2017 Social Media Predictions and Their Accuracy

2017 Social Media Predictions and Their Accuracy

With over 2.3 billion active social media users, it is no longer fiction or fantasy that social media is here to stay. An average social media user spends approximately 3 hours or more online. More brands are keying in and using social media channels as business marketing tools. We are in the second quarter of the year and last year, there were some social media predictions for 2017. How many predictions are there, really? And how many have come true or about to come true? There are over forty predictions about the future of social media and we have selected those that seem to echo the thoughts and expectations of all the experts in social media, digital marketing and CEOs.

Warren Knight, social media expert made three predictions in which he fingered Data, Tools and Automation as the future of social media. He posits that understanding data is key as the data a business collects helps shape the way it communicates with its target audience online. He advises that brands collect and analyze data in order to the center of what their target audience wants from them as just posting on social media is no longer enough. This is where his Tools prediction comes in as brands will need tools to analyze and turn said collated data into useful information. Then, brands can automate their content on social media with a clear goal for what they want to achieve. Tools such as Buffer and Crowdfire are all tried and true automation tools that will allow your social media efforts to go farther, faster.
Matt Edstrom, Head of Marketing at BioClarity predicts a rise in virtual reality citing the success of PlayStation VR, he’s pointed that The Snapchat spectacles will pave the way for additional social networks to produce and market hardware.

One prediction that has come to pass is that of Lindsey Kent who predicted that more companies will include social media boosting in their marketing budget. Client support is another true prediction for 2017 as more and more clients are using companies’ social media pages for support, information and complaints as opposed to emails and phone calls.

Sandra Nomoto predicts that “more social networks will compete in the live video space, including Twitter and LinkedIn. The competition for attention using live, real-time video – which Periscope, Snapchat, Facebook Live and Instagram offered – will extend to these other networks.” This has proved to be true.
The prediction that hasn’t come to pass and isn’t looking to in the nearest future is by Kallen Diggs who said that Twitter will be bought out by Google or Verizon this year. Uhm, we don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Some of the predictions we have culled from www.busines2community.com