Social media is about to get social-er

Say what?

Yes, social media is finally getting a little more social with a few new changes to some of the main social media platforms.

I’ll explain that statement in just a minute, but first I want to explain why this change is important.

Social media is becoming a marketing luna park

Facebook sells users as the product and Google is looking for ways to collect more data on us. All just so that we marketers will be able to create better performing advertising campaigns and optimize advertising budgets.

“So where’s the problem?” you might ask. “Don’t interrupt!” I would reply, “I’m getting there, sheesh…”

What this means is that just like TV is transforming into an advertisement cramming media, so is social media. Wherever you look, ads are popping up when you least expect them, but magically, they answer exactly what you needed, without you knowing that you needed it yet!

Social media managers can maintain their brand’s pages without having to express themselves, without having to show their faces and without thinking for themselves, really…

OK, get to the ‘change’ part already

The three main changes are:

Live video

A brand new hype, which is basically forcing you to do stuff live, interact with your audience and actually use your real face and voice to get in touch with your social media followers. Crazy innit?!

Algorithms

Are now applied everywhere in order to make sure the best content is shown to you, according to what you’re interested in and are more likely to interact with. That means content has to actually be interesting to you, therefore a marketer has to actually know his audience and know how to push their buttons.

Live chats

While many platforms like Twitter and Facebook already have their Private messaging are under control (Facebook even has their Messenger for businesses) other channels are still working on that.

Snapchat, which is making quite a buzz lately with their latest chat update which sports not only a WhatsApp-like audio messaging feature, but also a fully functioning video chat, much like the Facebook Messenger and Facetime, all this, without needing to share private info like your phone number!

So what does all this mean to marketers? You are now, quite literally, the face of your brand. As Carlos Gil explained, this feature is bringing Social back to social media. You’re going to have to personally interact with followers, whether with or without video, on private messages or just reacting to snaps.

It’s a huge step for the social media community building strategy, which is oh so important for any brand that wishes to have a loyal follower base. Snapchat is only giving what so many digitally oriented (and non) customers are craving for: someone to listen to them and give them quick answers.

If you remember, I talked about this in my earlier post about your brand’s online presence and how important it is for both you and your customers.

Alright, I’m pumped, so what should I do?

• First off, find the star who’s gonna manage your social media presence for you. If that’s gonna be you, well thats just awesome! But we all know that it’s not easy to run a business and manage your social media presence.
   That person should be super excited to represent your brand online and perfectly informed to be able to respond to questions coming in.
• Find where your customers are and create a social media account there, getting familiar with the live chat and live video features.
• Understand what people might need, or see what questions usually get repeated, and get those into your website’s FAQ page, so that your live chat channel won’t take over your entire schedule.
• Have fun with it! Don’t feel as it’s another chore, just enjoy helping people and try to see how you can improve your business and services from these priceless 1-on-1 interactions you’re suddenly having.

Have you managed to improve your brand’s reputation with live chat? Did interacting with customers help perfect your product somehow? Please let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to contact me if you have any questions!

Originally published at blog.stibelman.com on April 4, 2016.