1. Unique tone of voice
Companies will seek to develop their personality and find a unique tone of voice in order to make themselves more recognizable, set themselves apart from the competition, and offer users more reasons to become or remain (active) members of their communities.
2. Users as co-creators
Content about products and services created by users themselves (user generated content) will be positioned as a relevant part of communication on social networks. Greater efforts will be aimed at creating an environment and ensuring the tools to simplify content creation to users.
3. Investing into the production of (original!) content
The importance of content on social networks continues to grow. It has all been seen before, and engagement is dropping. It is essential to produce relevant content which will engage the users. Stock images are used up and not authentic enough, leading to an increase in the production of original content, especially visual.
4. Metrics changes
Reach, message frequency and likes are a thing of the past. The length of content consummation (for example in video views), the number of clicks and the time spent on a specific Internet location are becoming the new measure of success for a company’s presence on social networks.
5. Focused communication
Companies will be communicating with more diverse user groups, with a wide range of interests and needs. The mass reach of social networks and the communication between companies and users will become even more personalized.
6. Cross promotions and clusters
More and more brands will be cooperating in order to promote each other and have a joint presence on social networks together, with the goal of reaching new audiences and increasing the reach of their marketing strategies.
7. Offline integration
Greater offline and online (social network) integration will be achieved. Product and service promotion will have a greater connection to the channels on social networks, they will engage the users online and then transfer that communication to offline as well.
8. Advertising on multiple platforms
Advertising on Facebook will remain relevant, but companies will look to expand by creating ads on Twitter, Pinterest, and other platforms at their disposal. Testing ads on Instagram and developing the Atlas platform on Facebook are just a small sign of advertising possibilities to come on social networks.
9. Big data
Companies will be putting greater effort into understanding consumer and user behavior patterns, and identifying hidden trends. The data gathered on social networks every day represents a goldmine of information for better business planning and quality decision-making.