What Is the Future of Social Media?
If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me where I think social media is heading, I could quit my day job. All jokes aside, it is hard to judge the direction social media is going. I cannot guarantee anything, but while I write this, something within social media is changing.
This constant change can scare many people, as it is hard to expect the unexpected, but in my line of work, it is a thrill. That being said, the future of social media is going back to its original intention — to connect people.
What has happened in social media?
In the past couple of years, we have let social media dictate what we buy, who we like, and what relationships we build. The purpose of social media was to bring the world together, and as most of us know, this has not been the case. But I believe that we are coming into an age social media where the focus is more on communication. Messenger apps like Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and so many more are paving the way to making it easier for us to communicate — and not about the consumer buying products. A consumer wants to have the most seamless buying process, and brands can do that by strictly communicating with them… NOT by trying to sell to them. [/vc_column_text]
“I call this the millennial social because we want to show and protect our customer more than ever before. We are coming into an age where social media users are much smarter about advertising and their experience than they used to be.”
What should you be doing?
For brands, this is where a new digital strategy needs to come into play. The focus is not on selling anymore: It is about engaging with your consumer to make them love you and your brand so much that all they do is talk about you. On websites, chatbots will become more prevalent. We will start to notice that the user experience is about us as a brand communicating and making sure they feel appreciated instead of telling them what they should buy.
It is easier to say this than it is to do it. So think about questions to ask your customer to make them feel loved. I call this the millennial social because we want to show and protect our customer more than ever before. We are coming into an age where social media users are much smarter about advertising and their experience than they used to be. They want to get things for free and be spoken to like they would speak to their friends and family.
Where is social media going?
Where is social media going? It is going in the direction of protecting relationships and feeding off of real-life events more than selling a product. We need to adapt to the millennial social and get ready to keep ourselves on our toes, as we all know social media changes by the second.