“I googled you on Facebook!” shouted a fellow hiker to an old friend he bumped into on the mountain. Wait . . . what? That doesn’t make sense; as a self-proclaimed techie, overhearing this abomination left me cringing, but also made me think: Could the social media giant reduce our beloved Google to a mere verb?
Augmented reality and wearables
Scommerce
Social commerce, or scommerce, is the next phase of the e-commerce experience. Scommerce will be the driving force behind mobile shopping, making it natural for users to do purchases on the go. The expected explosion of the buy buttons on Instagram and Pinterest are yet to contribute toward sales, but why? This could be due to the information overload we’re already experiencing on these platforms, the lack of inventory structures and browsing capabilities. But instead of taking e-commerce to social media, why not take social to e-commerce? In the movie The Intern, Anne Hathaway plays a founder of the fashion e-commerce startup About the Fit; they introduce a new feature enabling users to see what other shoppers put in their carts in real time. This creates a demand for items, and makes online shopping more interactive and social—which is something we’ve been waiting for.
Lenses, filters, masks and more
Total domination, or niche segmentation
As seen by addictive Snapchat filters, innovation is exploding in the social media space, but what all the big players do is recreate their ideas on their all-inclusive platforms. Is the space being monopolised by the heavy hitters, or will platforms start to segment into niche networks? Until recently, there were three major players in the social media space: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, which each filled slightly different niches. This has changed to include Snapchat and Instagram (now acquired by Facebook). As each social network becomes overcrowded by ads, and their newsfeed algorithms can’t keep up organising relevant content, there will be no other option than segmentation. Moms will flock to their specialised social network to share their magic moments, and the fitness fanatics will post their #inspo posts on their niche network.
Social search
Back to “I googled you on Facebook.” Social media will become the future of search engines. When you hear about a new restaurant, it’s now a toss-up between googling it or searching for its Facebook page to view up-to-date patron reviews and real images. Apart from search, there has always been a debate between the influence of social media on search engine optimisation. The Twitter Firehouse deal with Google in 2015 was a game changer. Google is now indexing selected tweets, which provides real-time updates to your search results page. Brands are latching onto Twitter as a part of their SEO strategy, which actually alters the core of the conversation platform to be more broadcast-focused. It’s early days for social indexing, but the merge between search and social will come sooner than we think; if only Google+ had hit it off, the war would’ve been over before it started.
The everyday influencer
If ever there were a social network killer, sponsored content would be the number-one suspect. The advertising content overload on our newsfeed is enough to make us run for the hills. What we’re mainly interested in is what our friends are doing. With the rise of social came the rise of the ‘social media celebrity’: an influencer in the space with a large following of fans interested in their content. Brands pay big bucks to get these influencers to curate posts about their products, which results in sales from loyal followers. With any advertising message, trust is the determining factor. Do you trust a brand is the best because it says so, or because the insta-celebrity says so, or maybe even because your friends say so? The rise of the everyday influencer is imminent; brands will enlist a larger number of users to review their products or services, and post their experiences to their network.
Changing the way you work
Social media has changed the way we stay in touch with our friends and family, but what about how we work? Some organisations have banned social media sites in the workplace for productivity reasons, but some have embraced the platforms as a means to improve efficiency, staff morale and project management. Workplace by Facebook is an app that allows organisations to build teams and collaborate on projects without the distraction of sponsored content or one’s personal newsfeed. But surprisingly enough, Workplace for Facebook, even without the ads, is not a favourite business communication tool. Slack has become the social network where we spend our workdays. Traditionally a business communication and project management tool, users are now sharing music and making lunch plans through their Slack channels. The key to workplace social networking is focus: We want to be able to interact without being distracted with funny cat memes and ads for Dunkin’ Donuts.
