THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
It seems strange to think of a Spinnaker emerging kicking and screaming into a world 20 years ago when social media didn’t even exist, well certainly not commercially and not to the masses as it does today. With so much changed over the last 20 years this set me, as the agency’s Head of Social, thinking what will the world of social look like in another 20?
My first job in social media was in 2010, pre-dating Twitter, Instagram and obviously TikTok. At that point the job was basically “Facebook”. Things were new and exciting and updates were frequent, from the first image posts, to video, to the introduction of ads. In many ways, it’s safe to say that social is actually fairly standardised these days – while they do it in a slightly different way, all platforms do the same things;
Post videos with copy
Post images with copy
Follow friends, creators or brands you are interested in, while also serving content they think you will like via an algorithm
And aim to keep you on the platforms as long as possible so they can serve you ads (and make them some money)
Even when a new platform comes along, what makes it stand out soon becomes integrated into the other market leading platforms. Just look at Meta with Reels, stealing the best of TikTok. And now TikTok having carousels to allow for static posting. It’s all becoming a bit homogenous.
So what is the future of social media? What will I be doing in 14 years in the future? Well, flying car and meals in pill form aside, to judge the future of social media it is important to look at the big talking points at the moment and follow them to their natural conclusion. With both your time and mine of the essence, these are what I consider to be the big 3 areas to be aware of and to keep a close eye on.
Privacy
The past few years have seen a push in user demanded privacy, as people are more and more aware of both how their data is used, as well as its inherent value. This is creating a domino effect of actions and reactions and frankly could be a blog in its own right. One of the first reactions we saw was the introduction of GDPR in Europe, followed by the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States. These are clear reactions to data usage, but the long-term significance when thinking about the future of social is what happens as and when more of these regulatory laws gets introduced? These regional nuances may well lead to platform segmentations by region, as the platforms need to develop localised versions of their platform that operate in a certain way to continue to operate in all markets.
As mentioned, people worry about their data being used against them, forgetting how it is being used for them. The online experience is better and optimised to the user when data is on hand to inform this. Accordingly, just as we’ve seen a reaction to how people are stopping their data being used, it’s quite reasonable to see how people are in favour of their data being used once again. Sort of. This would be in the form of data portability. This is incredibly difficult to manage at present, but the person who nails this will be sat on a fortune and is something I expect to see pushed to the forefront in the future.
And one final point on privacy and one that is on my mind most frequently is the importance of data and tracking when it comes to both targeting and reporting on ad importance. A reliable bank of data that speaks between platforms allows for effective multi-channel advertising, while this communication between platforms means actions can be tracked. This is significant as we don’t only need to target efficiently, but we need to be able to report on the ad performances efficiently in order to attribute success and garner more information to improve performance. The reactions to this will be contextual targeting, and AI targeting. Which leads us on to...
AI
Sorry. Just when you thought you were going to make it through a blog without another mention of AI, here it is. Just be grateful I haven’t asked AI to write me a funny intro or what it thinks the future of social is.
The fact of the matter is AI is more and more a part of our everyday lives. It’s already a significant part of the social platforms, especially when it comes to advertising with AI filling in a lot of the gaps that will come about as a result of increases in privacy. This is one of the least intrusive elements of AI, as most people don’t know how they are targeted for ads or even give it a second thought. And intrusive is a keyword here – the future of AI won’t be intrusive, as it gets better and better you won’t be aware of its involvement at all.
So what will AI do? Pretty much all the social management tools have an AI option to create copy to go alongside your image, though this still feels a little limited right now. There are two kinds of AI – the kind that sweeps online information to draw a generalised approach, while the other is more cognitive and human-like, able to tackle new and unfamiliar tasks. The latter is where there is long term potential, as it will not just create some general content, it will develop a full strategy, informed by a broad swathe of data, the likes of which would take us mere mortals a long time to process and understand.
But the big thing AI will bring to social is personalised content. Not only will the AI and the platforms take all of your historical behavior and interests to make the content that you are most likely to engage with, but this will be served as part of a curated user journey with content developed bespoke for each user for the key touch points towards campaign objective. Extrapolating this further, AI influencers are going to be a thing. Yes – people who don’t exist will sell you stuff. They will be able to say key things completely personalised to you in order to make you react (engage, share or purchase for example). How this marries up with the benefits of influencer content being about authority, authenticity and trust, time will tell.
And now on to my last prediction. There were a lot of considerations here. If we were to believe the platforms, AR/VR/immersive experiences is the next big thing – but then we have seen Snap Spectacles, Google Glass and the Metaverse all bumble along without much excitement or user uptake. Will it be the continued rise of smaller, niche platforms like Discord or Telegraph?
My final choice is... S-Commerce
Social sales are predicted to rise by 50% from 2023 to 2025 according to Snapchat, while Statista have seen the growth develop much more modestly at about 1% a year. And this is telling – so many of these forecasted trends are coming directly from the platforms, who all have a financial stake in pushing this in the years upcoming. So what is the reality here? To play it safe, it’s sort of somewhere in the middle.
First things first, social media is really effective at driving sales. But it’s also not so great at driving sales. With the big consideration being what is your product, what is the purchase window and is it easier just to pick it up from the nearest convenience store on your way to work? FMCG goods are not going to sell, neither are cars. But if you are somewhere in the middle, then you are sorted
So where do we see growth? TikTok creators selling. A few more. And very simply, people getting more and more comfortable with making purchases on social. This is particularly relevant when we think of the growing Gen Z sector, who are more and more reliant on social for product discovery. Why not discover AND then make the purchase on social, removing steps in the user journey, as we know less steps equals less opportunities for users to drop off
Well there we are, my predictions for the next 20 years condensed into something to read on your lunch break? What do you think? Am I barking up the wrong futuristic tree? Get in touch and let me know.