Social Media, Web Design

We can all agree that technology as a whole has seen plenty of advances over the last 5 years. Technological advances and innovative entrepreneurship have been key to this rapid development. From artificial intelligence to faster reply rates, today’s online resources have generated more room for growth. With Social Media Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Pinterest capitalizing on this movement, there’s no surprise as to why social media is evolving. The following article is meant to review how social media is evolving, how it benefits businesses, and features that might appear in the future.

Customer Service

Social Media has dramatically helped how fast large and small companies take care of their customers. Although bad complaints are seen every day, social media has helped businesses make up for mistakes and show why they’re highly trusted. Some companies even answer within seconds thanks to notification systems. There are also companies that use robots to respond to customers in case there’s nobody available to reply. Some companies even use artificial intelligence to gather reports on employee performance and engagement rates.

Tracking and Analytics

Analytical and tracking tools are the most useful features included with most social media business accounts. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Analytics are extremely helpful for tracking conversion rates. In basic words, these tools help business owners understand when to post and what to post to maximize social engagement. Tracking and analytics are constantly evolving, so you can expect to see better features in the future.

Employment and Shop Listings

It’s hard for us to avoid mentioning two of the most interesting additions to Facebook over the last few years. The Marketplace and Groups have become extremely popular in 2019. These two popular features on Facebook allow millions of people and businesses to post items for sale or offer employment opportunities for little or no cost at all. Today, you can log into Facebook, scroll down, and find almost any item you can imagine up for grabs. Some have even gone as far as posting eats and desserts for sale. Just a few years ago, we had to go to Craigslist or Amazon to do this! Pretty soon social media platforms might start partnering up with large businesses to organize the online shops and become one-stop shops. Don’t be surprised if you start seeing delivery options and stock options on social media in the future. Here’s a list of some items we’ve spotted in the Facebook Marketplace:

• Antiques
• Cakes and Pastries
• Cars
• Car Parts
• Clothes
• Collectables
• Computers
• Electronics
• Furniture
• Homes
• Land
• Phones
• Rental Homes
• Shoes
• Utility Services

Payment Options

Most online users today use payment options provided by social media companies to pay for a service or item. In most cases, it’s safer than paying someone in person or sending a check by mail. B2B and B2C companies can also use these payment methods for small one-time fees if they wanted to. These payment methods have also helped families across the globe transfer money with the touch of a finger and a small fee.

Entertainment

Memes and videos aren’t the only things that appear on social media now. 2018 welcomed popular social media features like IGTV and Streaming on Facebook. From a business perspective, these features allow businesses to create trendy DIY videos, review, and commercials to attract new customers. Now, before jumping into that space with any video you must do some research first. Cision suggests the “rule of 7”, which refers to wowing the audience with great content in less than 7 seconds or you might miss your chance for conversion. This is why you should conduct research and plan out a “script” before going live on social media or publishing a video.

News and Crisis Response

Why watch a weather or news report when you can just Google it or find it on Facebook? It seems we can find everything on the web now. Someone can find news on something that happened hours ago. This advance has led towards newspapers and small television networks to jump into the digital marketing space. This means we can expect many more marketing agencies to pop up within the next 5 years. News and Crisis coverage also promotes more opportunities for advertisement windows.

Pay Per Click Ad Systems

Pay Per Click advertisement has wildly increased over the past 3 years and with good reason. According to Search Engine Land, 49 percent of people click on text ads, 31 percent on Shopping ads, and 16 percent on video ads. This means it works! We at KDH Digital Services believe it’s due to the fact that social media platforms allow you to advertise based on demographics and time. This makes it perfect for businesses to target the right audiences at the right time. Contact us if you’re interested in launching a PPC Campaign for your business.

Future Features

Let’s step into the world of possibilities that can come in the near future. With the way social media platforms have been moving lately, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if we see the following features in the future:

Gamification

Social media platforms are slowly rolling out other ways people can monetize content creation. For example, Facebook has already launched live stream gaming options which have been known to pull in serious money for popular gamers on other platforms.

Pay For Ad-Free Social Media

There’s always a possibility of social media platforms monetizing ad-free access to their services. Premium service would certainly be a hit for platforms with over 500 million accounts. Imagine paying around $4 a month for ad-free content! Nowadays, almost everyone would do it to avoid irrelevant ads during 2-minute videos.

Web Design and Customization

It’s only a matter of time before Facebook or Twitter allow you to design your profile with drag and drop options. It would be like MySpace once did, but simpler. We’ve already started seeing diversified posts and colors to get a simple taste of what the future holds in store. Social Media could also benefit from having preset music and animations to add to your videos while posting. Again, people want to show the world what makes them different, so this addition could come to social media platforms.

Final Thoughts

We can’t wait to see what else the future holds in store for the world of social media. Of course, only time will tell if our speculations are correct or if we’ll have to keep waiting for these advances. We also want to know what you think. What types of social media features will we see in the future? If you or your business struggle or don’t have the time to keep up with social media management, contact us today.