The trends in social media are changing the entire landscape, pushing brands to rethink their strategies and tactics. New questions are coming up and the answers are subject to trial and error as the social world moves into untested waters.
New Metrics
We are moving into a world without likes. With Facebook and Instagram toying with the possibility of hiding likes, the marketing world is losing one metric that it has followed for so long. The question that we need to ask is what is next? How is the reporting landscape going to change, the possibility of a bigger change in social metrics is there and we need to anticipate it. This is where we need to look into a broader spectrum of KPIs and reading into their meaning.
Relationships
Privacy and Community are two hot topics that are luckily to shape the social media landscape this year and beyond. Building relationships with customers are becoming more essential and relationships are built on trust. What are you doing as a brand to gain your customers’ trust, how are you shaping your privacy policies to meet their requirements? These are questions that need to be answered within this year.
Point of Interest
With social ads advancing and advertisers becoming more aggressive assuming they are giving their audience what they need in terms of information. Most brands did not yet grasp the idea that their audience don’t want ads. Audience want content that interest them, so instead of rolling ads during an interesting video, become the video they are interested in. Saying that there have been some efforts in this direction, however with the lack of a proper content strategy these efforts did not translate into value.
Fading Algorithm
Another trend that we see fading away is algorithms, with brands and marketers finding it almost impossible to control algorithms and turning it into their favor, a new trend that is more effective is coming to life, advocacy. And with this trend brands should start to understand what is driving customer advocacy and how to grow it. We should also look into other forms of advocacy, such as employee advocacy.
Experience
Experience is becoming ever more important with VR and AR gaining ground and engagements. It is not only about using these technologies in creative ways, but asking how can we generate value to our customers using these technologies?
In light of these trends and others, social media will continue to be a valuable tool for brands, but in the next decade we should expect a new approach focusing on driving value to our audience rather than driving them through a marketing funnel.
Content Marketing Boutique 