We take a look at the landscape for social media over the coming year.
As will be clear to all who work closely within the social media sector, it is a sector that evolves rapidly, often shape shifting with little or no warning. Indeed, non-conformism is one of social media’s greatest assets and strengths, as it adapts and evolves to consumer demand rather than design. This constantly shifting and evolving nature makes forward planning a particularly tricky task for those on the front line of brand communication through social media, but at the outset of 2012, there may well be a few elements from the past that will help guide how the sector will evolve.
It is important to remember that social media is a young beast, be that from a consumer perspective or in the case of brand use of social media, even younger still. It was towards the end of 2009 and throughout 2010 that brands only truly began to adopt the main social media platforms of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as a means of building and engaging with consumers. Indeed, the choice of words is relevant here, as whilst “engagement” may be the hot topic now, back in 2010 realistically, it was just a pipe dream.
No, 2010 was the year of acquisition rather than engagement. Whether through the billions poured into advertising on Facebook, to the more resource-aware, tactical campaigns, brands set about tapping into the 500 million global Facebook users. It was little other than a land grab in the main part, as brands recognised there was a limited opportunity to capture as many fans and followers as possible. As a result, many brands went from particularly nominal fan bases at the start of the year to those numbering millions or tens of millions by the end of the year.
However, as the pressures of the second economic downturn hit, and the fan increases became more difficult to come by, some serious questions began to be asked, as those holding the purse strings wondered about the value of such significant fan numbers if the brands were unable to engage with those fans. And so, if 2010 was the year of acquisition, 2011 became the year of engagement.
Budgets and resources that were previously allocated to building fan bases were now applied to ever more interactive and engaging apps and campaigns that would provide the means for brands and businesses to more closely engage with their users, building brand-fan loyalty in an increasingly competitive environment.
So, if 2010 was the year of acquisition and 2011 the year of engagement, what will categorise 2012? Well, as indicated, the shifting nature of social media makes it difficult to map out, and anyone that prescribes a blueprint for any more than a few months down the line should be treated warily. However, given the significant sums invested in building and engaging such enormous fan bases, allied to the tough economic times, it would be neglectful in the extreme if brands were not looking at how best they could leverage cold, hard commercial return on their investments. At a simple level, this equates to more developed and evolved social commerce functionality, and deeper fan mobilised marketing.
The only thing that is know for sure is that social media demands continual evaluation and that the only known quantity is either the past or present, not the future.
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Part 4 in my series reviewing the implications of the changes to Facebook announced at the F8 conference.
