The ball has dropped, the people have shopped, and the corks have popped! Now it’s time to get back to work. Let’s take a look down the road and see what we find for Social Media Predictions for the New Year!A RETURN OF SOCIAL TO SOCIAL MEDIA
As the world has seen the great social media experiment evolve (or devolve in some instances), there has been a great focus on how it will change the face of marketing. But there are many who make the case that marketing has changed social media – mainly by decreasing the social and blowing up the ‘media.’ Recent years have seen content constructed to direct people, not be led by their needs and wants; analytics being applied haphazardly and misleadingly; and technology being used to make people tools rather than as a tool for people to use. Watch for a return of more social – human connections, individuals creating and broadcasting innovative personal entertainment, local activism – to the social media equation in 2019. In other words, the things that made social media so great in its early phases.USE OF ANALYTICS WILL MATURE
Analytics have immense potential, there is no great opposing argument to this belief, but like many powerful tools when first discovered, they are used for just about anything because people are thrilled by their force and scope. But that scope has to be fit to size at some point, like when we realize we don’t need a jackhammer when a handheld hammer will do the job needed – more efficiently and cost-effectively, too. 2019 promises to show organizations’ growing comprehension and more precise use of analytics – especially those of the predictive flavor. Predictive modelling will blossom into the great use of analytics, helping companies large and small to better understand and serve their clients. Its potential to conserve resources – time, money, and capital investment – is too valuable to not to be utilized in a major way going forward.CHATBOTS – GROWING IN QUALITY AND USAGE
Chatbots are the most basic form of A.I. and their growth in 2019 will continue to expand. Customer service demands in this 24-7 never sleeping world can use some assistance for the humans that do need some occasional shut-eye, and the advances in chatbots are going to surprise those who assume their usefulness is very limited or that they are a flash in the pan. Oracle has predicted that up to 80% of businesses plan on incorporating some level of chatbots by 2020. So that leaves 2019 to get ‘er done! They will increase in capability and decrease in cost if they follow the natural trend of technology. Look for chatbots in more customer service applications, as well as internal personnel support and HR-connected usage.Those are just a few predictions for the social media world at the start of 2019 – stay tuned here for more discussion of the topics and trends that impact business. Contact Steven James whatever time of year it is to help you with all your media needs!
