Future of Social Media
There are 3.5 billion social media users all over the world, and this number is growing rapidly. Brands have been quick to make use of the opportunity to advertise their products to social media users using targeted ads. However, there is a growing concern about data privacy among users. This has led to users sharing content through other mediums some as private messages and a decline in the sharing of personal posts. Additionally, most users log in just to view funny content and share it with friends. AR and VR have also revolutionized the social media experience for both brands and users. Is the future of Social Media more secure? Read on to find out.
The Prevalence of Dark Social
Source: Cognilytica
Dark social is when users share content through private mediums such as messaging apps and email. There will be an increase in the number of people using dark social as privacy concerns are on the rise. 84% of content sharing from websites now occurs via private channels also called Dark Social channels. It is expected to increase more over the next few years. Brands will be expected to find and incorporate methods to build users’ trust. This starts with how they engage with audiences. Social media users are becoming much more cautious about how their private data is being handled. Due to this, the future of social media will see an increase in users choosing Dark social.
More Video
Video consumption through social media channels is on the rise. It’s reported that people look at videos 5 times longer than other content like text and images, on both Facebook and Instagram. A video Tweet is 6x more likely to be retweeted than a regular Tweet. Because of this, we can expect to see more videos all over social media in the future. This also includes live videos. Brands will also join the bandwagon and switch to marketing strategies that involve more video on social media.
More Memes and Less Personal Posts
Source: Oberlo
It can be expected in the future that there will be more memes and funny content on Social Media Channels. Facebook reported that there was a 21% drop in personal posts. Social media users are sharing less personal information on social media and prefer to share other content such as an interesting video or a funny meme with their friends. Over three billion people use social media, and at least 60% of them use it to view funny posts.
Typing will become Obsolete
It is expected that more than 50% of online searches will be done through image and voice instead of typing. Social networking may see the act of typing becoming obsolete in the future. Mainly due to the ever-increasing prevalence of voice and image search as well as audio or voice messages. With the growth of social media sites such as Instagram and Snapchat, visual-based content has dramatically increased in use.
AR and VR’s Influence
In the next few years, more realistic implementations of Virtual Reality (V.R.) and Augmented Reality (A.R.) will be implemented in the field of marketing. The same will apply to social media networks. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, Bitmoji, WeChat, and QQ Social Media applications will use A.R. To maximize sales from ads in the near future.
Social Commerce will Become Mainstream
Social commerce is well on its way to being a mainstream retail outlet that is on par with other channels such as blogs and offline stores. With more and more social networks adding pro-selling features like Instagram Storefronts, this trend will further grow. These will be leveraged by advertisers and their sales strategies will integrate social commerce.
No More Fake Reviews
Source: Visually
Customers of all age groups will adopt social media as the main means of engaging with companies and brands. Forget about call centers and emails, consumers of the future want to connect with companies immediately and publicly. In response, social media platforms will have to step up their game with resources that can help companies build their key customer support channel for social platforms like fake reviews checking and more. For several organizations, this trend would be a huge obstacle, as any examples of bad customer service would be out there for the world to see. AI is the future of social media marketing, and with it, you can have consumer interactions. On Facebook Messenger, chatbots powered by AI are used by many brands to advertise their products and even resolve the problems of customers.
Likes won’t Mean Much
With the number of Social Media Influencers increasing, brands mainly focus on the number of followers and the number of likes an account has before choosing to collaborate with them. However, there are illegal ways to “buy” followers and increase likes. Brands pay large amounts of money to influencers to promote their brands. Influencer marketing has become so popular that companies are moving away from other marketing methods like advertising. So the prospect of Instagram eliminating the like option for posts is a big change. Recently, Instagram tested this proposal in a beta test and may implement this move globally soon. The logic provided is that the platform does not want to promote that the social worth of a person is based on likes. Waiting for such affirmation is counterproductive to the mental health of people. For social media marketing, a situation where Instagram effectively eliminates likes and gets more advertisers to switch to their advertisement feature might be revolutionary. Not only would this affect influencers, but other social media platforms will also be encouraged to make such moves.
Conclusion
A significant aspect of any marketing campaign is social media. Trends such as live streaming, AR, and chatbots powered by AI are here to shift the future of marketing in social media. However, being as open as possible and building trust with customers is crucial. With the rising popularity of messaging apps and Dark Social, marketing on them may be a possibility in the near future.