Social media has grown from a way
to connect with your best friends to a commercial entity which allows regular
people and businesses to build relationships, attract customers, and grow their
product or service. We all understand the power that social media has today and
the kind of prospects it has in the future, but what exactly can we expect in
terms of personal and business oriented social media?
Social media and our
Personal Brand:
Social
media can help any individual build their own personal brand. They can portray
an ideal image of themselves to others so as to grow their connections and
value. Much like LinkedIn currently, social media in the future will allow us
to connect with the people we know and build connections in our chosen profession.
Employers will also be able to check our work experience, our references, and
even what kind of person we are based on our social media profiles. On a more
personal note, our social media applications will let us see exactly what
friends think of a certain restaurant or what they recommend to order and, much
like this proposed product from Google, will let us see
these things on the fly with a type of augmented reality.
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| A way augmented reality may work in the future. |
The Future of Social
Media in Business:
Today,
businesses can attract customers and increase sales with social media, but as
it evolves, social media will help in a number of ways. Social media will be a
great avenue for businesses to gain access to its customer’s activities and
ideas. For example, businesses could further define their most frequent
customers and target them over less frequent visitors. This increase in
awareness of customer traits will also result in more personalized products and
experiences. Also, because users can “check in” when they go somewhere just
like in the Google video, the business will be able to see when a person enters
their store and can send the customer information about sales or even
directions to a specific product through their social media application.
Essentially, the future of social media in business will allow companies to
personalize the customer experience and gain further knowledge of its target
markets.
An interesting video on social media
The future of social media is
already happening today, such as the “check in” feature on Facebook, and these
services will continue to evolve and change as time goes on. Eventually
everything will be integrated and will let businesses and consumers expand
their reach and gain access to other people’s opinions and thoughts on specific
places or products. How do you think social media will change in the future?
Thanks for reading
Dusan Andic.
By the way, here’s an interesting article which interviews various
people about their ideas of what the future of social media is: http://www.businessinsider.com/future-of-social-media-2011-11?op=1
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