Content Channels not to Miss Out On

 – Immersive Stories

Social media isn't just those networks that we think of, it's all those platforms, channels, underground venues and places people actually visit that have tangible traffic. Those will all have digital marketing opportunities if you are smart. Always keep your eye on the top 500 on Alexa. If you are B2B you will want to try even harder to find your niche and those platforms best suited to your industry. 

 “A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”

Amusing how diversified social media has become, and not just social media, but online communication in general. When Chat apps (SMS) are becoming potential marketing venues, you know mobile is pushing the boundaries.

While many of us in social media have a habit to stick with the tried and true, that’s not very recommended anymore. It’s not easy to differentiate yourself out of brands on platforms with hundreds of millions of people on it. There is the population, but not the traction, as the true daily engagement of those channels has declined. People are on them, but not truly “there”, if that makes sense?

While baby boomers are still baffled by elementary things like twitter, facebook and LinkedIn, Millennials are hard pressed to have experience in the 20-30 different mainstream channels, apps, discussion forums, blog types and video hosting sites. Not to mention social media management platforms, online dating apps and other hybrids of social media.

While people seem to think having a lot of likes on Facebook is important, let us not forget it’s actual engagement, human interaction and conversions we are after. Lazy companies will go the Paid blast to x target that showed interest in similar products, which nearly amounts to cheating. This may be sufficient for your run of the mill ecommerce startup. Sustainable growth however, will mean smart storytelling, authentic branding and diversified omnichannel approach with user-generated campaigns and quality copy with a high level content marketing plan in place.

Smart branding also means going where your target audience is going and being early-adopters on those channels. This article may give you some ideas, through it’s just a skeleton.

 

SMS

SMS or short messaging service apps are the new place to be for mobile marketing. How will this work?

Oh yeah, so what’s that again? Kik, WhatsApp, iMessage, Line (my personal favourite), Kakao talk, Viber, WeChat. These are becoming so mainstream, some of them are turning into hybrid social media platforms.

 

Millennial Discussion Forums

Here we must lump in Reddit, Voat, Quora, Snapzu, Papaly, Digg & Slashdot. Do not be fooled, these are very smart info channels.

 

Snapchat

I’m just amazed at the number of Instagram profiles that cite their Snapchat ID, I mean like 60% type figures. I’ve heard Snapchat mentioned on News outlets and it’s clear if you want to reach GenZ, you have to be on here. You'll notice a lot more articles here on pulse on Snapchat, what reflects that it is indeed trending as a new one to hop on, especially if your market has anything to do with young people. 

Snapchat, after Instagram, is the hottest thing around for marketers adopting new social media outlets in the B2C domain.

 

Tumblr

Do not underestimate this kiddie blog channel, it’s pretty mainstream among you know who. It has hybrid appeal to me.

 

Vine

Give  me a video that’s more viewed than an Instagram video, and I’ll show you a Vine micro video.

 

Last fm.

I noticed Klout added this to their great list of “networks”. Got to be a reason!

 

Yammer

How cool is the B2B potential of this eh?

 

 

Instagram

Expect it to overtake Pinterest in raw numbers. While social commerce is still more viable on Pinterest and its more artistic and functional scrapbooking emphasis, who can beat glamour and glitz of Instagram for the slightly younger crowd? That’s where I’d put my vacation photos, you can just skip Facebook at this point.

Instagram hashtags is also way more cool than Twitter’s. I can brand my own hashtag on Instagram, and it can immortalize my efforts, that’s something I can live with. A hashtag on twitter is nearly invisible if you are into something that’s not totally mainstream or newsworthy trending.

What’s scary about high engagement? Check this out, Fully 59% of Instagram users, 27% of Pinterest users and 22% of LinkedIn users visit these platforms daily.

 

China & Asia

Don’t forget China’s social media impact on the future. Smart marketing means crossing boundaries.

Tencent, Weibo and Sina Weibo (Twitter-like)

Renren, QZone, Pengyou and Kaixin (Facebook-like)

Identify KOLs, key opinion leaders. Apparently they are powerful emissaries there as you would say influencers and brand advocates are here. Do you like the different vocabulary?

 

SMAPs

Social media analytics platforms and dashboards are all the rage. Yep there are dozens here. What these do is not only provide analytics but better targeting for campaigns.

Unmetric, Pixlee, Kenshoo Social, Rival IQ, Crowdbooster, Moz Pro, etc.

 

 

SMMPs

Social media management platforms are also a dime a dozen. Some of my favourites include:

Buffer, Hootsuite, Sproutsocial & Google Analytics.

SocialPilot

Social Mention

Reachpod

Followerwonk (Twitter)

ViralWoot (Pinterest)

Iconosquare (Instagram)

SumAll

HowSociable

TweetDeck (Twitter)

Facebook Insights (App)

Tailwind (Pinterest)

Oktopost (paid)

 

 

Referral & Anonymous & Location Based Platforms

Foursquare, Yelp, Urbanspoon (app), Trip Advisor, Judy’s book, City Search, Frilp, Whisper and literally so many more.

Q&A

Quora, Yahoo Answers, Stack Overflow, Answers.com, etc. 

 

Online Dating Apps

Tinder (the modern Hot or Not), Hinge, The Catch, Fuzzy Banter, Coffee Meets Bagel, Loveflutter, 3nder,  Grindr, Happn, Double, Bristlr, Voice Candy, Ten, Hitch, How about We, OkCupid, Down, Bumble, Siren, The Grade, The Dating Ring, Tangle.

Summary: A surprising amount of innovation and creativity in the above list of dating apps, many taking very quirky ways of doing it. You’ll find women-centric apps is the new cool for dating. Makes sense, after all, women are the choosers we they not!

 

Photo Storage & Sharing

Smugmug, Flickr, Zenfolio, Picasa, Snapfish, Bluemelon, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Deviantart.  

 

 Live Streaming 

Last but not least, some people are starting to swear by these: 

Periscope, Mentions (Facebook), Meekrat, Hang w/, Ustream, Bambuser, Blab , Stringwire & Camio. 

 

Concepts

 

Some of the concepts and current events in contemporary social media include:  

 

• SaaS toosl for social media
• Application proliferation, increased competition in all domains
• Ecommercee coming to social media to minimize taps and increase conversion (scommerce likely to do well on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram)
• Rise of visual and video content on mobile
• Disappearing auto-destruct posts (nothing is really private)
• Anonymous posting
• Anti-bullying apps like Kwirk. 
• Sites without advertizing or more privacy centric
• Unbiased social reviews of niche service (e.g. hotels or restaurants)
• Micro Videos
• Free SMS channels
• Location based targeting
• Advent of User generated Content Campaigns
• Content marketing that targets video blogging, influencers and Vlogs, i.e. influencer marketing.
• Apps that target niches and reflect reality (.e.g women having more control on dating apps)

 

Not on Quora? Check out some of the questions I've asked here. 

 Michael Spencer enjoys writing about futurism as well as digital marketing, gamification, IoT, user generated content, startups and next-gen technology applications in business. Follow me on Instagram here.