Quick presentation about the future of social media - and more specifically how social media will change the future of your business, focusing on the key trends:
- integration across business
- crowdsourcing
- customer service
- visual emphasis
- experience
2. WHO AM I?
CARA PRING
5+ years marketing/media/comms/events experience @carapring
3 years dedicated social media experience – worked cpring@servcorp.com.au
www.thesocialskinny.com
at Bupa, Qantas and now Servcorp
B Media & Comms / B Arts Enviro Resource Studies
at University of Wollongong
Started www.thesocialskinny.com in January 2011
Slightly obsessed with travelling and animals
Servcorp: Provider of the world’s finest serviced
office and virtual office solutions (across over 120
locations globally)
www.servcorp.com.au
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5. SO WHAT IS THE FUTURE
OF SOCIAL MEDIA?
Social media as a marketing/communications channel is no longer ‘new’ to most people or
businesses – but does that mean we are all doing it well?
Almost impossible to predict the future of social media from a technological and platform
perspective
Instead, the useful conversation around the future of social media is about businesses starting
to better understand the opportunities it provides to the point where it becomes integrated
across the business – not just in terms of marketing, but also customer service, recruitment, PR
etc.
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6. SOME SOCIAL MEDIA STATISTICS
BECAUSE EVERY GOOD PRESO HAS THEM
66 percent of online adults are connected to one or more social media platforms
Sales via social commerce are expected to reach $30 billion within five years
Facebook is the most visited website on the internet (reaching one trillion pageviews on June 30 2011)
There are now over 2.8 billion social media profiles, representing around half of all internet users
worldwide
On average in one year, we will share 415 pieces of content on Facebook, we’ll spend an average of
about 23 minutes a day on Twitter, tweeting a total of around 15,795 tweets, we’ll check in 563 times
on Foursquare, upload 196 hours of video on YouTube, and send countless emails
36% of social media users post brand-related content
2 out of 3 social media users believe Twitter influences purchases
One in three small businesses are now using social media
40% of companies admit to having no training or governance of social media
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7. KEY SOCIAL MEDIA
TRENDS
Social media is not just about marketing. Since its inception this has been the focus for most businesses. But
already some are catching onto the other benefits – customer
service, communications, recruitment, PR, insights, even e-commerce...
What does this mean?
Social media is becoming integrated into all aspects of every business. The potential is being recognised. It’s not
something to be considered externally to everything else, to be tacked-on as an after-thought or used only for
dedicated social campaigns.
THE FUTURE = social media will no longer be a channel separated and siloed from everything else. Social
media will become a natural part of all business activity – involved from the beginning and even shaping offline
behaviour as much as it shapes online behaviour.
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8. THAT’S GREAT,
BUT WHAT ARE THE TRENDS?
Higher level of integration across the business – integral to many more functions than just marketing
Crowdsourcing
Customer service
Insights
Visual emphasis
Experiential element (incl. technological advancements, experiential marketing)
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9. CROWDSOURCING
GET PEOPLE INVOLVED WITH YOUR BUSINESS
Ask your customers/communities questions – get
them involved in your business
Doesn’t have to be in a huge way (eg. Doritos ad)
Develops brand favourability
Also free market research
Feedback/suggestions for product
development, marketing campaigns, logos, naming
the office pet, referrals for jobs etc
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10. CUSTOMER SERVICE
MAKE THEM LOVE YOU
The most basic social media opportunity – yet so
many aren’t doing it well
Make an effort to go above and beyond
Never delete negative comments (unless offensive) –
see them as an opportunity to prove yourself
Actively monitor for brand mentions & start
conversations with your customers (current/potential)
Build genuine relationships with your customers
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11. INSIGHTS
IT’S FREE MARKET RESEARCH
Social media monitoring crucial element to strategy
Amazing the insights that can be picked up by
listening to customers (current/potential)
Much cheaper than soliciting feedback surveys or
market research
Can truly contribute to product development &
business improvement (not to mention establish the
best and worst of your team members!)
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12. VISUAL EMPHASIS
MAKE THINGS LOOK PRETTY
Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest!
Facebook Timeline Format
Our obsession with video
Shorter posts get more engagement
Social media users are becoming more and more lazy
– they don’t want to read text, they want to see pretty
things!
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13. EXPERIENCE
GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT
Experiences (online & offline) prompt conversation
PR is no longer about a media release, but about
creating a unique experience that people will want to
talk about (not a catchy headline)
Much more value to your brand – shows
endorsements, favourability rather than passive
absorption of information
Big trend in technological experience – eg.
Augmented Reality, Projection Mapping, Kinect
technology
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15. SO, IN CONCLUSION
SOCIAL MEDIA IS SET TO GET BIGGER
It’s no longer a separate ‘marketing platform’
We will start to see a shift towards deeper integration across all business functions
It will become part of your entire business – part of almost every aspect – even internal
communications, recruitment, contact centres etc.
From now on your PR strategies should revolve around what will get people talking rather than what will get
people reading (not about headlines, but experiences)
Even offline behaviours/experiences will be designed to stimulate a social reaction
Customer relationship management will have a new meaning – you can really get to know your customers
Start thinking about what technologies may be suitable to showcase your business – get in early so that you get
the maximum attention,
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Most of you are probably expecting me to get up here and talk about all of these things – about what new technological advancements and social networks are coming up that will help in spawning new social media campaigns – like AR, Projection Mapping etc. And I’m going to touch on this stuff a bit later. As for the channels themselves – FacebookPinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn (and the list goes on) – we already know about these. Mobile, Web3.0, gamification etc – terms that have been ‘the future’ for a very long time already.Absolutely these concepts will play a role in the future of social media...
...But what I really want to talk about is not how technology is going to change the future of social media, but how social media is going to change the future of your business.
Social media as a marketing/communications channel is no longer ‘new’ to most people or businesses But does that mean we are all doing it well? It’s almost impossible to predict the future of social media from a technological and platform perspective, because if anyone knew those answers they would be getting rich from developing the technology or platforms themselves. The pace of social media is so fast that it’s hard enough to keep up with it let alone start predicting the future. So with that in mind, I’ll end my presentation now and save you all 15 minutes of probably worthless and incorrect predictions…. Just kidding. Instead, I’m going to talk about a number of social media trends that may have been around for awhile, but that I believe will start becoming much more integrated and ingrained within everyday businesses as they begin to understand the potential that social media offers
The most obvious aspect which I’ve already covered is a deeper level of integration across all business functions – from marketing to communications to HR to customer service and experience to insights/market research etc. Some other trends in the social world that are attainable (and advisable) for all business – big and small are: crowdsourcing, customer service, insights, visual emphasis and experiences.
Biggest opportunity since CRM implementationgetting people to like your business, recommend, endorse
– understanding how people feel about your business, implementing processes to convert this to action à improvement
Experiences – online and offline will prompt people to talk about your brand – even endorse it. No longer will ‘PR’ just be about disseminating a media release to a list of journalists – it will be about creating an experience that people will want to talk about – not a catchy headline that people may choose to read.new ways not necessarily on social media, but inspiring a social action – eg. Kinect technology, projection mapping, interactive advertising etc. Doing something that is so different and attention grabbing that people want to share it and talk about it.Incl technology stuff. – online or offline that is stimulating conversation – it’s a PR exercise that’s much more dynamic, interactive, exciting and effective than a press release.
Experiences – online and offline will prompt people to talk about your brand – even endorse it. No longer will ‘PR’ just be about disseminating a media release to a list of journalists – it will be about creating an experience that people will want to talk about – not a catchy headline that people may choose to read.Incl technology stuff. – online or offline that is stimulating conversation – it’s a PR exercise that’s much more dynamic, interactive, exciting and effective than a press release.