Marketing typically refers to the business of promoting and selling goods and services, where in the past tools like newspapers, magazines, radios, and television were utilized to market, today marketers have a ton of platforms, thanks to the Internet and social media.
Are you interested in knowing how social media has changed Marketing and what role it could play in future? Well, you have come to the right place. In this blog, we will be exploring what the future holds for social media in Marketing. So, let’s get started:
Table of Contents
- 1 How has Social Media Changed Marketing?
- 2 The Rise of Social Media
- 3 Latest Trends in Social Media Marketing
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4 Future of Social Media Marketing
- 4.1 Rise of AI-Powered Personalization
- 4.2 Use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Integration
- 4.3 Video Content Continues to Reign
- 4.4 Micro-Influencer Collaboration
- 4.5 Ethical and Transparent Branding
- 4.6 Generation Z and New Platforms
- 4.7 Ethical and Privacy Concerns
- 4.8 Real-time Engagement and Customer Service
- 4.9 Role of AI and Chatbots
- 5 FAQs About the Future of Social Media in Marketing
As of 2023, 5.3 billion people have access to the internet and among these people 4.9 billion actively use social media. It has become necessary for businesses to have an online presence where consumers spend most of their time. Whereas in the past marketing relied on one-way communication, social media has changed it to interactive, data-driven with a sharp customer focus strategy.
Initially, when social media was introduced it was mainly for social interactions among friends, realizing its potential marketers started to build a small online presence. With the rise of social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, it become easy for businesses to share their message directly to end users.
Smartphones further enable social media usage anywhere anytime thus making it a necessity for businesses to have social media business profiles. Currently, there are 4.9 billion social media users this user base is meant to increase by 5.85 billion by 2027.
The following are the latest trends in social media marketing:
Video Marketing
Though video marketing is not something that is new it is something that has stood the test of time. It refers to the creation of content in video form to interact, inform, entertain and persuade the target audience.
Video marketing is much more effective compared to text and images alone as it captures human attention well. To gain traction on your ads online you can buy likes from quality sources.
Live Streaming
Social media platforms have blessed marketers with the tool of live streaming. This tool or feature allows marketers to do real-time video broadcasts and directly interact with the audience. Many new products are now launched globally by live-streaming the launch event.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing refers to the marketing strategy where services and products are marketed utilizing the platforms of individuals who have a significant engaged following on social media.
These influencers have the power to impact the purchase decisions of their followers. It is important to choose influencers whose values align with that of the business. As an influencer, to boost your posts you can buy likes and followers from quality sources.
Personalization
Data and one-to-one interaction with the end user from social media platforms have enabled marketers to know their end users better. They can learn about their priorities in a product or service and create a deeply personalized customer-focused marketing strategy.
AI and Machine Learning
The use of AI and machine learning is quite recent in the marketing field. AI and machine learning help in getting to know the customer better and deliver personalized content thus making the marketing process much more efficient. AI can help marketers in predicting customer buying behavior.
These are key features of the future of social media marketing:
- Rise of AI-Powered Personalization
- Use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Integration
- Video Content Continues to Reign
- Micro-Influencer Collaboration
- Ethical and Transparent Branding
- Generation Z and New Platforms
- Ethical and Privacy Concerns
- Real-time Engagement and Customer Service
- Role of AI and Chatbots
Rise of AI-Powered Personalization
The rise of AI in social media marketing is because of its ability to efficiently deliver personalized content to customers. AI has made marketing very easy by analyzing the behaviors, historical interactions, and preferences of consumers.
Businesses utilizing AI-powered personalization have reported higher conversion rates and Return on Investment.
Use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) Integration
With meta leading the way, many social platforms are introducing AR and VR. Brands can utilize AR to develop 3D models of the products which viewers can look at from different angles and even place in their own environment.
Virtual try-ons created with the help of VR has the option to revolutionize the fashion industry. Many brands are using VR to provide users with virtual tours to locations for events. VR can also be used to visualize complex data in an immersive way making it easy to understand for shareholders.
Video Content Continues to Reign
Video content created on social media has only seen a huge increase though it may have shifted towards videos of shorter span giving birth to successful apps like TikTok.
Seeing the current scenario where many of the marketing strategies on social media revolve around creating visual ads, unboxing, and influencers giving their feedback all indicates that video-based content is here to stay.
Micro-Influencer Collaboration
Micro-influencer collaboration refers to collaborating with influencers with small but highly engaged followers. Micro-influencers are niche experts, have high engagement, perceive higher authenticity, and are cost-effective for brands. As an influencer, to boost your posts on social platforms, you can buy likes and followers from quality sources.
Ethical and Transparent Branding
The future of marketing requires businesses to be ethical and transparent about their business practices. This helps not only in attracting customers but also in developing long-term trust and loyalty. In today’s world where identity politics is at the center of everything people want to shop from brands that share the same values.
Generation Z and New Platforms
Social media is mainly the playground of Gen Z, nobody has more influence and power on online platforms than them. They can come together to shut brands working for years thus having Gen-Z on your team and mind while drafting your marketing plans would be helpful.
New social media platforms are coming up every day. It might feel like joining every platform but it would be best to have a profile on major platforms but with a focus on the platform where your core audience lies.
Ethical and Privacy Concerns
With the availability of AI and Machine learning the ethical and privacy concerns from users’ end are all-time high. Be transparent in the data you utilize for marketing and have a strong focus on protecting the privacy of your valued customers.
Real-time Engagement and Customer Service
Social media offers real-time engagement between customers and marketers. This way both can communicate with each other. Many times, if a product or service faces backlash when announced, then it is delayed or canceled before release.
Customer service can now be offered using social media chats. Customers can directly message companies on Instagram and Facebook profiles for queries and complaints.
Role of AI and Chatbots
AI has revolutionized the marketing industry. It can be used to perform data analytics and predict customer behaviors. Chatbots are used to provide customers with service 24/7.
Many companies have chatbots that are programmed to accomplish smaller tasks without any human effort involved. However, it is ideal to combine the human workforce with the chatbots to deliver results efficiently.
The future of social media marketing is bright and includes using AI (Artificial Intelligence), VR (Virtual Reality), and AR (Augmented Reality) to better marketing strategies with a strong focus on ethics and the privacy of consumers.
No, traditional media stands on a strong foundation but in the future, more focus and efforts will be put into social media marketing.
Social media puts focus on video-based marketing efforts, customer-focused marketing strategies, and highly personalized marketing campaigns.
As the users of social media will only grow in the future shifting towards social media marketing is beneficial.
