Part 2: BeReal 📈, copycats, trust and self-expression
Clones, the Gen Z Paradox of Trust, the misunderstanding of self-expression, and movement towards a (Be)realer future.
We bring you this BeReal pt 2 content amidst quite a bit of Instagram drama. Some advice for Instagram this week? BeReal!
Last time, we looked at the relevance of BeReal, and what it reveals about Gen Z behaviors. Today, we’ll take a look at the updated brand relevance score alongside key question #2 in determining its staying power.
BeReal GenZ Score update: 84.8 (up +4.0 from 80.8).
Reminder: the GenZ Score® measures cultural relevance. The score process weights and standardizes the most popular, brand-relevant user-generated content (UGC) on social media by analyzing the popularity of UGC over 4 different time intervals: the previous 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months.
Why did the score go up 4 points? As long as new organic UGC is consistently more popular than previous content, the score will continue to rise; aka more people are talking about it more frequently. At some point, that will die down, and the score will drop.
Will it just keep going up like this? The popularity of UGC within the last week is nearing its max - which means in order for it to keep going up at all, UGC will need to keep coming out with high frequency and high popularity, which will not change this week’s subscore much, but will eventually change the later time categories.
Q2: What behaviors is it creating and impacting?
#1: Copycats and clones creating demand for instantaneous behaviors
Remember when Uber was peaking and every new startup was “Uber for X”? It seems like we’re in the beginning phases of the next copycat platform cycle. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this is a bad thing. It clearly shows the relevance and size of behavior that resonates with people.
A few weeks ago, this tweet went viral:
And as it turns out this is very (Be)Real and very aware of its behavioral proximity to BeReal. Bopdrop, which is quite literally referring to itself as the BeReal for music, is blowing up on TikTok and Twitter because it has tapped into that association. Smart move, @bopdropmatt:
This BeReal for X is not real, and probably for a good reason, but also a fun thought:
The ideas of BeReal for photos, music, copy and paste seem to pull out a hidden desire among Gen Z’ers to remove the walls that technology has enabled us to put up for so long, and move away from showing others who we want to be and showing others who we are.
Ah, and where would we be without an Instagram clone?
If Instagram clones you, you’re doing something right, no?
Instagram already has popped out an MVP version of a competitor; their stories now include a filter with a BeReal-esque double camera view.
One TikToker (maybe he secretly works for Instagram because this is just too good) is extremely confident that its only a matter of months before Instagram launches its own version of BeReal (click the image below to watch it).
#2: The Gen Z Paradox of Trust
BeReal strengthens an emerging behavior that is appearing more and more across this generation.
Our circle of trust grows smaller (but also bigger). Let me explain:
Instagram is for all your acquaintances. Family, friends, random people you meet at a bar that you say you’ll stay in touch with but never do but still see what they’re doing on Instagram because maybe one day it’ll happen, etc.
Finstas (if you know us you know what is linked there) were made for close friends, and soon enough Instagram launched close friends on stories, which is for… your close friends. All of that was copied from Snap, of course, but it’s easier to explain through the lens of just one social.
A Business Insider article writes…
“BeReal is so much the opposite that it's a different kind of intimidating. Do I really want everyone to see my pajamas? Am I confident enough to show everyone an awkward, poorly lit selfie? To expose the corners of my messy room and unmade bed?”
“Those worries were mainly eased by the fact that I currently don't have any distant relatives or random acquaintances as friends on the app. While I have just over 1,000 followers on Instagram, I only have 26 friends on BeReal, and I'd like it to stay that way.”
BeReal is just the most recent example of this circle of trust moving closer and closer.
But at the same time, it’s never been so far away. We see this idea of Distributed Trust grow increasingly prevalent as motives, agendas, and capitalism seep into every element of our information-overloaded lives. Matt Klein writes in his brilliant piece on this matter:
When truth is decentralized, no one voice can change anything until the community first confirms it’s true.
Ironically, anonymity was once thought to curb trust, but now it actually promotes it. Actors with an agenda are prevented from altering the narrative, as it’s impossible to buy out the hive mind or to sway the entire community with a false promise.
In community we trust.
When hierarchy and status are removed via anonymity, we’re at peace knowing the recommender has nothing to gain. As a result, participation is perceived as low-stakes, unbiased and selfless. There’s no ulterior motive. They have nothing to gain. And they answer honestly because when it’s their turn to ask for advice, they want an honest answer too. They reply openly because it’s an investment for them. When this happens at scale and the crowd collectively surfaces “the best”, incredible things happen.
So we’re sharing things with a more intimate group of people, but also relying on the motiveless masses to get truthful information.
What is very promising about BeReal is that it claims to be equally motiveless. BeReal is very clear that their platform won’t make you famous. Right now, there is no monetization on the platform, no infinite scroll, no goal of keeping you on there as long as they can to get as much advertising revenue as humanly possible. You can not “go viral”; there is no motive, no agenda, just people being real.
Now many social platforms have started out free - this is not uncommon. BeReal will monetize eventually - but they’ve also made it very clear, at least for now, that the monetization will not maliciously addict us to the app.
#3: The contradiction to “self-expression”.
The MOST interesting thing about BeReal to us? That it seems to contradict the entire principle backed by most of the marketing world that Gen Z looks for ways of self-expression - the core values and principles of Instagram, the root arguments around gaming and virtual fashion.
Gen Zer’s love self-expression, right? Instagram filters, virtual identities, buying in-game skins, building virtual worlds…right???
Perhaps. But it is clear that is also where the money lies - customization, personalization, virtual worlds with endless monetization possibilities.
But maybe BeReal is the reminder we needed to see. Because on one end, marketers call for virtual identities and personalization through direct to avatar commerce allowing us to be who we want to be.
But on the other, there is a fast and furious movement toward the idea of not creating who we want to be, but just showing who we are.
The former is a world built by capitalism, and the latter, an adless, incentiveless platform designed to let users be who they are.
The permanence of the platform, while dependent on the app’s ability to evolve, will speak volumes for the true, raw behaviors and preferences of a generation.
BeReal shields us from the created worlds of brands.
And the final question that will help us understand BeReal’s staying power:
3. Will this technology be able to adapt and evolve with culture?
For that, we’ll take a look next time :)