Our Social Media and Marketing Strategist, Liesel Olson, often writes about social media and marketing on her blog. We liked this one and thought you would, too, so we’re sharing it! Enjoy!
A few weeks ago, I wrote about attending the PR+SM Summit in Milwaukee. I’ve thought a lot about what I learned there, and one presentation sticks out to me: The Future of Social Media by Augie Ray (@augieray). The future of social media, according to Augie (and I agree), can be determined by two things: looking at the past and looking at real world communication.
Looking at the past, we learn that the idea of social media is not new; it’s just communicated differently now. As we look through history, we see that people regularly adopt new technologies as a way to share what’s going on (think of cave paintings, family bibles updated with marriages, births and deaths, or chain letters, for example). It’s our human nature to communicate our experiences with our fellow humans, so we will naturally create and adopt new methods of communication. But not all methods survive; some die, some evolve. The ones that are successful don’t focus on the technological aspects of the platform, but rather what the users need.
The other thing we look at is how people communicate in the real world. I tell my friends that I had an AMAZING time on vacation, that I had a GREAT workout at the gym, or that I LOVE my car. But I don’t have that option on social media sites (Facebook, I’m talking to you) because I only have the option to ‘like’ something. As Augie points out, ‘likes’ are for four year olds. I agree. Give me options! I also dislike things!
As a marketer, this is really important to me. I need to know the negative sentiment just as much as the positive sentiment – otherwise how am I going to know if there is something wrong with my product/service? I think people understand that social media sites, including Facebook, will continue to make changes and evolve (and let’s face it – they have to in order to survive). I’m hoping some of those changes will include more variety in my options to reply.
So What About the Future?
Augie suggests that the Sharing Economy will grow, that transparency will spread and increase in importance, and that the future is serendipitous, meaning that your devices will be able to predict what you want (creepy, but cool at the same time, no?). I can’t say I disagree with him, especially when it comes to transparency.
I’d also like to add the following (some of these are already happening, but I don’t think they are going away):
- smaller, more intimate networks will develop
- we’ll see more creativity in social media marketing (including more online/offline integrated campaigns)
- companies will realize that ‘likes’ aren’t everything and really focus on building relationships/customer service
- a push towards people meeting in real life instead of simply connecting online
Augie’s presentation really made me think. Maybe it will do the same for you. You can see the entire presentation here – Enjoy!
If you want to read more about marketing and social media, you can find Liesel’s blog here.