The Future of Social Media

Nowadays social media marketing has become incredibly important for businesses all sizes. One reason behind marketers’ attention to social media is technology: new platforms, networks and apps. Another reason are people, who use social media to create, publish and share content. The same people are consumers, who share their thoughts about their experiences and are looking for new ones. So what does the future hold for the world of social media?

Is Facebook, the social media front-runner, on its way to monopolization? Facebook has close to 2 bln active monthly users. Facebook has also acquired a major contender, Instagram and one of the most popular messaging apps – WatsApp. Together, these three platforms make huge “auditorium”. No wonder social media marketers want to reach potential customers with their help. Unfortunately, Facebook organic reach continuing to drop for brands and corporations. Facebook claims it is trying to make news feed better for an average user by prioritizing individual users’ content. Eventually, businesses will have to pay more for visibility and reach. Alternatively, companies will need to think about their social accounts and change they way they share content and communicate with consumers.

Video and mobile is another hot topic. Nicola Mendelson, vice president for Facebook in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the social network would definitely be mobile and would probably be all video. First, mobile traffic exceeds desktop traffic and there is nothing new about the importance of mobile friendliness of the website or having apps. Second, real-time video is an area many social platforms exploring: Facebook Live, Snapchat etc. It’s good to stay on track of technology progress.

Social Media automation tools and platform features most probably will grow to help businesses with prospecting, delivering content to the right customers at the right time and engagement. Social chat bots can help provide basic customer service and are getting a lot of attention these days. It’s important to keep in mind that not all customers might like interaction with a bot pretending to be a human, so it’s necessary to think through the strategy.

The importance of understanding dark social is another hot topic. Dark social continues to rise to prominence, because people don’t want to share everything publicly. Instead, they are choosing to share privately with their closest friends and family members via peer-to-peer channels. It’s important to understand dark social and where it is contributing.

Lessons for Others

There are lots of predictions for social media published online, some of them were highlighted in this post. It is exciting and challenging time for social media marketers to decide what to focus on. However, it is important to think about consumers first, after all they are the ones using social media and deciding whether to engage with your social media marketing product or not.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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