network in 2024 and beyond?

Speaker 2: 28:16

Amazing question. So I mean there are so many trends that we need to keep an eye on. Who wins the video battle, or at least who continues emerging as the winners, is going to be key. We know that many of the platforms consider themselves to be the leading place for video content, so there's going to be more innovation and attention on there. Obviously, everyone is looking at the metaverse to see what happens.

Speaker 1: 28:43

Still, really 2024?

Speaker 2: 28:46

Didn't that die last year? Well, not according to some people, but I think it is a classic case of the industry, or certain people in the industry think consumers are ready for something and want it, and actually most consumers are largely apathetic. For sure, it has some very good use cases. If you're a gamer, you're going to be much more of a fan than if you're someone like me who doesn't spend any time gaming at all. But I think there's much more hype around it from media than there is actual interest from consumers.

Speaker 1: 29:16

Are you asking questions in your survey now, which calls out the minivers?

Speaker 2: 29:20

We are and interestingly this year, something like AI is a good example. This year, for the first time, concerns about AI have overtaken interest in AI and, I think, metaverse. There is interest, but it's not been growing strongly enough and almost like the other side of apathy is starting to rise up. So unless people see quite quickly the real benefit or enjoyment that can come from the metaverse, it's going to be a bit of an uphill battle. Other than that, interesting to see how the battle between TikTok, instagram and Snapchat plays out between the youngest generations, because whatever they go for will influence all of us who keep an eye on this and where brands want to hang out.

Speaker 1: 30:13

Is there another network that's bubbling up, or are the ones we mentioned today? That's it. No one's going to really win the game anymore.

Speaker 2: 30:19

I'd say there's nothing as globally important as something like a TikTok. If you were to look at adoption of Discord, it's going up very strongly, but from quite a small base. The way TikTok has exploded into the leading pack does not happen very often. It was the same when Snapchat came along. It's once in a while that you see something like that and of course, we probably should mention X. Sorry, what?

Speaker 1: 30:45

I'm just throwing a list of it. That's what we used to call Twitter, but most of us still call Twitter Yep.

Speaker 2: 30:50

To see what happens there. I saw a news story last night showing that an influencer had been tempted to post a video and made a lot of money. I suspect there might be some rowing back on the frosty words that have been said about advertisers, because I think it's becoming clearer that advertising is the key part of the funding for X slash.

Speaker 1: 31:13

Twitter, so we're almost out of time. We're up to my favorite part of the show, the quick fire round will be learned more about our guests. I'm going to throw some quick questions at you. Are you ready? I think iPhone or Android, absolutely iPhone.

Speaker 2: 31:26

Window or aisle Looking by myself, window In the room or in the middle of us, 100% in the room.

Speaker 1: 31:34

What's your biggest? Oh, by the way, we're recording this in person, so that probably proves that what's your biggest hope for this year and next?

Speaker 2: 31:42

Oh, my goodness, that I get better at using AI in my daily life. We talk about that off here.

Speaker 1: 31:50

So my next question. Thank you for the segue. I wish that AI could do all of my you see, I think it could do everything.

Speaker 2: 31:56

I just haven't got the time or headspace yet to actually make it do it. Like my shopping lists and my travel plans. It could do all of that for me, but I'm not using it.

Speaker 1: 32:05

Just ask, chej APT. Yeah, I need the time to do that. What's the app you use most on your phone?

Speaker 2: 32:11

Workphone Slack personal phone Instagram.

Speaker 1: 32:14

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Speaker 2: 32:18

People want insights, not data.

Speaker 1: 32:21

What are you reading at the moment?

Speaker 2: 32:23

I should say something high-routed, shouldn't I? I'm actually reading this Is Gonna Hurt by Adam Kay.

Speaker 1: 32:28

Who shall I invite next on to the podcast?

Speaker 2: 32:33

Someone who can give us a definitive answer about the post cookie landscape and what it means.

Speaker 1: 32:40

Okay, if anyone there get in touch. How do you want to be remembered?

Speaker 2: 32:46

A good boss, a nice colleague and someone who was all right at getting insights out of data.

Speaker 1: 32:52

So, as this is the actionable future, as podcast, what three actionable things should our audience do today to prepare and better understand the power of social networking?

Speaker 2: 33:05

If you haven't tried one of the main apps, download it for a day and at least have a go to understand what it's like. If you've never been down a rabbit hole on TikTok, try going down one just to see the power of video and understand quite how many different social platforms we're all using. It's not winner takes all. It's winner takes a share.

Speaker 1: 33:31

Jason, a fascinating discussion. I love the stats. I love your insights. How can we find out more about you and your work?

Speaker 2: 33:36

So usual places on socials, you'll find GWI, or check out our website, which is GWIcom. Jason, thank you so much for your time. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 33:46

And happy birthday Facebook.

Speaker 2: 33:47

Yes indeed.