What Does Social Media Management Look Like for the Next Decade?

Nothing is concrete in forecasting without data-backed predictions. Modern commerce is moving to social platforms and that means a reevaluation of the way we manage social media for business.

Here are the basics of the practice and how it is changing:

What are the Fundamentals of Social Media Management?

When it comes to social media management (SMM) there are some tasks that will never change. This includes the following:

• Publishing: Scheduling and posting social media posts.
• Content Curation: Whether the SMM manager is writing or curating content, there must be a constant influx of material to work with.
• Inboxing: Interacting with direct social messages (DMs).
• Calendar: This is used to display posts (past and present) for all channels and networks in a list or calendar view.
• Monitoring and Listening: The action of staying continuously up-to-date with mentions, reviews, and comments on your brand across all social channels. This includes keywords, phrases, and hashtags.
• Community and Audience Management: Who are your influencers and the people most engaged? View insights into your audience, address problems, and thank people for their patronage. Do this on a constant basis.
• Analytics and Reporting: The ability to track posts and measure the performance.

These are the fundamental actions you must take to effectively manage a social account for business. When it comes to what’s next, check out these cool up and coming trends!

Product Research

A recent study of 178,421 global internet users (aged 16-64) by GlobalWebIndex found that 28% of users turned to social networks when researching products online. It’s a number that continues to rise every year.

Certain markets are growing faster than others. Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East all prefer social media over search engines for product research. That’s huge! As social influence grows, the search engine’s grip on product research will slip further. Especially among emerging markets and mobile-first consumers.

Additionally, most product search is going to switch to visual. Andrew Ng, Chief Scientist at Baidu, predicts that by this year, at least 50% of searches will be through images or speech.

Pinterest does the same. Their tool, Pinterest Lens, uses AI and machine learning to aid in brand and product discovery.

Passive Networking

According to research, one-third of online consumers spend their time on social media. However, as time moves on, new social behaviors are emerging for these channels.

People are starting to share less personal information across major networks. They are harder to pinpoint for marketing strategies. Instead, individuals are using social media to kill time, watch videos, and communicate with friends.

This is where the impact of video can be optimized. It positions social media as the go-to place for everything from sports to music and online shopping. Social videos can boost traffic and surpass passive networking. They keep people continuously engaged.

Social Commerce

As the popularity of social media continues to rise, so does social commerce. This is the act of purchasing a product or service directly through the social platform without ever leaving. It’s an experience of brand continuity and one that easily leads to more sales.

Social’s role in ecommerce is continuing to expand. The emerging economies will lead the way. Their behaviors bypass search engines and go directly to social platforms to do everything online.

To prepare for this trend, make sure your social video strategies and social commerce are working in unison. Remember, mobile-first buyers are looking for short and fun videos that get to the point.

Social media usage is skyrocketing. In 2017, 1 million people joined social networks every single day. That’s astounding. It’s slowly overtaking the conventional means of doing online business like search engines, websites, and landing pages. Africa currently has the fastest growth rates. It will be interesting to see how this diverse technology will level the playing field.