Contents
- Social media and the shift from content production to trust accumulation
- What has changed in social media — and what marketing teams must do differently
- What is changing inside social media: trust, bargaining power and market structure
- In Vietnam, social media will be pushed toward trust, creators and closing sales
- What needs to be done for social media to create real value
- References
Social media is entering a harder phase: content can now be generated almost endlessly, but what creates differentiation is trust, real human presence and the ability to prove performance. For Vietnamese marketers, this affects not only how content is made, but also how creators are selected, how results are measured and how budgets are allocated.
What stands out is that many signals from international markets are moving in the same direction: human-led content is being valued more highly, creator-led growth is proving its effectiveness, and brands with their own communities are finding ways to connect social more tightly with product and commerce.
- Key point:
- AI makes social content easier to produce, but it also increases sameness, so trust becomes a scarce asset.
- Creator-led content and human-led franchises are increasingly seen as a more durable way to create differentiation than simply posting more.
- Social media no longer stands alone; it is starting to connect more tightly with purchasing, retention and cross-channel value.
- In Vietnam, the advantage will tilt toward the brand that turns social into a system with real people, real communities and real measurement.
Social media and the shift from content production to trust accumulation
The Tilt makes a very notable point: when AI increases the supply of content, the question is no longer “can we publish?” but “who is worth trusting?” This is an important shift for social media because much of social media’s advantage has traditionally come from speed, frequency and the ability to repeat a message.
At the same time, Metricool points to a very practical direction: social teams are increasingly relying on AI prompts to speed up ideation, write captions, schedule posts and test more content variations. Put together, these two sources show a common picture: tools are making content faster, but precisely because they are faster, the hard part is no longer creating posts — it is creating reasons for audiences to trust and remember them.
For marketers, that means social media is moving from “content volume” to a “trust portfolio.” Brands cannot optimize only for post count; they have to think about building a few content lines with a real face, a real voice and the ability to carry communities forward across multiple channels.
What has changed in social media — and what marketing teams must do differently
In the latest updates, what matters is not a single feature, but the way social growth models are being reorganized around creators, communities and cross-channel effectiveness.
Creator-led organic views: social teams must treat creators as a growth channel, not just a brand-polish channel
The Viral App announced that its creator network surpassed 2.5 billion organic views for mobile app clients. Even though this is internal data from a UGC studio, the message is still clear: creator-led content is being used as a real growth lever, especially in mobile apps.
For marketing teams, the key point is not the absolute number, but how social content is packaged into a distribution system. If creator content can drive views, installs and retention better than paid acquisition in some contexts, then social is no longer a secondary brand-awareness channel. It becomes an input layer for growth.
TikTok Shop engine: social media is becoming more tightly linked to commerce and margins
Dollar Shave Club made its point very clearly in the deal with Truly Beauty: it saw value in the viral marketing and TikTok Shop engine of a young brand, while also wanting to combine that with its own operating capability and existing infrastructure. This is an important signal because social media is no longer just creating reach — it is being connected directly to buying behavior.
When social connects to commerce, marketers cannot measure it only by engagement or follower growth. They also need to look at conversion path, AOV, repeat purchase and cross-value across customer groups. In other words, social media now has to prove that it helps expand revenue, not just create noise.
AI prompts in the social workflow: speed is rising, but verification has to come first
Metricool shows that AI prompts are being used to support ideas, captions and daily social workflows. This reduces production friction, especially for small teams. But it also creates a very familiar risk: content can be produced faster than quality and brand voice can be checked.
So instead of asking “should we use AI?”, the better question is “which parts can AI handle, and which parts must stay human?” For social media, the parts that should stay human are perspective, experience, community response and the kinds of lines that can create real trust.
What is changing inside social media: trust, bargaining power and market structure
Content abundance is raising the value of a human voice
The Tilt argues that when AI makes content abundant, value shifts toward human-led content franchises. Metricool shows why that happens: AI prompts let social teams create content much faster. When everyone can produce more, volume is no longer the barrier.
What remains scarce is a voice that is instantly recognizable and has enough interaction history for audiences to trust it. For marketers, this is why it is necessary to invest in spokespersons, in-house experts, founders or creators closely tied to the brand. That is the part of social that cannot be copied quickly.
Creator-led growth is shifting bargaining power from paid media to earned media
Data from The Viral App and the Dollar Shave Club – Truly Beauty deal both point to the same thing: creator-led and viral-led content is no longer a side experiment, but a source of value that can be built into the business structure.
That also changes the bargaining power of media buyers. Brands are no longer asking only “how much reach can we buy?”, but “which creator holds attention longer?”, “which content can travel organically across multiple platforms?”, and “which content creates enough depth to move into purchase?” This is where social media starts to look more like an asset portfolio than a posting calendar.
Social commerce forces marketers to measure final behavior, not just attractive metrics
The Dollar Shave Club deal shows that social content has been tied to a TikTok Shop engine, meaning it is tied to real commerce. Once social enters commerce, attractive metrics like views, likes or shares are not enough. You need measures of final behavior: clicks, add-to-cart, purchase and repeat order.
This is especially important for Vietnamese brands operating on thin margins. If social media only creates attention, it can be replaced easily. But if it creates orders, returning customers and cross-sell potential, then it earns a place in the P&L.
In Vietnam, social media will be pushed toward trust, creators and closing sales
In Vietnam, social media has long been used for speed, volume and trend-chasing. But as AI content becomes easier to produce, the differentiator will shift toward real people, real communities and the ability to connect social with purchasing. That is why Vietnamese brands should not only ask “what should we post this week?” but also “who stands behind this content, is it trustworthy enough, and where does it lead the user?”
This matters even more in highly competitive categories such as beauty, personal care, consumer apps and education. In those industries, social is not only a place to build awareness — it is also where trust is built very early, before users decide to buy or download an app.
For the Vietnamese market, the opportunity is not in copying creator trends from abroad. The opportunity is in building a social system with three layers: content fronted by real people, creators whose effectiveness can be verified, and a path from content to conversion that is clear enough for the business team to trust.
What needs to be done for social media to create real value
- Choose one “real person” or a group of creators with a clear role in the social strategy, instead of handing everything over to an anonymous posting calendar.
- Redesign social KPIs to track clicks, conversion and repeat value as well, not just views or engagement.
- Use AI prompts to speed up production, but require a review step for tone, authenticity and brand-voice drift.
- Connect social with commerce, CRM or app growth to prove that social media drives revenue or retention, not just attention.
In short, social media is not dying because of AI. It is simply changing the rules: the more content looks the same, the more a clear trust system is needed. The brand that builds a stronger trust portfolio will have stronger bargaining power in both communications and growth.
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References
- The Tilt — Content Strategy Too Concentrated? You Need a Trust Portfolio
- Metricool — 40+ AI Prompts for Social Media Success (+ DIY Guide)
- The Viral App Surpasses 2.5 Billion Organic Views for Mobile App Clients
- PR Newswire — Dollar Shave Club Announces Acquisition of Truly Beauty
