How is social media going to evolve or has it reached its limit?

Question asked by @TheIMSummit

Really meaty question, I like this one, thanks for sending this one in. Now, it’s a sensible question but also if you really put it into context, it’s not as sensible.

Let me explain what I mean by that, around the 1900’s there’s a famous quote of somebody saying at the patent office in the States we don’t need the patent office anymore, all the inventions that’ll ever be invented have been invented, there are no new things, therefore we’d only the patent office anymore that was actually in 1899. Now as we know, in the last 115 years there have been a few additional inventions that kind of blow that out the water and I think we’re in the same place right now. But it blows your mind to think what might be happening.

Now let’s just go back ten years, most social media platforms didn’t exist at all and now they are multi, multi, multi, multi, multi, multi, billion dollar platforms, huge business’s run by 20-year-old somethings that literally didn’t exist. We are at the very beginning of social media, I think going forward we’re going to see a lot more payment gateways, so it’s going get more expensive, so the level of playing field that we’ve enjoyed for the last few years will be something we look back on with fond memories but it isn’t going to be there for too much longer, even when you look at custom audiences in Facebook and dark posts and the value you have to put in there and the money you have to plow into get real visibility. The same is going to be true in a lot of other social channels. What I’m saying to my customers and anyone who listen is customer acquisition will never be this cheap again because small social media channels are popping up all the time, don’t get me wrong, but as they mature they’re being monetised. Social media is a PLC.

Going a little bit further, I think we’re going to see convergence, so I think your TV at home, we’re already seeing likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime, the Google Chromecast which kin of helps them link up, that’s going to be seamless and the internet and TV completely integrated and I think it’s going to go further than that. It’s going to be integrated in our cars, in our fridge, you name it, some people even say in more clothes than just the wrist watch. The iWatch is just about to come out, it’s not long now so that will change behaviour again. I think there are lot more twists and turns in social media and in 10 year’s time we’ll be talking about platforms that again haven’t even be invented yet. It’s going to be exciting so hold tight.