Whats The Next Big Thing In Social Media

Social Media is one of the fastest moving areas of the modern world. Amazing Marketing Techniques that can help your Business gain virality and customers/clients one week, can be useless two weeks later.

Luckily however there are long standing trends, like the rise of YouTube and TikTok. But of course, looking at these platforms in a more professional capacity, are any of these trends of any use to you?

Live Streaming Will Take Over

Live Streaming has been a steady part of Online Culture and Social Media. It can be good for Marketing as Live Streamers can promote products. However if you're a B2B Business, this isn’t that helpful.

So how can you make use of the growing live content? Well as Social Media Experts begin to claw at this now exploding way of reaching your audience the answer is painstakingly simple.

GO LIVE! People love that level of human interaction and the ability to ask questions in real time. Plus now that many platforms allow for a live feature, you're not locked in and forced to grow an audience. Many Platforms know not everyone is a Content Creator and they want to attract Businesses. Places like TikTok and Instagram know that pushing Businesses up is a route to selling ad space. So it's time to utilize that.

Instagram and TikTok really are the best places for Q&A’s whilst Twitch and YouTube are the best for events. So overall it's also about looking into which of these is the right one for you and your Business. YouTube is not as popular a platform for Live Audiences but it is growing and fast. Twitch, on the other hand, has a very pre-filled Live Space, and is more well known for gaming. This leads YouTube and Instagram as your best bets moving forward as they have a more mature audience.

AR And VR Will Become The Norm

We all saw Facebook evolve into Meta. A Virtual World of limitless possibilities sounds fun, but for now, moving into an entirely VR Space, is limited to those with expensive headsets. That is until Elon Musk gives us all some cool Sci-Fi Brain Chips. Yet AR, really is about to take the world by storm.

We all have the little gimmicks on our phones but platforms like Snapchat and Instagram allow Brands to advertise themselves with Filters which users can try on. This will quickly become a marketing field day and it will happen quicker than you think.

When it comes to AR vs VR the two will inevitably come together at some point. But for now, advertising on an AR Google Maps could be more cost effective than a giant Billboard.

And if you're looking for someone to help you Visualise any Advert ideas or Pitches you have, feel free to give us a call.

Advertisers Will Seek New Platforms

There has been a minor emphasis on Advertising throughout this blog but that's because in one way or another, that's the core of Social Media Marketing. 

Since its inception, Facebook has been the top dog for Advertising Space and Social Media Marketing. Getting a cute story or a meme to go viral, spreading the word about your products or services was easy. But the Internet moves fast. In the 22 years since the turn of the millennium the Internet has raced forward hundreds.

What took various Cultures, Empires and Continents Centuries to develop in the way of Culture, Language and Tradition the online space can do in a Month. Ok maybe not to the revolutionary scale of say the Romans, but you understand the point. And much like Rome, Facebook has fallen.

Advertisers now target younger audiences on Snapchat and older audiences on sites like Pinterest, whilst Instagram tackles both.

So if you're looking to grow business in the Social Spaces, Facebook may not be the biggest focus. Things have changed a lot, especially in the last 10 years. So get researching on the latest trends before we’re all walking around in the Metaverse.

Instagram Reels Will Challenge TIkTok

TikTok has dominated Social Media over the last two years, but for Business, it has one major drawback. Its target Audience is younger teens, Mainly Gen Z. 

Yet, Instagram has always been the home of the Millennials, many of which are now in a more professional standing. So whilst on TikTok you often find yourself needing to learn the latest dance, Instagram Reels are a REEL secret powerhouse (pun intended).

With people already having platforms on Instagram and TikTok being very happy with bans and a brutal algorithm that punishes most content over 15 seconds. Instagram Reels is already becoming a fast contender. Not only this, YouTube shorts have allowed yet another way for people to enjoy that platform. 

Overall, Instagram Reels is definitely something to look into and if you have an audience on YouTube, definitely investigate shorts.