What’s Nextin Social Media

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What’s Next in Social MediaWe’ve come a long way since the days of Friendster and MySpace. These early social networks were almost solely focused on what we now think of as the basics of social media: bringing friends together, proudly listing your favorite bands and movies, and allowing you to create an online identity that matched (or in some cases, improved upon) your real world one.

Fast forward more than a decade later and things are so much more complicated. We’re living in a world of Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Instagram, Tinder, and Snapchat, all of which are social networks that do so much more than simply bring friends together.

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What’s Next in Social MediaWhile some might argue that bringing people together is the driving force behind social media networks, the fact that social is such a huge industry has made its story that much more complex. For instance, widespread mobile phone adaptation has given birth to social networks that rely heavily on geolocation (Tinder, Grindr, and Foursquare). And with people spending an average of 40 minutes on Facebook each day, major corporate advertisers are paying big money to make sure they show up in your newsfeed.

If you’re a business owner, chances are you’re using social marketing to connect with customers. But in order to do this, you need to know not only what’s happening in social media today, but what will happen to it in the coming years.

Here are a few things to look out for in 2015 and beyond.

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Video Content Will (Still) Rule

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Any digital strategist worth his or her salt will tell you that video content performs exceptionally well online. This is for the simple reason that people find moving images set to sound more engaging than, say, a lengthy article or a static image.

But while brands and business have long known that giving their fans and audience well made video content will always pay off, Facebook recently announced that they’ve seen a rise in video content created by their users. In fact, as of January 2015, the social network announced a 75 percent increase over the previous year of user-posted videos, globally.

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Video Content Will (Still) Rule

There’s evidence on other platforms that video is king. For instance, Twitter recently announced a feature that allows people to easily create, edit, and post videos from within the Twitter mobile application. And cool-kid app Snapchat recently announced a feature that allows users to add music to their snaps, a move that shows a dedication to helping users create engaging video content.

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Faith in the Beautyof SimplicityIn September 2014, the digerati were buzzing about a new social network called Ello. The site promised to be everything that Facebook wasn’t - simple, beautiful, and free of advertisements that seemed to be butting in on every conversation. But a few months later, people seemed to have moved on. While no one can tell what the future holds, it seems that for now the world has decided Ello is not the new Facebook.

If there’s one lesson to be learned from Ello, it’s that the promise of simplicity will always be attractive, whether that’s simplicity in design or use. After all, this simplicity is what has made Instagram, Tinder, and Snapchat so appealing and successful.

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Truly Immersive ExperiencesSo much of what we experience on social media is meant to make us feel like we are actually there. That’s why Instagram photos take up so much space on your phone’s screen, and why clicking on a hashtag puts you in the center of a specific conversation about a particular topic.

But the future of social media will also be about literally making you feel like you’re in the middle of the action.

You’ll probably first experience this on Facebook. A recent CNET article points to Facebook’s 2014 purchase of virtual reality startup Oculus VR as proof of this. While it’s not clear what Facebook plans to do with the technology, one imagines it could be used for everything from creating a truly immersive experience out of a friend’s vacation photos, or replacing Facebook games like Farmville and Words With Friends into more interactive first-person experiences.

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Truly Immersive ExperiencesIn a similar prediction, CNBC quotes Cory Bergman, co-founder of BreakingNews, as predicting that the future of news will become more of an immersive experience, sourcing video from a variety of users to make the viewer feel like they are actually there.

In the same article, Refinery29 Creative Director points to the rise in mobile adaption as the first step in a trend to merge technology with our bodies. With the Apple Watch and other wearable tech poised to be the big stories for 2015 and beyond, we don’t doubt her for a minute.

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We Probably Can’t Imagine It

While pundits love to predict what’s next, the truth is the future is totally unpredictable and dependent on factors that aren’t totally under our control. For instance, war, climate change, longer lifespans, or major economic shifts could give rise to social networks that offer services we have yet to dream up. After all, do you think anyone predicted six years ago that we’d have a service like Snapchat that goes out of its way to delete content right after you view it?

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We Probably Can’t Imagine ItHowever, the social media experts quoted in the previously mentioned CNBC article seem to generally agree that social media will soon just be media. Instead of a hot trend that all the cool kids are hopping on, it will be come part of the fabric of our daily lives.

So what’s the takeaway for this for business owners? Well, the message is nothing new. If social media is all about authenticity and connecting people, then your social media strategy needs to do exactly this. Take a hint from Ello and Instagram, keep it simple. Use social media to drive home the important messages that you want your customers to know, and always be sure to talk to them like people. Technology will change, and trends may come and go, but authentic connections will always be king online.

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