6 May 2017

Social Media Is Growing at Warp Speed

06 May 2017
Social media generates a wealth of real-time content at an incessant rate, this widespread generation and consumption of content has created an extremely competitive online environment where different types of content vie with each other for the scarce attention of the user community. In spite of the seemingly chaotic fashion with which these interactions take place, certain topics manage to attract an inordinate amount of attention, thus bubbling to the top in terms of popularity. Through their visibility, these popular topics contribute to the collective awareness of what is trending and at times can also affect the public agenda of the community.

Social media is growing at an explosive rate, with millions of people all over the world generating and sharing content on a scale barely imaginable a few years ago. This has resulted in massive participation with countless number of updates, opinions, news, comments and product reviews being constantly posted and discussed in social web sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Digg and Twitter, to name a few.

Another social media trend for 2017 will be with less automation and more effective management tools. Year after year, we witness a social media blunder from a brand using automated social tools. The problem is understanding the data to make better decisions about your social media. Roughly 34% of small businesses use social media to engage and converse with customers. That means businesses have to find their audience and engage with them more effectively. If your customers are reaching out, you have to respond. Having analytical data to back up things like engagement or response rates helps you make smarter decisions. That’s why social media automation is more likely than ever to simply turn into social media management. Automation feels robotic, while consumers want real, humanistic interactions.

With the exception of chatbots, brands should avoid automating social engagement. Instead of automated responses and risking a PR disaster, try these tactics:
Social Campaigns that Interact with Consumers, Listen to Your Customers–Don’t Just Promote, Build an Organic Following with Better Relationships, Avoid Untimely Messages around Current Events, Be Personal and Give Humanistic Responses.

The rise in popularity of Snapchat’s facial filters (artificial intelligence lenses) makes the network interactive, engaging and unique compared to others. However, social media marketers shouldn’t have to wait long until competitors start to catch up with their own facial lenses. Facebook already tested facial lenses for its mobile interface in 2016. This could be a major sign of budding social media trends. With the launch of Instagram Stories, expect the popular social media feature to move across channels.
According to TechCrunch, there were 100 million active users on Instagram Stories within two months after its release. Additionally, Instagram Stories are watched by 18% of the network’s 600 million active users each day.

This puts all the pressure on Snapchat to maintain in the social media space. The competition is only likely to increase with Snapchat possibly going public as early as March 2017. Snapchat certainly has their own slice of the pie with 150 million active users in 2016 and 41% of US adults between the ages 18-34 use the network daily. Platforms like Facebook Messenger and Slack use chatbots to communicate with customers, answer frequently-asked questions or to provide immediate information on a product or service. These chatbots can increase communication and reduce response times to social messages in need of an answer.

There’s no doubt social media algorithms make it harder for businesses to promote organic content. With the introduction of the Instagram algorithm in 2016, nearly every major social network uses some sort of content preferential treatment. On the other hand, paid content is growing faster each quarter. According to Adobe, social media ad spend is estimated to surpass $41 billion in 2017. And it’s not limited to just one channel or network.

In 2016 Instagram launched its Business Tools feature, which works in the same vein as Twitter Analytics and Facebook Insights. This could mean social media trends point toward native tool enhancements to meet business needs.

Analytics and reporting features are nothing new to the industry. According to a KPMG survey, 92% of C-level executives already use data and analytics for marketing insights. And it’s very likely marketers and business owners don’t stop at measuring social media efforts as well.

Source: Sprout Social Blog