Nowadays, we often hear people saying that social media is oversaturated. And that they can’t penetrate and reach their desired audiences anymore because of the oversaturation.

Well, to tell you the truth. Social media will never be oversaturated, or at the very least, it is nowhere near saturated today. There’s a reason why many people are trying their luck on social media. And that is, they know that there are many untapped markets in these platforms.

To have a deeper understanding of this logic. Below is a written version of a podcast starring Max Av and Peter Guerriera, where they discussed the saturation and the potential of the markets in social media.

Peter: I have a great example to wrap up this portion of the podcast. There is a Youtuber, his name is Milad. He’s a young Persian who’s like, 20 – 22 years old, and his mother and father owned a Subway franchise. Six months ago, He started on TikTok and then on Youtube shorts with a camera attached to his chest, making subway sandwiches.

He has 2 million followers now on YouTube. And probably three times out on TikTok. And he makes a ridiculous amount of money. And his parents are 10 times wealthier now than they were six months ago because of his success. It’s a perfect example of breaking into your own random niche. 

Max: People who don’t know anything about social media would say that social media is oversaturated. While a guy who makes subway sandwiches got 2 million subscribers in six months. In what way is that Over-saturated?

And that’s one example. We can make a list of a hundred people that popped off on TikTok in the last six months. And social media is going to become augmented reality. Virtual reality is going to get even more significant. So this is just the frontier. Social media is just getting started.

And don’t get me started on Blockchain. Blockchain will make it easier for people to monetize their social media content without advertising and sponsorships. It’s because Blockchain helps create markets out of networks. And so that’s just a whole concept we can get into. I’m not a Blockchain expert myself, though. 

Peter: You sell yourself short. And before everyone who was watching sells us fast, the two of us definitely. In 2011 and 2012, we don’t have to talk about what happened, but we will say that neither one of us is in the position to say we’re an expert. But we can say that we did not buy Bitcoin for the first time in 2019 or 2020.

It’s a very depressing topic. So everyone has their story of losing money in Bitcoin. Everyone has their story of making money. We both have both. We’d just like to let everyone know that we have an opinion based on having our own cryptocurrency in 2012 and following the market probably for the last eight years.

Max: I wouldn’t say I follow the market at all. To be honest, I just buy Bitcoin. And that’s it. 

But let me just finish riffing on Social media and Blockchain. I’m not a blockchain expert, but what I think will happen between social media and Blockchain is just really simple and really fast. I’m going to say, I believe Blockchain makes it easier for networks to become markets. 

This is quoted by Naval Ravikant; check him out, check out his tweetstorm on Blockchain. Great insight; probably one of the best insights about Blockchain comes from the Naval Ravikant. I think that Blockchain will make it easier for social media creators to monetize their social media persona without relying on advertising. And that’s all I’m going to say on that. That’s what I think is going to start on rolling within five to 10 years.

Peter: So I’m not going to allow you to just stop there because I’m also very interested. You mean, in a way, let’s say people who get paid on Tik TOK right now get paid in US dollars. From what I understood from what you’re saying, there’s a possibility that tick-tock may create its own Blockchain and pay its users in a coin of some sort. Is that like the way that social media will pay its creators? 

Max: I don’t want to say specifics. I wouldn’t have enough knowledge on the matter to talk about specifics, but what I think will happen is, instead of asking how many followers do you have? People are going to start saying how much is their social media profile worth in monetary value?

So instead of saying, I have a million followers, you’re going to say, “My social media profile is worth $40,000”. Social media will be attached to some sort of Blockchain system where instead of saying, I’ll follow you, you say, I’ll buy you, I’ll hold you, or I’ll huddle. And this is quoted by, I think his name was Bahali or Blocky. He is a brilliant guy. And he said people are going to say, “I’ll huddle you and not follow you.” And I think money and monetary value are going to overtake followers.

The notion that, having more social media followers will mean more income is definitely wrong. The number of your social media followers isn’t directly proportional to the amount that you will earn.

What’s important though is your ability to adapt to the changes of social media. And take advantage of these changes to market and sell your products.

To know more, let’s learn from the podcast of Max Av and Peter Guerriera, wherein they discussed the effect of social media followers.

Max: I know social media accounts that have very little followers, but they make a lot of money. And I know people who have a lot of followers and make very little money. Followers does not equal revenue. Followers do not correlate directly with income.

 Peter: The ability to make money on social media is independent of your followers, right? Like, your skill of making money, it doesn’t even matter if you have a lot of followers or not. The only thing that matters is your ability to monetize on social media.

Max:  The older social media becomes the less impact the number of followers will be. I’ve seen so many examples of people. I know YouTube channels that have a lot of subscribers and make very, very little money.And I know YouTube channels that have very little subscribers and make enormous amounts of money. The older social media gets, the lesser impact your followers will be on your income.

Peter: I can give a good example of somebody like that. There was somebody that I used to follow when I was very young by the name of Elliot Hulse. In the fitness industry, he was a God, he could not be touched. He had 2 million followers before anyone had a thousand followers. You pointed a good point where, the older your social media got, the less the amount of people who follow you matter.

And I use him as a good example because now he has maybe 4 million subscribers, but the first 2 million were from 15 years ago. So people like me now go back and watch his videos. And I was what you would call an OG subscriber of this guy. His content is so different that I would never watch his videos ever again.

Max: You can’t just say X a follower equals one penny worth of monetary value. It’s far too liquid. It’s far too dynamic. You never know what’s going to happen in social media.

One thing I tell people, if you are not comfortable with change, stay away from the social media industry. Social media industries are for people like me who love change, who love evolution, rapid growth and those stuff. I love to adapt for people.

For instance, Jake Paul who on a dime, will do something completely different and not care and continue to do it, and do well is a good example.

But, I think that the most optimal example is GaryVee. GaryVee is unbelievably good at adaptation -that’s his superpower. He has social media marketing agency.

So like the older social media becomes the older, the less followers matter, especially with Facebook. There are Facebook pages that have  millions of fans that don’t make any money. It’s literally like that. The older feature on Facebook is, the harder it is to monetize. They rather you pay to get your sales.

So Facebook is very good at this and eventually all social media platforms will follow this route. The older the platform, the harder it is to get followers because they want you to pay for it. TikTok is going to do the same thing. 1 year ago, it was so easy to get views and followers on Tik TOK. Now,  the pipelines are over-saturated. You see more and more ads on TikTok and you’re going to see the same thing in the future. It’s going to get harder to get real audience. The market will be more competitive because they will want more ads on the platform.

Peter: So what I will say for people that are closer to my age, I’m 28, by the way. I looked at TikTok at the beginning as something only young children would do. And it was the biggest mistake I ever made.

From this podcast, we will realize that social media will never be oversaturated. Rather, it is the competition that will get harder. But it doesn’t mean there is no room for success in social.

In fact, it is quite the opposite, as long as you have an idea and you know how to market it. And you know how to adapt and take advantage of changes, you will definitely tap that market on social media and gain immense success.

If you are about to give up on your social media because your efforts are not making any progress, this article is for you.

In a recent podcast episode, Max Av of Everlast and Peter Guerriera discussed social media and its saturation. According to Max, social media is way too young and infinite for it to be saturated. And the main reason why some people fail to gain traction with their social media efforts is not because of saturation. It’s mainly because their actions are not practical or are outdated.

With how fast the trends change today, strategies and methods on social media marketing also vary in reaction to these trends. To understand more on this concept below is the written version of the podcast.

Peter: So the same 3 billion users of Facebook and Instagram are the same users of TikToK as well. I could use Tik TOK, Clubhouse, and Instagram. 

Let’s say I’m a new person on Instagram. Now I’m competing with 2 billion people to gain the attention of other people. And that’s where I think the connotation of the saturation comes in, but let’s say you’re in the fitness industry. Most of my social media experiences in the fitness industry five years ago, if you did certain things on YouTube, you get certain amounts of views. Nowadays, if you did, you would not get the same type of engagement.

Explain how someone like a fitness influencer would come into the space that is maybe not over-saturated but more saturated than it once was?

Max: There are definitely niches and segments and areas that are oversaturated. Social media, on the whole, however, is nowhere, even remotely close to being oversaturated.

Peter: Somebody who believes that social media is saturated because they’re trying to get into a niche that’s saturated. What’s your advice to those people? That social media is saturated because of the niche that they’re taking?

Max: You’re saying somebody is using social media, and they’re in a tough spot where it’s hard for them to grow, so what should they do, right?

Peter: Yes and no, because social media, as a whole, the creator could be put in a position where they have to create something new. And then, they may create a new niche that’s not over-saturated. But if your hobbies are in fitness, you’re entering a niche that is very overdone. So what do you do? Do you do something else, or do you compete? 

Max: Fitness is not done.

Peter: I agree. Fitness is not done.

Max: So the question is too multi-variable and nuanced. Like, you can’t answer that question directly. I work with two fitness companies; both fitness companies are doing just fine. One of them is thriving. I cannot answer that question.

Everybody is unbelievably unique. And being on the internet, you have almost an infinite amount of directions to go. Answering that question is extremely difficult. I would have to audit what you’re doing, what your channel is, what type of content. There are just so many. 

Peter: So that was kind of point where I was going. Your answer was the point I was trying to make.

In a sense where you might start social media and say, wow, this is extremely over-saturated. How am I going to compete? But because you’re a unique person, because you’re, you are as a human being multi-dimensional. And no matter what, there are very few people who have the exact same combination of skills that you have. There’s always someplace for you. You just need to find that place.

Max: Yeah, that’s a good point. So if you think you’re in an overall saturated place, there are so many directions. You can go, just pivot. Quit what you’re doing if it feels oversaturated; go in a different direction. 

You were talking about Instagram; Instagram was oversaturated like a few months ago. Guess what? Instagram reels came out, and now you can grow on Instagram relatively quickly compared to what you could do before. You know what I mean? It is so nuanced. Like even a single feature on a platform can change the entire content strategy.

If a few months ago, we wouldn’t even care about Instagram. Now that Instagram has reels, we care about it because it’s a great way to grow their video-based content. It’s so hard to answer the question – Am I in a good spot or an oversaturated spot? Unless I have exact examples and can audit you directly.

It’s impossible to give you that answer, but just know social media is nowhere near over-saturated. There’s an infinite amount of niches. There are niches that make people a lot of money on the internet; just don’t give up. Eventually, you’ll find it.

As the saying goes, “You will only fail when you stop trying,” reaching your desired goals entirely depends upon you. The pursuit only stops when you stop pursuing. If you keep on working for your goals, there’s no way that you will not reach them. And this is where the difference between giving up and quitting plays a significant role.

Giving up means you are surrendering, and you just want to end it all. On the other hand, quitting is simply stopping. Giving up is a more profound feeling that shouldn’t be entertained at all. Everything ends when you give up, but when you quit, you just pause and then continue on a new path.

To understand what we mean by this, below is a written version of the podcast between Max Av and Peter Guerriera.

Max: Let’s talk about the difference between giving up and quitting. Persistence means the lack of giving up. The more you persist, the less you give up. People think that quitting and giving up are the same thing. No, quitting is a great decision-making skill. It’s very important to know how, where to stop, and when to quit. Quitting is a decision. And if you know how to quit, it’s often an intelligent decision.

For instance, smoking cigarettes and quitting cigarettes is a great decision. It is a very smart and excellent long-term decision. That’s quitting, not giving up. You can’t give up smoking cigarettes – that doesn’t really make sense. But what you can do is give up your pursuit to quit smoking cigarettes – that’s a terrible thing. Giving up is a negative thing. Quitting can be a practical skill, depending on how you master it. And it’s very dangerous to be bad at Quitting.

Peter: Okay. So let’s tie in everything you’ve just said about the internet. Let’s connect in everything you said about quitting and being persistent on social media.

Many people are saying that social media is very saturated, that a lot of people are doing the same thing. When you go on Instagram, and you look up at their Reels. And 17 different people are doing the same thing.

So when you are an up-and-coming social media influencer, how do you know when it’s the right time to quit? How do you know when it’s the right time to be persistent? I guess, how do you know if the field you’re in is saturated and you should or should not?

Max:  So let’s just say that these people who don’t understand social media always say one common thing – Social media is over-saturated. Let me make it clear. It’s not okay.I manage the advertising of several multimillion-dollar companies. All of them use social media advertising, mostly paid but, in many ways, to grow their business.

Believe me, it’s not oversaturated. A lot of these businesses are thriving. Pretty much all of them are using social media marketing in some way. I’m a paid advertising professional that understands this stuff. Social media is not oversaturated at all or even close. In fact, we’re at the beginning of this frontier.

 20 years from now, we’re going to be shocked by how unsaturated the internet is. The internet is 20 years old, and social media is like, 15 years old. It is not oversaturated; it’s not even close. YouTube has enormous revenue growth every year. If social media is so saturated, how does YouTube grow so much? If social media is oversaturated, how in the world that a billion users of social media platforms come out of nowhere on Tik-Tok.

We have BitCloud now. I’m not sure if the BitCloud is legit or not, but hopefully, it is legit. If BitCloud came out of nowhere, how is social media over-saturated? When you constantly have these enormous Social media platforms come out of nowhere. Over-saturated means there’s not enough room, but yet YouTube is growing like crazy. There are new social media platforms. Clubhouse came out of nowhere. If it’s saturated, how come there’s so much room for all these new things. The social media industry is growing every year.

Now that we know that the internet and social media are not oversaturated, it might be the perfect time to keep pushing forward and persist, right? The market isn’t the problem. The problem is our methods are ineffective. And if we just keep on trying and continue to strive on our goals, discovering that effective method will only be a matter of time.

So don’t quit and keep on persisting. Who knows, you might just be the next TikTok founder.