Even though I have one social media class almost under my belt, I am still not sure how social media will change in the future without the assistance of individuals who are much more knowledgeable in this area than me. To stimulate my thinking I will begin by sharing and commenting on some of the roundtable discussions that took place on December 4th, 2012 as 50+ experts shared their predictions for 2013.
3. Natalie Bidnick, Account Supervisor and Social Media Strategist at The Marketing Zen Group – @NatalieBid
“Social Media will become an essential – not optional – form of communicating with customers. More companies will use Facebook and Twitter to both listen to their customers, solicit feedback, and practice public crisis management.”
Our group did a social media audit on Kellogg’s and found on many of Kellogg’s social media platforms, many consumers are posting their concerns about GMO being used in many of their food products. This negative publicity is becoming a large problem for Kellogg’s. I can definitely see Kellogg’s (or any other business who is experiencing negative publicity) using social media to practice public crisis management. News moves fast with social media, crisis management must also move as fast or even faster in order for businesses to remain profitable, long-term.
9. Mike Bal, Creative and Digital Marketing Director at Baseline21 – @CreativeIthink
“Customer Service – People know they don’t have to wait on the phone to get help, they can tweet. This makes it easy for the customer to let the brand know about any and all problems. So any company who went ahead and distributed products with minor flaws in hopes that the customer wouldn’t want to deal with the hassle of a return or exchange will have a rude awakening. Many companies have adopted social media as a customer service tool purely for the fact that they can look good in front of thousands of potential customers. This year companies will start adopting it out of necessity. If a customer who doesn’t want to talk to a machine or wait on hold for 20 minutes, they are going to reach out via social. If you
don’t answer and they HAVE to call, they are going to be highly irritated and more demanding, ultimately costing the company more money.”
don’t answer and they HAVE to call, they are going to be highly irritated and more demanding, ultimately costing the company more money.”
My thoughts, as I was reading these comments were, any company who has started using any social media platforms but have remained relatively inactive, really does need to take their presence seriously. No longer can they just review (or post to) their pages once a week (or periodically) – they will need to be daily / hourly engaged. Some irate customer may try to find the quickest way to let other consumers know there is a problem with their product or service. Posts left unattended to on a social media platform will definitely be a cost to any company.
29. Jim Caruso, marketing strategist & CEO at MediaFirst PR – @jimcaruso
“Facebook will matter more for B2B, as will FB advertising, since stock price matters when you are a public company. LinkedIn with matter more across industries and new players, like Pinterest, will continue to disrupt the big players in social media.”
Reading this comment from Jim Caruso where he is suggesting that Facebook advertising will matter more for Business to Business, I have to wonder how Facebook can incorporate more advertising spots for companies without changing the actual platform. How much advertising can Facebook really do? Possibly in the future ads could end up looking similar to the brief advertisements you see before watching a YouTube video. For a company to advertising on social platforms such as Facebook, it may also end up being quite costly for businesses, especially if demand for advertising spots increases. To have thousands upon thousands of companies demanding advertising spots could be a gold mine for Facebook (or other popular social media platforms).
33. Dimple Thakkar, CEO and Impresario of SYNHERGY MARKETING – @dimplethakkar
“Start planning a serious budget for social media advertising in 2013. Make sure you skip the promotional tone in your ad copy to build trust with followers. Consumers have amazing radar for bullshit and your brand has a small window to make a good [first] impression.”
I smiled with this one. Companies who deviate from the truth will be forced to change these types of practices. Consumers will call them out and make others aware of unethical practices very quickly.
39. Eula M. Young, COO of Griot’s Roll Film Production & Services Inc. – @griotsroll
“Social media will replace the business website. If you don’t have a social media page with information on your products, services on your about page you are not in business. People will judge you on how they can get in contact with you through your social media page. Your “About” page will be more important than your website and you better have links to any other social media pages you have.”
I do not know if I totally agree with Eula M. Young. I believe businesses will always need their website for placing orders, RMA’s, discount sales, etc. I think businesses should not give social media platforms too much power by incorporating their websites into their social media platforms. We do not want the consumers or businesses unknowingly creating any type of near monopoly power within a social media platform.
As I was reading through an article titled, “7 Technologies Shaping the Future of Social Media,” I was both shocked and totally amazed at point #6 which talks about mind reading.
It is based on the idea of being able to control an interface without the use of your fine motor skills. The example given, which still has massive implications is, considers the ability to tweet what you're thinking without having to pull your phone out of your pocket, type your message and hit send. Imagine being able to think 'Facebook' and your screen presents you with an overview of your friend's activity stream. This method of interaction is at a very experimental stage but there are proofs-of-concept that exist. Most of this kind of innovation is currently intended to help people with limited motor skills, and not lazy social media addicts, however.
The article does state that this interface is currently not intended for the lazy social media addict, however, in time, it may be in the hands of the wealthy. They may want to have a lock on the device so that thoughts that are not meant to be posted, are not posted.
Web 3.0 is, in general, defined as a new kind of intelligent web application that will tailor online searching and requests specifically to users’ preferences and needs. It is said, as you search the Web, the browser learns about what you are interested in and in time, you will even be able to ask open questions such as ‘where should I go for lunch?’ Image your browser knowing you so well that it can give intelligent answers and even give you restaurant suggestions based on where you are currently located.
It sounds like we will be able to train our search engine to think like we do. The more we use the Web, the more the browser learns about the user. In other words, our search engine will be in sync with its user.
I cannot even imagine where the world is heading with social media. It is both scary and exciting to even begin to imagine where we could be in the next couple of years, let alone ten years down the road. Let’s all take our seats in the front row while we watch and participate as the new wave comes in.
