It’s that time of year again! The final few months of any year mean it’s time to break out our predictive logic hats and try to figure out just what to expect in the coming year. Social media forecasting has been somewhat tempestuous since Facebook started making marketers rich somewhere around the middle point of the last decade, but times-are-a-changing.
Exciting things are always happening in the social-sphere and 2015/2016 is no different. Big changes are coming and cash trees are ripe for the picking for those who’re willing to stay on top of trends and even take a chance or two (think Snapchat, Periscope, Blab) this coming year.
Of course, you can play it safe and stick to the mainstays like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, but what fun would that be?
Here’s 5 social media trends I see playing out big in the coming year:
1. Data privacy promises from networks will become a must to gain and maintain user-base:
Ummm. Yeah, data privacy is really important. Ahem! Look at the whole Ashley Madison hub-bub. First, I don’t agree with such a service. If you want an open marriage/relationship, find a like-minded partner and stop being such a playa! But I digress, data is big news and if it’s part of your “social” life, you’re expecting to have control over who does and does not see it (Ahem! iCloud and JLaw). Social networks and their apps need to be bulletproof and they also need to be accountable to users in the coming years. Fine print saying that what you upload is at your own peril won’t do much to entice engagement circa 2016 and beyond. Expect to see a new wave of data encryption protocols to find their way to even the smallest social networks.
2. “Live social” will continue to gain traction:
Live streaming is so cool. Kinda like watching up-to-the-minute news on CNN television rather than waiting for next morning’s paper to arrive. Snapchat, Periscope and Blab will all become household names in the coming year. You’ll also see tons of competitors busting out of the woodworks and I have no doubt that Facebook will be buying them up like hot-cakes for years to come as live-streaming VR tech becomes everyone’s go-to media for entertainment and education.
3. Expect continued innovation across multiple publishing platforms:
“Content is king” and big-movers like Facebook and their upcoming Instant Articles feature promises to allow them to spread their wings into the online pubbing game. I’m really looking forward to continued improvement to Snapchat’s Live Story feature too. Instagram, not to be outdone by their nemesis, has just released their own version, called Explore which has yet to take off, but it’s obvious they’ll probably go all-in with this feature, likely by the end of 2015. And Twitter’s Project Lightning, recently released as “Moments” after Jack Dorsey took over as permanent CEO in early October. In fact, while the lightning bolt tab might not help small-time marketers much, it will make getting up-to-the-minute content updates a lot easier than scouring all the trending hashtags for a nugget of value.
4. Facebook will continue to thrive and new networks will have to respect that:
Goodbye dear Ello, you social-shamed Facebook and tried to make a move to the big time. It looked like you might, but your David vs. Goliath story was not to be written in the history books. They went way up the mountain and fell straight off the first steep cliff they encountered at the top. There mistakes were many, but the key lesson to learn was that you can’t build a billion-dollar social network overnight like you can a business in the tech industry. It takes time and Ello’s mistakes were many. You can’t be the anti-Facebook and expect to capture the loyalty of the masses in 2016. They’re hear to stay. Unlike other billion-dollar funded platforms like Google+ which experts like Gary Vee claim are merely over-funded failures running on borrowed time.
5. Mobile & ecommerce will overtake retail:
I’ll bet I really got a few of you with that one!
Hey, ecomm and etail won’t overtake retail, but they’ll continue to redefine the definition of what retail really is. Do you really have to physically visit a store to be a retail customer? Are you an e-tail customer because you’re using an app or website to make a purchase? Social networks are advertising megaliths and Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest already have big ole “Buy” buttons prominently displayed so you can spend your hard-earned money while looking for updates about where Kim Kardashian’s massive booty was spotted most recently or what kind of trouble Miley Cyrus started during her latest risque performance. Expect to see all the big players introducing in-app purchases in 2016. Match and adapt or die!
Share your thoughts and opinions — and don’t forget to share this on social media!
