The future of social media in marketing

Social media allows people to freely interact 🔗 with others and offers multiple ways for marketers to reach and engage with consumers.

It is used by billions of people around the world and has fast become one of the defining technologies of our time. ⏰ Vitally, social media is always changing. Social media as we know it today is different than even a year ago (let alone a decade ago), and social media a year from now will likely be different than now.

We present a summary of suggested social media strategy directions as below:

Immediate future

1️⃣ Omni-social presence

Consumers now live in a world 🌍 in which most aspects of their lives can potentially intersect with social media and this digitally enabled social interactivity is shaping culture itself.

2️⃣ The rise of influencers 🤠

Prominent social media actors are leveraging their influence to collaborate with brands. Companies incorporate influencers into their marketing mix and are creating “virtual influencers” of their own.

3️⃣ Privacy concerns on social media

Consumer trust in social media is on the decline. Consumers worry about the privacy of their data, and this worry and distrust is transferring from just the platforms to brands and companies.

Near Future

1️⃣ Combating loneliness and isolation

There is conflicting research that exists regarding social media’s role in causing consumer loneliness and isolation, leading to calls to revolutionize how social media is used.

2️⃣ Integrated customer care 🥰

Social media, using improved analytics tools, and unprecedented knowledge on consumers will allow for an almost “invisible” customer care. Customers will be able to interact with firms seamlessly from almost any device.

3️⃣ Social Media as a Political Tool

Social media is used by politicians to directly engage with voters, evoking series of new challenges for policymakers, such as increased polarization, echo chambers, and fake news.

Far Future

1️⃣ Increased Sensory Richness 👋

A plethora of new technologies, including augmented reality, virtual reality, voice activation, and haptic integration market suggest that the future of social media will become increasingly sensory-rich.

2️⃣ Online/Offline Integration and Complete Convergence

The lines between what is offline and online are blurring, changing how consumers interact with other consumers, companies, and products and experiences.

3️⃣ Social Media by Non-Humans 👽

Artificial intelligence in the form of bots, virtual influencers, and IoT devices will increasingly permeate the social media sphere.

The future of social media in marketing is exciting 🥳, but also uncertain. If nothing else, it is vitally important that we better understand social media since it has become highly culturally relevant, a dominant form of communication and expression, a major media type used by companies for advertising and other forms of communication, and even has geopolitical ramifications.

Reference:

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, The future of social media in marketing, Gil Appel & Lauren Grewal & Rhonda Hadi & Andrew T. Stephen, The Author(s) 2019