Well with everyone’s 2016 predictions being tossed about on everything from the economy to sports to technology, its time to throw my hat in the ring: expect to see bucketloads more Donald, Bernie and Hillary on your social media timelines in 2016.
Okay, in all seriousness though, its fun to examine trends and try to spot where we are headed. In regards to the world of social media marketing, I got some help from Heidi Besik, group product marketing manager at Adobe Social, who was kind enough to provide a few of her predictions for next year. Let’s get right to her thoughts:
2015 has produced some staggering numbers; Facebook reported a billion users a day, Pinterest generated over 60 million buyable pins, Instagram crossed 400 million users and despite some of Twitter’s challenges, the platform still sees over 100 million users login daily.
With these numbers, social networks are evolving; coming from a place where we only connected with our personal network, it’s become a content and brand engagement platform. On top of that, it’s also quickly becoming one of the largest and most targeted advertising networks around.
For 2016, we looked at some of the biggest trends, how they will evolve and what it will mean for social brands.
Photo: jannoon028 from FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Video
More TV ad spend is expected to migrate to social media, as we see video really start to take off on these platforms. This is coupled with strong targeting options, availability of publisher tools and an established audience. Brands will consider uploading their back catalogs as well. Facebook in particular is poised to have a big year with video, as we saw them get serious with the medium in 2015; in November for instance, Facebook reported 8 billion video views a day, buffered with features like
autoplay and video prioritization in the feed. YouTube still has an extensive audience, so it’ll remain an important player as it looks to grow its base and expand its offering. In 2016, we expect to see brands embracing 360 video as well for the first time and seeking out uses for it.
Social Commerce
We saw big movements in 2015 for social commerce and despite challenges with user adoption, next year is a good opportunity for the platforms to increase usage. Pinterest has proven to be one of the more promising platforms with buyable pins; they’ve been an obvious player in this space, as their audience was built around people looking to uncover cool things to own. Instagram ads now also have direct response, while Facebook recently launched – through Internet.org – the ability for non-profits to
receive donations. Twitter is continuing to experiment with different purchasing capabilities via ‘Buy Now’. In time, we can expect that consumers won’t think twice about buying something (or exchanging currency) from social networks.
Live Streaming
Brands are still figuring out the best means to integrate live streaming, and in 2016 we can expect scaling to be a challenge. However, there are key events next year such as the elections that could put live-streaming in the front seat. For the first time, live-streamed video can have a role in how candidates convey their message and how voters learn about them. The elections could expose the viability of the medium. In looking at the on-going battle between Periscope and Meerkat, Twitter’s Periscope has definitely made leaps over Meerkat with recent Adobe ADI data showing more social mentions. Facebook could play a notable role as well, as long as the live-stream is happening within the Facebook news feed.
Social and Content Marketing Merge
It increasingly seems that we are facing the end of organic social. As this happens, brands have to reduce their focus on channel- and property-first approaches. Today’s social marketers are expected to drive engagement with the audiences they’ve built, but also to provide ROI. What will help deliver this is better integration between social and other brand/content marketing teams, to ensure that content is well aligned with brand messaging and key business objectives. Not only does it require hiring with an
eye toward talent that understand the important of coordination across channels, it’s also important to build expertise in areas like paid social. Furthermore, it’s crucial to prioritize educating the company and executives on the value of an integrated social strategy, as well as equipping teams with integrated marketing tools and technologies that enable collaboration.
Measurement
Next year, we expect to see more fragmentation before we get more standardized; there’s a lot of variability with the different social networks. Solid moves have been made to make more data available, but it’s not coming as quickly as social marketers have hoped for. And with new features – like Facebook’s reactions – it introduces a host of new variables to measure. More standardization will mean more ad money, so it’s an important effort to consider.
Messaging Apps
Users are continuing to migrate towards messaging apps. As these audiences get progressively bigger, brands will have to figure out how to insert themselves without being intrusive. It’ll be a very delicate balance given the nature of the platform, but boundaries will become more fluid. A good use case would be around brands creating 1-to-1 relationships with their customers, be it for customer service or general communications (like we’ve seen sports team do). Financial services might find good plays hereas well, as we see messaging apps support money transactions.
What are your predictions for social media marketing in 2016? Comment below!
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