Episode 528: The slow and subtle social media shift (that's speeding up)

Let me start this episode by saying: I’m not 100% sure everyone’s going to love what I have to say, but this is an important topic if you want to make informed decisions for your business moving forward. We need to talk about a slow but subtle shift I’ve seen happening on social media—one that’s really starting to speed up. I promise, this won’t be as vague as it sounds.

If you’re trying to grow an audience on social media, feeling frustrated by slowing audience growth, or thinking about how you might need to shift your strategy, then you’ll want to stick with me for this one.

Let’s dive right into the details…

Here for the links referenced in the show notes?

I’ve shared a 90-second video on my Facebook and Instagram—go comment your answers to the two quick questions I ask there.

You can find those videos here:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYWLUWGyHrv/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BZfZZuvtB/?mibextid=wwXIfr

EPISODE 528: Listen using the player below, or click the links to your fave platform to subscribe and listen over there:

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The Ever-Changing Social Media Landscape

Change is a constant in our lives, but nowhere is that more clear than in the world of social media. The landscape for business owners is always shifting: new trends, algorithm updates, platform tweaks—those changes come at us fast. Sometimes things like links are suddenly deprioritised or new features like reels take over. But running beneath those fast shifts is something slower, subtler, and it’s really starting to pick up pace.

What’s the social media shift? It’s the very real shortening timeframe between signing up for a platform and the point when you “need” to spend real money on ads to get seen. And honestly, I know a lot of you aren’t going to love that.

Why We Avoid Ads (And My Thousand-Dollar Oops)

Here’s why so many people resist putting money into ads:

You might not like giving money to Meta, full stop.
You may have tried ads before and they didn’t work.
Running ads the “right” way (according to the gurus) sounds super complicated—they have an incentive to keep it that way so you’ll buy their help.
Maybe, like me, you ran an ad experiment, and watched it eat $1,000 in 24 hours—with nothing to show for it. After that, I didn’t run ads again for four years! So, if you feel gun-shy about ads, I absolutely get it.

Understanding the Social Platform Lifecycle

Before we get to your choices, let’s look at the widely accepted lifecycle of any social platform. It’s not just true for social media or tech stuff—this happens whenever something gets big, fast.

1. Make It Great for Users

In the early days, platforms like Facebook were desperate to get as many people on board as possible. Everything was about the user experience. It’s all about solving a problem for users or delivering something everyone wants to be part of—think major FOMO if you’re not on there.

2. Monetise: Enter Advertisers

At a certain point, with a big audience, the platform needs to make money. So they add features advertisers and business owners will love (ads, of course, but also stuff that makes it easier for audiences and businesses to interact).

3. Make It Better for Advertisers… At a Cost

With sufficient users, the shift slowly tilts toward advertisers—even if it comes at the expense of users. Remember scrolling and suddenly noticing more ads in your feed, or feeling like you’re not seeing your friends’ posts anymore? In the beginning, Facebook promised no more than one ad in every 20 posts, but over time, the number crept up.

The real kicker for advertisers? For a while, ads were cheap and super targeted, offering access to an audience and data that were basically unheard of anywhere else. But as use and competition increased, it became less optimal for everyone.

4. Decline for Both Sides

Eventually, users start dropping off, spending less time, and platform profitability dips. Sometimes, platforms even die out (R.I.P. Periscope!), usually because they chose advertisers over users too soon or too aggressively.

The point: this decline, this slow, intentional shift, is necessary for platforms to keep making money. Make negative changes too quickly, and users leave en masse—as we’ve started to see with Facebook since 2026, with the rise of bot content and a real drop in time spent by everyday users.

Organic Reach

Big, obvious changes (like the introduction of the algorithm, the first ads, or suggested posts) are super noticeable to users. But as a business owner or advertiser, the real erosion happens so slowly you barely notice. A great example is the removal of post reach stats in Facebook groups. For a while, if you posted in a group (including my own Heart-Centred Community with over 30,000 members), you could see exactly how many people saw your post. That number was almost always way, way lower than the total group size.

Once people saw their posts were being seen by only a fraction of group members, they posted less. And then Facebook took away the reach stats. As an admin, I can still see them—and I regularly update the group on what’s really happening behind the scenes with reach, because I want to keep it transparent.

What I notice across all the businesses I work with (coaching, consulting, digital products, microbusinesses) is that this steady, subtle shift is very much on purpose. Monetisation mechanics are always being tweaked: changes in the creator fund, eligibility for monetising posts and videos, even how bot comments can get your videos flagged as “ineligible” for financial rewards—these start out invisible and only become obvious after months, even years, of declining results.

The Slow (But Very Real) Decline in Facebook Group Reach

I watch this closely in my own communities. A few years ago, an average post in my 30,000+ member group would reach well over 1,000 people. Gradually, between 2022 and 2023, that number shrank—my own posts as the group host couldn’t even hit 500. By 2024, most frequent posters still got around 1,500-2,000 views, but less-engaged members dropped to around 500, and my posts were sitting at about 150-200. Fast-forward to 2026, and most group posts now get less than 100. Seriously.

That’s not visible to group posters, but I see it, and I share it because it matters. As an example, during my recent #Tashmas birthday celebrations, I ran “help threads” in the group. One thread got 90 comments in just a few hours—but reach was still only 95 people. All of those comments came from the initial burst of visibility, then the post just stopped being shown to anyone else.

Even after emailing my whole list and posting about it on my Facebook page, the actual reach on those posts never exceeded 5% more than the number of commenters. You could tag people, create all the engagement tricks in the world, but the platform simply doesn’t show your posts more widely. And if you check post after post, it’s the same story: 12 comments, reach of 21; 4 comments, reach of 18; no comments, 6 people.

This pattern isn’t just happening in my group. I’ve compared with clients and seen the same: engagement in groups is way down across the board.

Algorithm Drama and Pay-to-Play

Sometimes, the platforms make a change that is so obvious users actually revolt. In January 2022, Facebook updated the algorithm and organic reach on pages tanked overnight. Loads of people abandoned their official pages and moved to creator or professional profiles. A few months later, Facebook quietly reversed much of the change and organic reach on pages bounced back—especially for those who kept posting consistently.

Why? Facebook realised that when you take away all organic reach, small advertisers (who make up a huge portion of Facebook’s income!) stopped buying ads. People tend to start with organic strategies, then, when they’re seeing results, move on to paid ads to scale. If you snuff out organic growth, you kill future ad spend.

After that, page reach has dropped, but only very subtly—no more sudden cliffs. For me, my page’s reach has been fairly stable, and despite my group being over three times the size of my page, I consistently reach more people on my page than in my group. This has been true for ages, at least since 2020. People don’t believe it, but it’s 100% how things work now.

So… What Now? Embracing the Social Media Shift and Choosing Your Focus

Here’s my advice:

Go with the flow for now.
Focus on building your mailing list as quickly as you can.
Watch for that “line of sight” between social content, mailing list growth, and sales.

For me, the link between my consistency on social media and my business income is all about email list growth. That mailing list always directly correlates to my revenue. If I’m not building my list, social media doesn’t drive reliable or sustainable sales for me.

Paid Ads: When (Not If) To Jump

I recommend looking at paid ads earlier, not later. But don’t panic! Choose ads from a place of strategy and simplicity, not worry or overwhelm.

Ask yourself: is your time better spent mastering every new content format, learning the latest “hack” for organic reach, chasing trends and algorithmic tricks? Or would it actually be simpler (and cheaper in the long run) to put a small budget behind ads, once you know your offer works?

Honestly, the amount of time and energy I’ve spent learning new content trends, practicing fancy reels, setting up chatbots, or strategising DM scripts… I’m glad I did it to learn for my clients and the fun of it, not out of necessity. Because my baseline, validated strategies—mailing list, value-based content—are what drive my business long-term. That’s why I’m not as vulnerable to every algorithm whim.

The One Thing That’s Never Changed: Engagement Matters Most

Here’s what I’ve stuck to, no matter what:

The algorithm’s only job (then and now) is to show users content they’ll engage with.
My goal is always to create genuinely valuable and helpful content—stuff my community wants to engage with, not random “fill the feed” noise.

That’s why I ignore advice like “never put the link in the post—always the comments.” That’s too complicated and honestly, not user-friendly at all. I want low friction for myself and for my audience. I include links right in my post. And because I always have, the algorithm knows my posts get engagement with or without links. If I’d spent years hiding links in the comments, I’d have a much bigger challenge getting traction now.

Keep Social Media Simple and Sustainable

If social media feels easy and sustainable, I’ll keep using it. If not, I’ll walk away! That’s always my measuring stick. And that attitude has helped me treat social media like the tool it is—useful, but not my whole business.

Your Next Steps

If you’ve stepped back from things that grow your mailing list—like webinars, promoting lead magnets, or personally inviting connections when people DM you—it’s time to put those things back at the top.

Paid ads should come only after you know your offer resonates organically. Otherwise, you’re risking money instead of time. Organic validation is key. But once you have that, the window between proving your idea and paying to play is getting shorter every year. It’s not panic stations—it’s just time for strategic decision-making.

If this sounds a little doom and gloom, don’t stress. When any platform declines, things splinter out—creating room for new, better solutions more tailored to our real needs. Social media isn’t “dead,” but it’s changing, and how you use it should probably change, too.

I’m cooking up a little project to solve some of these pain points—especially making it easier to actually develop relationships and network on social platforms, despite all the algorithm shifts and bot drama. I’ve shared a 90-second video on my Facebook and Instagram—go comment your answers to the two quick questions I ask there.