18 months of social downhill, top 100 executives, 5 events in 4 weeks

Combing through the archives tracking down how SEO and LinkedIn went downhill + events and communities I'm hitting

Author

Mario Peshev
May 14, 2025

It's been an eventful week - let's recap the macro implications first before we move onto the long-term predictions.

  1. US and China trade war pause - the turbulence for the broader commerce ecosystem (and all forms of manufacturing, branding, logistics tied to imports) has eased out after the weekend conversations

  2. USD climbing up together with the stock market, calming investors for a brief moment

  3. India/Pakistan halted military efforts for now - hopefully for good!

  4. Russia/Ukraine negotiations scheduled for Thursday - hoping to get closer to peace soon

Peace, stability, and predictability are paramount for global business trade, investments, recruitment, production, and innovation. While the power play is often favoring one side better than the other, the final outcome tends to be positive for all sides long-term.

Also, upcoming events I’ll be at:

top 100 executives chart

🏆️ Lastly, I’ve been nominated for one of the Top 100 Executives in Bulgaria - if you want to throw a vote in, you' can log in with Google/LinkedIn and look up “Марио Пешев” (it’s in Bulgarian so no harm if you want to take a pass here.)

Now - back to B2B GTM and the digital reality we’re observing today.

I've been reporting the slowdown of social and SEO on multiple occasions in my newsletter and social reports, including:

You can catch up on the full newsletter archive, but the reality is, this has been a problem for at least 18 months now that I’ve been tracking and reporting closely.

And today, it seems to be a recurring conversation across other active founders and entrepreneurs - including Justin Welsh, an influential figure for solopreneurs with over a million social followers and $7.5M in annual revenue from courses and content and other streams.

I reported the exodus on LinkedIn quoting Justin's recent newsletter, sparking a conversation with 200+ comments discussing the state of social. And while I'm neither targeting Justin as an ICP, nor his army of future solopreneurs and side hustles, I believe that this is one of the most active audiences on social networks, because:

  • they have a ton of free time looking for business and creating connections

  • they create content at large, hoping to bring business and create pods and test strategies

  • they don't have strong business momentum that keeps them busy at work

  • they don't have marketing teams to handle that full-time (and have to earn business themselves)

  • they use the "latest and greatest" strategies, which tends to include tons of templating, AI, and viral hooks

And looks like the reach of similar creators keeps going down - as the audience is no longer actively engaged.

Social was not designed for work - and here's why

Social networks are largely used for non-work reasons:

  1. Browsing content/research/learning new things/product reviews/talking with friends and relatives

  2. Ecommerce and shopping

  3. Keeping in touch with events, birthdays, travel photos by friends, local gatherings and community events

  4. News, social activities, promotions at events/bars

  5. Learning new skills or languages, browsing tutorials and YouTube videos

  6. Recaps from events, tabloid websites, random stories, memes, pranks

  7. Hobbies and interests

Think about all the teenagers browsing around, all the full-time office folks, the blue collar workers dumb scrolling and watching reels, the retired gentlemen looking for spare parts or construction projects in their gardens, or the 50-year-old stay-at-home moms with their kids leaving for college and looking for different ways to fill in their time (or young moms learning everything they can for raising a baby or a future toddler).

Among the myriad of reasons to use social or search, very few are tied to actual business transactions.

And when business is involved, there are two categories of business I define broadly:

  1. Professional transactions of high-ticket items and services

  2. Low-ticket infomercials, courses, freelancing/contracting services, Fiverr-type of deals, social media management, etc

The second category is closer to what Justin captures as an audience, together with most of Gary Vee's fans, and even Alex Hormozi and similar "popular creators". But outside of the vocal minority, the space is getting crowded fast, with disciples of these creators replicating the same playbook, now with AI and templates, and causing the web to go wild.

The first category had been successful on LinkedIn, or with paid funnels across Meta and Google SEM, but the diminishing returns over the past 2 years have been reported hundreds of times, with marketing budgets going down because of long CAC payback terms and the inability for businesses to reach profitability anytime soon.

This all would have been solvable with algorithms that match intent, prioritize valuable content, and keep people engaged. But with cluttered and viral feeds, in a tough economy, there's no wonder this has been going downhill for a while.

Add Google's introduction of AI Overviews, linking to their own search pages, and the Reddit deal forcing top search results from Reddit vs. creators paying for top content and managing content teams, only to get their data fed to AI bots with no clicks to their service pages.

Sounds familiar?

Closed gardens and events are on the rise

Before social networks gained popularity, we had forums and instant messengers like ICQ or MSN or Yahoo! online. And offline events and tradeshows.

In the late 2010s and over the pandemic, events were getting crowded and social was still delivering strong results for many. Forums weren't as lucrative when feeds delivered diverse and relevant information, from professionals moving their attention there.

Meanwhile, Google threatened to kill the 3rd party cookies, limiting advertisers efforts. Then, the AI era. Some algorithm kicks across top networks - like Meta killing organic reach for pages around 2016, Elon's takeover of X, hundreds of thousands of people getting their accounts banned for seemingly no reason (and no access to support), and other horror stories around the web.

This kept open source and "owning your data" top of mind for many - retaining WordPress's dominance as the leading CMS with 43.6% of the web - and people maintaining email lists or some closed communities at a small scale.

In 2025, we're 2 years in this mix-up of Google's HCU updates, AI content everywhere, inefficient algorithms, and a large influx of creators, freelancers, small agencies, and starter SaaS pitching everyone at large. This causes friction and clutters the inboxes of business professionals and executives, withdrawing from the social pool, delegating emails to assistants, and focusing on channels with higher signal-to-noise ratio.

Similar pitches are uncommon or rare at on-site events, and face time performs dramatically better compared to digital avatars. And AI avatars and deep fakes aren't helping today, either.

The social noise, mixed in with poor algorithm feeds, a high portion of people trying to sell you something, and limited access to professional cohorts - together with content stolen by AI algorithms - now results in thousands of professional creators and consultants moving to paid networks, email newsletters (or Substack/beehiiv), and Slack/Circle/School communities on different topics.

In other news, forums, mixed with 1:1 conversations, and offline events are, well, back.

Are social and organic search dying for good?

Social will still remain a channel where people can interact with people they know and follow. Right now, the feeds tend to prefer "other accounts" and feature tons of different creators with variable success. Users who enjoy the suggested content will keep hanging out, but many don't, and it's not necessarily impactful for social selling or generating revenue with the current algorithms out there.

The biggest pet peeve I have with social is that my own 1st level connections whom I speak with regularly, hop on calls, and DM with, don't see my posts at all. This isn't how social is supposed to work, and drastically reduces the efficiency or use (or the core purpose of the network).

Search will still remain useful, but even my agency gets a good number of leads from ChatGPT or other LLMs nowadays. Search is changing and no longer dominated by Google alone. Many use Perplexity for research or track multiple channels, including social, to source data.

Networks don't disappear overnight, but their appeal and use decrease every single week.

What should executives do in this environment?

Veteran executives are already spending the majority of their time "on" the business, running successful organizations, managing teams, hiring, restructuring for operational efficiency. They attend all key tradeshows and events, meet with partners, participate in strategic mastermind groups, country clubs, etc. Keynote at essential events and develop omnichannel campaigns.

This is a valid playbook that could be adopted at a smaller scale, replicating the event cadence, stronger partnership motions, and seeking new ecosystems and communities for professional networking. This could be Forbes Councils, Visage, EO and other large groups, or a local/industry-specific ones.

On the digital front - especially where thought leadership or creator efforts are concerned - I recommend first-party data (newsletters, closed groups and communities) and maintaining a CRM for 1:1 relationships - which could be a Rolodex with phone numbers, an email list with important emails, or an app like Texts that consolidates multiple networks with your DMs (which I use myself).

I follow the same paradigm with my Strategic Circle community for SMBs (to stay on top of the broader vendor economy), CEO Hangout for executive networking and business conversations, and my email lists (like this one). 

And building a community is not easy - while I highly appreciate the positive testimonials I get from some members occasionally, I’ve also broken down the journey and set of iterations to get here. Props to Stan for the positive callout in this one 🙏 

In addition to the core list, this is supplemented with omnichannel cross-posting across multiple networks and paid ads on LinkedIn, Meta, and Google/Bing. 

I pay for premium communities and join strategic masterminds when I find a great cohort worth building relationships with. And I pay for access, courses, or memberships for investors, hold co owners, and entrepreneurs I want to warm up to and develop long-term relationships with. Also, I invest in businesses that open up additional opportunities or connections (in addition to the revenue gains).

And I’ve relocated a portion of my time on events and 1:1 conversations with enterprise partners from Amazon, Meta, Google, LinkedIn, Walmart, and many others. Keeping in touch with integration leaders reveals some gaps that are not obvious on the outside, leading to additional specialization and certification for my team and unlocking new service lines.

This omnichannel approach takes time, but it isn’t complicated to follow with the right planning. It requires a methodical approach, a content calendar, some evergreen campaigns, and a few ad sets running with caps across all networks. A couple of full-time people can manage most of that, and I supplement that with additional partners on email management or programmatic SEO, video editing for YouTube, and content/ad creatives.

Social networks and SEO can still bring some revenue, but it’s a hit and miss game and not a predictable and scalable approach. Scaling a business isn’t about wishful thinking. Running the math on sponsoring or speaking at industry events or a paid funnel + remarketing yields more predictable results and makes for better long-term planning and revenue forecasting.

Mario

My Take

💼 Keynote at the Ecommerce and Retail Summit. Pleased to share my predictions for the next 20 years at the renowned Capital Ecommerce event 🙏 

📰 MarketingProfs and B2B forecasts. Partnerships and collaborations are instrumental, and I shared my top 3 predictions for MarketingProfs. This historical media has incorporated publishing, though leadership, social influence, podcasts, events, webinars, and everything you can imagine on the digital front.

👪️ The ultimate guide to channel partnerships. Since I touch on events, collaborations, 1:1s, and partnerships a lot lately, here’s one of my evergreen guides on finding and cultivating successful partnerships.

💻️ Some roles you can’t replace with AI. Despite the weaker job market and ongoing job cuts for efficiency reasons, I bet some roles are here to stay.

✍️ How corporations can screw the career growth system. The larger the org, the easier to let middle-level management hack the system. It’s not uncommon in corporations. Worth considering at scale as even 20-person teams are not immune to that if they miss the right processes.

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Industry News for B2B Leaders

📰 Markets rally on trade optimism. U.S. stocks and the dollar jumped following renewed U.S.-China tariff talks, boosting investor confidence. This shift creates a good opportunity to put funds into trade-related sectors as optimism grows for a resolution.

📰 Musk looks at tunnel cost savings. Elon Musk’s Boring Company is discussing with the U.S. government the possibility of reducing costs on the $8.5B Amtrak tunnel project. Find out how this move might change the way federal infrastructure projects are awarded in the latest federal-private sector collaboration.

📰 Investors take note: DEI rollbacks at SAP. SAP is reducing its U.S. diversity goals and merging DEI with CSR efforts as political pressures shift. Keep up with how changing regulations are impacting global workforce plans in this breakdown of SAP’s policy pivot.

📰 AI’s next plateau? A recent analysis suggests that progress in advanced reasoning models like OpenAI’s o3 could face a plateau within a year. Get the details on what this means for compute investment plans in this TechCrunch deep dive.

📰 Scrutiny hits Fintech’s fast lane. Rapidly growing startup Ramp faces a congressional probe over possible favoritism towards a $25M federal contract. With politics and timing raising eyebrows, investors should stay alert as regulatory hurdles intersect with fintech's momentum.

📰 Backing vision with structure. Mercury CEO Immad Akhund is transforming his successful angel investing history into a formal $26M fund focused on startups operating in $10B+ markets. Find out how this step refines his focus on supporting high-impact founders with targeted, early-stage funding.

📰 Investor risk alert: Elevance under fire. A recent class action lawsuit alleges Elevance Health misled investors about Medicaid cost trends, causing its stock to drop more than 16% after earnings fell short. Read the full story on the shareholder claims and how it might impact institutional stakeholders.

📰 Backing the agents of data engineering. With market predictions reaching $66.7B by 2034, TensorStax is shaping the future of AI-powered data workflows. Find out how its deterministic AI platform addresses the rigidity issues in data engineering on a large scale.

M&A Opportunities

Let’s see the latest offers from Flippa. Don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter for daily/weekly/monthly offers like these.

Vegetarian Weight Loss Blog: Established digital brand offering vegetarian recipes, weight-loss meal plan subscriptions, a mobile app, and strong YouTube/email following.
Annual profit is $63,587 with over 230K monthly page views. Listed for $155,421

Profitable Digital Product & Newsletter Business: Evergreen PLR product library offering customizable planners, workbooks, and printables to a loyal subscriber base. Available for $160,000

8-Year Academic Support Business for Adult Learners: Personalized academic help platform offering essay writing, research, and time management support for adult students. Listed for $195,000

Established Dining Product Brand: Ecommerce business selling hot stone dining products to restaurants, retailers, and DTC consumers. Available at $650,000

High-Profit iOS App in Digital Wellness: App with 50K+ downloads aimed at reducing digital distractions. Monetized via one-time fee, primed for scale. Listed for $664,000.

Large Wellness Content Platform | 97% Profit Margin: High-authority wellness blog offering product reviews, data-driven insights, and SEO-rich content (DA 51). Priced at $1,550,000

Need My Help?

Keeping myself busy - here are the main projects I focus on:

🌐 Scaling enterprises on top of WordPress? DevriX provides martech retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo and we manage high-traffic platforms (hundreds of millions of monthly views), B2B SaaS apps, partnership management solutions, supporting $10M - $250M businesses with scalability, custom funnels, CRO, big data augmentation, AI-driven processes, HubSpot workflows, programmatic SEO - and everything a modern business requires in digital in 2025.

🚀 Work 1:1 with me? At Growth Shuttle, I run two popular plans: Async Advisory ($1,800/mo) for $3M - $30M founders and executive teams and the smaller Strategic Growth Circle ($497/mo) for $100K - $500K entrepreneurs, agency founders, scale ups.

🌠 Feature your business across the community? The B2B Ecosystem includes this newsletter and 40 other digital properties (directories, newsletters, blogs, SaaS, and social accounts) targeting B2B executives. See how your business can benefit.

📈 International founder looking into US LLCs? Check out doola and their “Business in a Box” model. Suitable for both foreigners and US citizens and both for residents and non-residents.

📊 Into digital M&A? I work closely with Flippa’s marketplace. They offer a vast variety of online businesses for any buyer’s interest. Or if you’re ready for an exit, Flippa provides the tools to list your business and close the deal.

💼 Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink.