The Real Social Media Game Changers
FACEBOOK STATUSES GO PUBLIC
Pressure to increase and diversify profitability will lead Facebook to completely reorganize its ad offerings, a process that began roughly a year and a half ago, but has been slow to solidify.
Ad units allowing brands higher visibility in the coveted newsfeed, where users spend 19 out of the 20 minutes on of their average Facebook visit, will help brands break away from overpassed side rails. Facebook will relinquish its hold on user data previously available only through open graph app strategies that have shown diminishing returns.
2014 will bear fruit for Facebook’s sponsored engagement ads and long-promised videos – 15-second spots that autoplay in the newsfeed and exceed a $1 million asking price. And despite years mired in privacy concerns, Facebook will make status updates, trends and user data more public in 2014, allowing media and other entities to access new monetization opportunities, keyword and lookalike targeting, and CRM matching still held under lock and key by largely private profiles.
INSTAGRAM MESSAGING GOES PRIVATE
If Facebook can’t buy it, it creates it. After rumors surfaced that Snapchat snubbed Facebook’s offer to purchase the private photo platform for $3 billion, it’s no surprise that the Menlo Park team has released its development dogs to take a bite out of disposable media. Zuckerberg’s pet project Facebook Poke already proved that the social giant could replicate Snapchat’s functionality in just a few days. In 2014, expect Instagram to be the platform that delivers private photo messaging, allowing 1:1 and group sharing of photography – and of course a route for brands to monetize photos that may cause potential Snapchat revenues to self-destruct.
Expect Snapchat to return fire by allowing users to save at least some of their content in 2014. With the creation of “Stories,” app users will look for ways to archive and repurpose their video adventures generated on the platform, likely the next evolution of Snapchat’s product.
TWITTER CONTINUES QUEST TO BECOME QUEEN OF ALL MEDIA
Twitter will turn its eye to music discovery after raising a victory flag in the social TV wars.
It was a busy year for Twitter, cementing itself as the official second screen while buying up major market players like Bluefin Labs and Trendrr and formulating strategic partnerships with Nielsen to create a social ratings system.
Its latest partnerships with Xfinity allows users tweeting about a show to immediately watch, record or set reminders about the program via a service dubbed SeeIt. Expect more media companies to utilize Twitter Cards in unique ways next year, making the once text-driven platform look conspicuously more like Facebook.
Next up, Twitter will look to make good after the flop of its music discovery app, which reminds us of other failures in the space, most notably iTunes Ping.
ROI ON SOCIAL CRM PROGRAMS NO LONGER IN QUESTION
Social CRM is no longer in experimentation stage and has moved beyond customer lifestage targeting. Brands are now successfully following the customer journey not only across social platforms, but across channel, to their mobile device and into the store downtown.
Social listening will be used to parse out and predict intent to purchase as well as crowdsource content ideas for busy and diversified brand profiles. Social listening will also foster competitive conquesting and hot lead generation like never before, as social brands vie for your business in a one-click marketplace.
In 2014, more brands will turn to gamification and digital loyalty programs to incentivize deeper brand relationships online and offline.
SHOWROOMING DRIVES SOCIALIZED RETAIL EXPERIENCE
Digital democratization has given consumers access to more choices than ever before, but it’s no surprise that search results from window shopping Google or Amazon can rapidly become overwhelming. Many consumers are choosing to ditch the browser and head back to brick-and-mortar. Enter the 2014 version of consumer luxury: relaxed, personalized, on-demand services.
We’ve seen this work in verticals like transportation, where on-demand Uber cars take the hassle out of fighting for a cab and put peace of mind at the forefront for the customer. But can reduction of inventory actually lead to an increase in revenue? Enter the new world of retail show rooming, where stores are actually shrinking in an effort to get to know you better.
Instead of navigating a booming 50,000 square foot box, Nike customers are now greeted by flexible layouts at half the size, focused on creating a share-worthy brand experience. Regular in-store activations, stylist and support staff that can speak to your routines and serve up products you want, and limited stock known to be popular in the locality are all that this former big box now contains. Brands like Bonobos keep just one of everything in their Guideshop stock, emphasizing service to pick out what will look best on you. Some retailers carry no stock at all, like custom tailor Indochino, which lets loose a phalanx of iPhone stylists to measure and personalize your business wear, delivered to your home within a few weeks.
REVERSE SHOWROOMING DRIVES FOOT TRAFFIC TO STORES
While showrooms shrink down, 41% of consumers claim they practice “reverse showrooming”—browsing online and then purchasing in stores. In 2014, visual networks like Instagram will lead the impulse buy and Pinterest will find more ways to put you in the mall parking lot. Want to buy that outfit of the day #OOTD? Expect both digital and real world routes to purchase, from coupons to augmented reality fitting rooms to UGC bartering. And don’t be surprised if Pinterest makes another big move: marketing to men.
FOURSQUARE HAS ITS LAST RUN FOR MAYOR
After a year of press painting Dennis Crowley as the crippled genius grasping at straws to make Foursquare a mainstream success, the location-based platform will need to hit a pivotal moment: checking into the bank.
Despite a database of more than 3 billion places of interest and 30 million active users at its disposal, Foursquare has yet to move the needle of generating ROI for itself or its clients. Homepage ad units and geofenced push messaging will help, but Dens and co. should really leverage their app’s greatest asset: contextual user data.
What Foursquare has done (and what has not been widely publicized) is become the behind-the-scenes location layer for apps like Instagram, Uber and Pinterest. If Foursquare can successfully mine what we’ve dubbed “contextography” (context + geography), it can perhaps achieve the goal Crowley has been striving for all along: understanding consumer travels well enough to predict the potential next best customer. While users have long promoted their favorite local businesses on the app, in 2014, lookalike Foursquare users must become the recommendation for Foursquare’s invested businesses.
SINGLE SCREEN STRATEGIES ARE SHATTERED
2014 will be the year of screen fragmentation – in a good way.
As the content explosion continues to overwhelm consumers with too much noise and not enough signal, brands will be forced to target their best fans and most suitable leads using different channels throughout the consumer journey -- if they have any hope of breaking through newsfeeds at all.
Up until now, algorithms have decided what out of the millions of daily social messages we actually see. In 2014, one-size-fits-all-people-and-platforms will finally come to an end as brands see their reach and return on engagement plummet.
Consumers are spending more than an hour per day on their smartphones; mobile is the only media time that is growing. With more than 1/5 of internet traffic now coming from mobile devices, brands will have to shed their responsive designs and singular content strategies to focus on adaptive messaging that reaches the right person at the right place and the right time.
AS ADDRESSABLE ADVERTISING MARKET GROWS,
SO DOES THE NEED FOR ADDRESSABLE CONTENT
As more digital advertisers know exactly who you are and the what media you consume, expect your digital fingerprints to deliver eerie levels of advertising personalization. Your satellite cable and radio providers, in vehicle telematics and even your Xbox will “know you” well enough to allow unique social, mobile and advertising delivery.
Mobile spending increased from 7% of digital ad revenue in H1 2012 to 15% in H2 2013. Most of that boost was due to mobile phone and tablet deployment, but expect in-vehicle messaging to emerge as a major mobile screen in 2014, featuring local opportunities, customized content catered to driver preferences, and prioritized to accommodate average time spent in transit.
CORD CUTTERS DEMAND (AND FUND) INTERACTIVE, NON-LINEAR PROGRAMMING
Netflix now reaches 38% of the US market. Social discovery and digital delivery has ushered in the cord cutting era, making the viability of non-broadcast programming such as “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” possible.
As all television becomes more interactive – from social voting on “The Voice” to audience interventions on “Opposite Worlds” – non-linear storytelling with non-traditional release schedules will be born entirely out of social media. Focus groups and social rankings will be make or break series, as shown in the Amazon TV model. Original programming like AOL ON Originals will be tied to key influencers and celebrities with enough clout to green light development and sustain their promotion.
For smaller projects, crowd-demanded and funded programming may spin off of fan favorites from traditional broadcasts or be created expressly for the digital viewer. Expect a diversity of content – in length, channel and format – in 2014.
WEARABLES DRIVE THE FUTURE OF AR
While the buzziest devices in the wearable category may be Google Glass and Samsung’s Galaxy Gear, those actually making it on the sidewalk are devoted to health and fitness, e.g. Nike Fuel Bands and FitBits.
In 2014, wearables will gain further adoption (and fewer side-eyes) as we start to explore new ways to produce and share content on the go. Designing for wearables will unlock new augmented reality experiences that, to date, have been more for show than utility. Meanwhile, don’t expect the public to embrace embeddables – we’re still getting used to talking to our devices and aren’t nearly ready to let them under our skin.
*Disclosure: NBC Universal, Samsung and AOL are current clients of the author’s employer, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing.
