Company Name: Champion Boxing Club
Industry: Fitness, Nutrition, Physical fitness
Contact: John Melich
Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook in his Harvard dorm room on Feb. 4, 2004, since than we’ve seen social media evolve drastically. It has empowered individuals to voice their opinions and concerns and share content with the public on their mobile devices in ways no one could have imagined. This has increasingly changed the way businesses around the world operate and communicate.
There is no doubt, the power of social media is exponential. Today there are 1.3 billion active Facebook users, with 82 percent of them coming from outside the U.S. and Canada. Twitter boasts 270 million active users that send 500 million tweets per day. And each day, 4 billion videos are viewed on YouTube (that’s 46,296 per second) and 60 million photos are uploaded on Instagram.
Facebook went public in 2012. At the time, it was the biggest in technology and Internet history, with a peak market capitalization of more than $104 million. Afterwards it had gone up to $206.4 billion. Looking at findings from various companies, it seems the Facebook is on the decline. It has been suggested that around 34% of Facebook users say the time they spend on the site has decreased over the past year with only 3% saying they will spend more time on the site in the coming year.
However despite Facebook continuing to decline, social media overall, will continue to rise. Social Media usage is up 38% over the previous year and is likely to increase to 50% by the end of 2013. The increase in social activity is mostly down to smart phone users and we all know the mobile market is booming.
Social media is a way of successfully building a brand. Without a direction in the form of a social media strategy, a business will suffer online.
When looking to the future of Social Media, you will need to consider the following:
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Tribes – Humans are social by nature, despite the several years spent relying on mass marketing. we will be using social media as a way to have conversations and build a communities.
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Relevancy – Something very important and crucial to social media is, how relevant is the information you are sharing.
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SoLoMo – We are in a new era, where being Social, are an important part of being on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
Nobody really knows where the future of social media is going, it is really up to us. Social media has been going through major changes in the past year. Facebook launched video ads, Twitter filed for IPO, and Snapchat threatens to change the landscape as the next big thing in social media. As more companies begin to leverage social media for personalized, real-time marketing initiatives, it’s imperative to stay ahead of the game and identify future trends in this space.
Here are opinions from entrepreneurs and experts how they think social media will change in the future:
Dan Thornton, Managing Director at The Way of the Web Ltd :
“Social Media will continue to grow as a sales and customer service tool, although the impact on marketing may become less as established social networks make changes to encourage paid promotion. At the same time, small businesses will need to be quicker to experiment and embrace new platforms to make an impact.”
Jon Smith, e-Marketing Specialist at Insight UK :
“I think everyone is finally admit that social media has to be a part of their marketing strategy, but I think 2014 will bring a real focus on ROI. There is still little evidence to suggest that social media contributes to revenue and profit and I think 2014 will be about fine tuning social media so you can measure the impact on the bottom line.”
Russell Davies, Director at Lobster Digital Marketing
“Native Twitter & Facebook apps will struggle against combined IM apps as users look for more integrated communication.”
“Twitter will look to dominate the second screen market with more partnerships with popular shows.”
“Brands will combine their social media marketing with their print and broadcast advertising and budgets for both will increase.”
“Small businesses who don’t ‘get’ social media will fall even further behind than those that do, but will be able to catch up quickly if they embrace it.”
Talya Shoup, Marketing Manager at Glispa:
“I predict that social media will be driven very strongly by mobile in 2014 – brands will continue to shift from web-based promotions and marketing to mobile. Also, customer service will continue to expand across social media, with customer service requests being made more and more via company Facebook pages, for example, than corporate email accounts or contact forms on websites.”
Angela Hadl, Owner and Marketing Consultant at Dive Mktg :
“I believe that social media will become more intelligent, meaning that there will be more integrative tools that will streamline the posting and monitoring of social media for business. With these tools, reports will be more comprehensive and easy to interpret. This will help eliminate confusion regarding the messaging and goals among the sales & marketing departments (which we know are sworn enemies).”
Vin Ferrer, Social Media Strategist at Graphic D-Signs, Inc. :
“With 90% of businesses already utilizing content marketing tactics, social media is only going to keep growing as it becomes the most cost-effective means of reaching consumers. Small businesses will be less inclined to seek out bigger advertising companies and opt to work with smaller content marketing agencies that can better understand and interpret their brand in a more personal way. The commerce of tomorrow is going to be laden with the personal touch, now more than ever, as automated responses & call centers slowly start to dwindle away. Social media will be the key to getting the greatest ROI in the long-term, and those companies who have already started in 2013 will start seeing the fruits of their labors in 2014.”
Miki Segal, CMO of JMAC Supply:
“I have one bold prediction for 2014 – At least one Superbowl advertiser’s call to action (during their commercial) will be: Add us as a friend on Snapchat.”
“Snapchat is growing by leaps and bounds, and many people have begun to recognize its enormous advertising potential. On TV commercials, advertisers have been asking viewers to “like” them on Facebook, follow them on twitter, and join the conversation with a hashtag. But asking to be added on Snapchat is a strategy that has yet to be embraced in TV commercial format. But that will change…and soon.”
Kaysha Kalkofen and JoAnna Dettmann, Co-founders of tSunela “
“Facebook-from Content Creation to Content Consumption: In 2013, we saw an outstanding growth of users on social media. From 2011, Twitter has grown from 200M users to 500M users, Facebook from 600M to 800M and LinkedIn from 119M to 238M! In 2014, we predict that Facebook will be used more as a resource for information; its utility will increase for brands and decrease for individuals. People will use Facebook to research organizations, products, and services. As such, full optimization of your business’s Facebook page description and inclusion of “Like” and “Share” buttons on your business’s website will become even more important.”
Hillary Berman, Small Business Fanatic and Founder of Popcorn & Ice Cream:
“In 2014, businesses will have to pay for visibility on Facebook. With the platform’s ever-changing algorithm and businesses’ focus on creating content, showing up in news feeds is increasing challenging. Businesses – particularly small businesses with smaller followings – will need to pay for play for Facebook to deliver the eyeballs and engagement they desire. Marketers need to truly engage with customers and prospective buyers to cut through the massive clutter in in boxes and news feeds.”
Sarah Van Elzen, Director of Social Media at Hanson Dodge Creative :
“Social media will continue to integrate into corporate culture and will help drive collaboration between silos (marketing, sales, customer service). Client/agency relationships will continue to evolve and much emphasis will be put on driving business value. Social media will always remain a channel for relationship management, driving awareness and engagement but programs that drive to purchase or absorb customer service costs will prevail.”
“Channel diversity will continue to grow. New platforms will launch and become relevant. Facebook will continue to grow towards the “older audience” unless they get serious about privacy and segmentation initiatives.”
“Social metrics and analytics companies will continue to fight for market share and pricing structures may change to bring in more clients. Social conversation trends will be folded into “big data” analytics and companies will utilize these trends for predictions and product development.”
Frank Riolo, Manager of Corporate Communications at Conversation:
“Expect more growth in visual social media. Platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Vine only became more popular over the past year. After all, many Facebook users are only on it to view friend’s photos. Visual platforms also offer more privacy than Facebook.”
“Also, Twitter will see more growth thanks to the companies’ willingness to experiment with new technologies that often appeal to advertisers.”
Seshu Madabushi, Founder & CEO of mKonnekt :
“Customers would be looking for more personalized news, offerings based on their social profiles and activities and this is one area, which we [at mKonnekt] think would expand (given the kind of technological advances we are seeing). Another area would be the explosion of video based social media channels like Vine and others – we have seen the explosion of Instagram and Pinterest from selfie pictures and we will be seeing the same explosion with short burst videos. In terms of sales & marketing – businesses have to customize the message/offerings to suit the customer needs rather than just putting out an offer out there with the hope that it might fit some section of the customers. Another challenge would be how to embed the marketing message within the short burst videos that we hope to see in 2014.”
Glenn Gow, CEO of Crimson Marketing:
“Getting results will dominate social marketing. This will mean turning “engagement” into lead generation and an investment in social selling. B2B companies will invest 80% of their effort on blogging, LinkedIn and Twitter, and largely ignore Facebook, G+, Pinterest and others. Why? Because that’s where they will see results.”
Dr. Evan D. Escobedo, Practice Principal of Social Business at Zunesis, Inc.
“2014 will be all about using social media for competitive advantage. Many organizations whether large or small have begun to use social media to better market their brand and engage with their customers. They are using tools to listen to relevant conversations across the social wire. Now that organizations have access to this wealth of data they will realize that social media marketing is not just about monitoring and managing your social media channels but also about analyzing all of this data and converting it to actionable insight to drive their business forward.”
Simon Tam, Director of Marketing for The Slants:
“In 2014, you’re going to see auto-playing video ads on multiple social media sites: probably Facebook mobile, maybe Vine. It’s going to give businesses more options to create short, high-impact, ads while giving social sites more revenue. Businesses will need to think more creatively, in shorter bursts.”
Jayme Pretzloff, Online Marketing Director at Wixon Jewelers :
“The social media landscape in the future will continue to evolve into a segmented multi-platform world, making it continually difficult for marketers to ensure they are reaching their target audience in the right place. There will be an increased importance on taking a faceted approach to social media marketing as a whole by connecting all of these channels to have a consistent message. Leveraging multiple platforms in the correct way will allow for a significant boost in brand awareness, share of voice and even more touch points with your potential brand advocates.”
Jean L. Serio, Social Media Marketing Growth Strategist
“2014 will see companies having employees trained in providing social networking content. Content is a top marketing strategy and businesses will wisely enlist their most knowledgeable branders – employees – to help present it. This will include formal training in content creation, development and engagement; posting, commenting, blogging, for example. Employees will also be allowed to discover and build sharable company information. Encouraging greater responsibility and personal involvement; a more vested interest in the company.”
“For small businesses, online video is an effective marketing tool because it doesn’t break the bank – videos can be shot on the cheap and promoted on YouTube for peanuts compared to other traditional or digital media. channels.”
This attached audio file is prepared by a team member of Champion Boxing Club Staff who will help the family stay up to date with social media. This is what Champion Boxing club will be doing in the future with social media:
Here is a video interview of one of the team members at Champion Boxing Club educating youth about drug addiction. In the future we will be educating youth groups at the gym about drugs and about bullying increasing awareness for todays youth. Champion Boxing Club reaches out to youth in so many ways not just through boxing.
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Lessons for Others:
In the future employees are going to take a more vested interest in the companies they work for by getting involved in social media marketing.
Companies starting out will save money on marketing in the future using social media such as online videos, You Tube, Twitter and Facebook and Snapchat.
Businesses are going to be required to stimulate more creativity using short audio playing ads using social media in the future.
There will be more growth in visual social media such as Instagram, Snapchat and Vine as well as Twitter who is becoming more willing to take on new technologies.
In the futures people will be spending 80% of their time on Twitter, Linked In, and blogging getting more immediate results.
Brands are going to shift from web-based promotions to mobile based promotions.
Web References:
Social media is becoming more intelligent, utilizing more sophisticated tools to monitor sites.
Submitted By: Jeanette Melich, University of Waterloo
If you have any questions about this article please contact Jeanette Melich, jeanettecatherine74@gmail.com
If you have any concerns about the content of this article please contact Peter Carr at the university of Waterloo.