Social media has become an essential part of everyday life. If you are not in tune with social media, you are not relevant. Most communication are done through social media channels. The “old school” paper press is a dying industry as digital media takes over. 

E-commerce has evolved completely from what it use to be. If companies are not using social media, they are not relevant. They are missing out on a big chunk of the market. Now, it’s all about engaging your customers and addressing their needs. Just having a website with products and a transaction method is not enough. You need social media to stay connected, relevant, and to adapt. 

What’s Next for Social Media?

This, I think, is the key question to ask. There are so many tech start-ups and new social media outlets in the market that it is almost overwhelming. The Godfather of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube, Google +, etc) have taken a big chunk of the market and will continue to do so through acquisitions and development.  A lesson to learn from myspace (formerly: MySpace) www.myspace.com is that UX/UI, design, connectivity, and user engagement is crucial. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next now that they just re-launched the company with an app.

OK now to my point. What’s next? The next thing is all about convenience, accessibility, and efficiency. Technology is constantly changing and big tech companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Sprinklr, etc, will continue to make acquisitions and expand their reach. What needs to happen next is, technology needs to catch up to social media. 

We need to ask: how can we make social media even more convenient and accessible?   

We need to think about how we can integrate social media into everyday life aside from using your smartphone or computer. Think outside the box. In a few years you’ll be able to go to a restaurant and check in, rate the food/service, and recommend without physically using your phone. Instead of Google Glass, you’ll have contacts that will be synced with your smartphone with the capabilities to analyze what you see and interact with you (directions, facial recognition to remind you of the person’s name, etc). You’ll be able to go to the mall and Pin items without physically using your phone. Speaking of Pinterest, I think Pinterest will soon develop a technology that will allow you to buy the very things you pin directly through their social media outlet. For those people that like to take pictures of themselves in the washroom (trust me, it’s a thing), you’ll be able to do that without your camera because it’ll be built in to the mirror. Oh and that very mirror will also allow you to try on clothes that you’ve Pinned without physically doing so. As creepy as that sounds, it’s going to happen.

It’s not about throwing a technology out there and hope for the best. It’s about strategically finding a way to engage with other users in a way that is innovative, very accessible, efficient, and great design.