Close your eyes and think about all the social media platforms you’ve used in the past. Myspace, Flickr, BBS, Friendster, and Ning are probably among the top qualifiers. Looking back, it’s incredible to see how far social media has come and the social platforms that are most popular today.
Social media is changing at a pace more rapid than many people can keep up with. Just ask any social media marketer—every time they perfect a social strategy, it’s time to move on to the next one.
Technological advancements are a huge part of these adjustments in social media as we know it. Here’s what you need to know about the future of social media and how technology plays a role.
Perhaps the most important technology on any social media platform is artificial intelligence. There are strong examples today of how AI is used to make social media more user-friendly, especially for business.
For example, companies like SocialCaptain use artificial intelligence to create automated targeted marketing for organizations who subscribe. It can monitor a company’s followers on Instagram, boost productivity, and offer real-time analytics to help companies stay competitive on Instagram. The same goes for many AI social media services that are similar.
Thanks to the success we’ve seen of this useful technology, it’s no doubt that AI will be a key player in the future of social media.
“Innovation in the future will be driven by applying a layer of AI to our everyday tasks,” says marketing strategist Mark Schaefer. “We need to begin considering that form of innovation on our jobs and in our companies.”
Pay special attention to algorithms, which is an AI technology used to improve the user experience. Social media platforms use algorithms to push certain features on its users, particularly businesses.
For example, Instagram has recently changed its algorithm to put preference on Instagram Stories and live video. Trying to adapt your strategy to meet all the algorithm changes now and in the future will protect you from falling behind.
Every year, developers of virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) technology get closer to permeating this market. It’s still a little futuristic in many respects, so VR experiments have often failed in the past. However, it’s only a matter of time before consumers are willing to adopt this technology into their everyday lives.
Naturally, this will involve an adoption of social media as well. As an example of this, the New York Times recently released an AR social app with the highest downloading rate in the AR niche. On average, users watched the AR presentations in this app for 14 minutes, which is significant for the industry.
But it has a ways to go before we see it everywhere. “Unfortunately, development of VR app is not as expensive as its viewing set of instruments/equipment, so we have to wait for more to be affordable,” says Haresh Donga of Addon Solutions, pointing out that this is one of the biggest barriers to VR becoming a part of daily life.
As it advances, however, the technology and its accessories will be more available than ever before. Soon, social media platforms will begin including augmented reality options for videos, images, and more to adapt to the technology.
The strides that social media platforms have made in communications, predominantly between consumers and businesses, is absolutely incredible—but we’re not done yet. The use of chatbots and technology that’s similar will become even more pervasive.
You see, this is something that today’s businesses can’t live without. “The ability for businesses and marketers to communicate and mobilize their networks has never existed like it does today,” Sharon Savariego, founder and CEO of Mobilize told Inc.com. “Group communication has gone from a nonchalant, nice-to-have feature that mimicked a digital water-cooler scenario, to absolutely business critical.”
But chatbots, as we know them, are about to improve. We’re going to see much more voice-activated options, for example.
“This new [conversational] interface finally allows for humans to operate software on their terms; given a best-case scenario, you speak naturally to an intelligent agent, and it will do the job you just asked it to do,” Dennis Mortenson, founders of the bot development firm x.ai who is working on the creation of voice-activated software for social platforms told Falcon.io. “Artificial intelligence is what powers this capability, and it will have a huge impact on the way we work [and play].”
We’ll also see more personalized bots that sound like people and can handle more requests through the messaging apps. The chatbots of the future will put today’s chatbots to shame!
For many social users, their favorite platforms are like a personal journey. It’s filled with their day-to-day thoughts, musings, photos, videos, likes, dislikes, friendships, and so much more. People want their social experience to be an immersive picture of who they are, through the good and bad times. For that reason, we’re likely to see a greater focus of social media platforms that allow you to tell your story and make it easier to find again.
“We’ve arrived at a place where we are as thoughtful about capturing a personal moment to preserve as we are about carefully curating our Instagram feed,” Jeanne Lewis, CEO of Capsure told Entrepreneur. “It’s a question of the legacy you want to leave behind. If someone has 2 hours to flip through your life’s journey, what do you want them to see?”
Social platforms are already working on creating this improved experience with live video, Instagram stories (that can be saved or deleted), and more. We’re going to see more options for personalized content that encourages consumers to use social platforms in every aspect of their daily lives in order to better cater to the user experience.
The savvy marketer will take a closer look at the way that technology is heading. Staying ahead of the game is your ticket to successfully navigating the changes and staying ahead of the competition.
If you are interested in even more social media-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels then we have a lot to choose from.
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