Yesterday our blog post feature was VR, or virtual reality, a new trend that is quickly turning mainstream. I came across a really nice article with 6 very real possibilities for the future of social media. Now none of these predictions are new, we’ve been guessing that some of these would happen for the last few years or so, but what I am noticing looking at this is that in the last year speed has picked up significantly in the direction of a few key points. If I would have read this article two years ago I might have tabled several predictions, however, it is increasing clear that Social Media may in fact become Monopolized, a pay to play interface for advertising, and more. Here’s what I am refereeing to:
1. Monopolization
I could see one platform coming to dominate the social media landscape, much in the way that Google came to dominate the world of online search. Right now, the social media front-runner is clearly Facebook, so I’ll use Facebook to illustrate how this could go.
Already, Facebook has purchased a major contender (Instagram), and it’s only a matter of time before it acquires more platforms. Gradually, these individual platforms could morph and blend into a single all-in-one social experience. It would take years to accomplish this with minimal user disruption, but it’s a possibility.
2. Pay-only visibility
Many social media platforms are starting to cut back on the organic visibility of brands and corporations, instead greatly prioritizing the content that comes from individual users. Though brands like Facebook have spun this as a way to make the news feed better for the average user, one of the biggest peripheral effects here is that brands will have to pay more if they want to continue achieving the same level of social reach. Eventually, social brands may see their organic visibility cut so drastically that paid advertising becomes the only way to achieve meaningful reach.
3. Individualization
Already, social media platforms are recognizing the demands for customizability and personalization in their user bases. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, for example, are giving their users more control over the types of content that appear in their news feeds, or even giving them the power to change how their news feed operates.
In the future, social media platforms may take this to the next level, giving users the power to create their own systems of content provision, or even adapting on the fly to intuitively provide what individual users want.
4. Niche segmentation
In stark contrast to the “monopolization” scenario, there could be a greater degree of niche segmentation when it comes to social platforms. Snapchat is a perfect example of this; it enables users to send photos and videos with a handful of customizations, privately and temporarily, catering to a very specific social need (and not much else).
These niche specialists may increase in desirability, as they’ll be able to provide more novel experiences than their massive, slow-moving counterparts. This would mean an even greater diversity of platforms on the market, with smaller, more focused user bases for each one.
Read entire article Here
I have to say that the author makes some really insightful arguments for his predictions and I am not only agreeing with him but following these and considering ways to grow our own social media to evolve along with these trends going forward. If your social media is out of date and you’re looking to propel it and your business forward into the future let us help, contact us today to learn more.