Entrepreneur.com asked me to jot down five trends I see emerging in social media, and AudienceSCAN.com picked up the story. One of the biggest trends is how social media platforms are starting to act more like search engines. In fact, the vast majority of online shoppers are more influenced by reviews rather than comments by their peers. They’ll head directly to social media, or use a related app, in order to make their next purchase.
Now Facebook is also serving older generations, which makes sense. Those who jumped on the bandwagon when it got hot are now in their 30s and 40s. Simultaneously, we’re mobile ready and the future is mobile too. This means platforms need to play nicely with mobile readiness and responsive design. That doesn’t translate well to all existing SM platforms, so new platforms will be created with a mobile audience already in mind.
Politics are a hot topic on SM, and it’s become a critical platform during election season. Finally, big data is being utilized in order to customize—and culture remains king. This doesn’t necessarily mean big data is being used as well as it could be, but we’re getting closer.
