Companies: Indigo, Facebook & Twitter
Industry: Literature & Social Media
Social Media, like technology, is changing constantly. If you go on a vacation for a week, it seems that your computer, TV, phone or any other personal device becomes obsolete. Social media is not much different. New channels are emerging all the time whether they are successful like Snapchat or less successful like MySpace, something new is always emerging. It also seems that the platforms themselves are constantly changing. Facebook is always updating their interface and Twitter is always adding new product offerings. Social Media has already changed drastically in the last 5 years, let alone 10 years.
So what will social media look like in the future? How are businesses utilizing it today which will define how it will be used in the future?
According to Xavier Major, CEO of Popular Media Consulting, LLC – @xavier_major
“Social media will change how we do business, marketing and sales with the continued improvement of socials ads and open graph searches like search.twitter.com. Facebook will learn more about their users for ad targeting. Social selling via native ads and open searches on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Linkedin will be the new trend as these platforms grow in 2015. Community management and customer service will move to social as it’s a cost effective way to handle questions, support issues and delight customers with high transparency.”
Indigo is one organization who has already proved themselves to be leaders in the social media realm. They answer questions in real-time on their social media channels to show the ultimate transparency. They also have a dedicated hashtag, #AskIndigo, in order to enter conversations that aren’t necessarily directed at their Twitter handle @IndigoChapters. Companies have realized that they cannot hide behind a PR department anymore. Social media allows guests to voice their concerns online, and if an organization does not participate in the conversation, then they can suffer damages that make take years to come back from. The two-way conversation that takes places on social media will only continue to grow as more platforms are introduced into the mix. Companies that once had one person dedicated to social media now has teams dedicated to this new form of marketing and communications.
While social media is a great way for two-way conversations to take place between consumer and company, it’s also the place for organizations to target specific ads on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. With social media advertising (click here for a social advertising cheat sheet) you can target ads at consumers with very detailed targeting; such as location, gender, age, interests & likes, and even purchase history. Social media advertising is only growing. Companies are now increasing their social media advertising budgets every year because more people are spending time on these platforms, and companies are seeing the ROI from their paid social media campaigns. This number will only continue to grow in the future.
Advertisers worldwide will spend $23.68 billion on paid media to reach consumers on social networks this year, according to new figures from eMarketer, a 33.5% increase from 2014. By 2017, social network ad spending will reach $35.98 billion, representing 16.0% of all digital ad spending globally.
Lessons for others:
If your organization isn’t participating in social media, you need to start now because social media isn’t going anywhere. Don’t focus on the amount of likes or followers your page has, but the quality of content you’re producing, and how quick you’re responding to your guests. Also, make sure your channels are verified. When your consumers are searching for your pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc, they know that your page is the real deal and not just a copycat. Communicating with your customers via social media is whats happening now, and will continue to happen for years to come. People are increasingly turning to social media to voice their concerns, and ask questions directly to the company where they purchased from on social rather than emailing, or calling a customer help line. Because of this, companies are becoming more vulnerable and must become transparent in order to keep up with consumer demand.
On top of maintaining and monitoring your companies social media channels, I recommend that all organizations explore social media advertising. While social media may not make sense for all businesses, such as many financial institutes, it does apply to most organizations that are trying to sell a product. Not only does social media have great targeting and proven ROI, but it has been built in a way where organizations can build social media ads in-house. By creating social ads in-house organizations can optimize, report, and create ads in realtime all on their own, which cuts out agency costs.
Social media channels like Vine, YouTube, and Snapchat are increasing in popularity which means video is becoming higher in demand. I always say that consumers of social media are becoming increasingly ADD which means lengthy written articles and blogs will become a thing of the past. I personally believe that short videos will soon take over peoples personal social media newsfeed and it will be the only way companies will be able to communicate with their consumers.
Want to know how you can use Facebook advertising for your company? check out this podcast here:
Web references – Indigo, eMarketer, B2C, bannersnackblog
To contact the author of this entry please email: meghantwalsh@gmail.com
If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Programme Director, Social Media for Business Performance.
