Quick presentation about the future of social media - and more specifically how social media will change the future of your business, focusing on the key trends: - integration across business - crowdsourcing - customer service - visual emphasis - experience

1. THE FUTURE
OF SOCIAL MEDIA
30 April 2012
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2. WHO AM I?
CARA PRING
 5+ years marketing/media/comms/events experience @carapring
 3 years dedicated social media experience – worked cpring@servcorp.com.au
www.thesocialskinny.com
at Bupa, Qantas and now Servcorp
 B Media & Comms / B Arts Enviro Resource Studies
at University of Wollongong
 Started www.thesocialskinny.com in January 2011
 Slightly obsessed with travelling and animals
Servcorp: Provider of the world’s finest serviced
office and virtual office solutions (across over 120
locations globally)
www.servcorp.com.au
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5. SO WHAT IS THE FUTURE
OF SOCIAL MEDIA?
 Social media as a marketing/communications channel is no longer ‘new’ to most people or
businesses – but does that mean we are all doing it well?
 Almost impossible to predict the future of social media from a technological and platform
perspective
 Instead, the useful conversation around the future of social media is about businesses starting
to better understand the opportunities it provides to the point where it becomes integrated
across the business – not just in terms of marketing, but also customer service, recruitment, PR
etc.
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6. SOME SOCIAL MEDIA STATISTICS
BECAUSE EVERY GOOD PRESO HAS THEM
 66 percent of online adults are connected to one or more social media platforms
 Sales via social commerce are expected to reach $30 billion within five years
 Facebook is the most visited website on the internet (reaching one trillion pageviews on June 30 2011)
 There are now over 2.8 billion social media profiles, representing around half of all internet users
worldwide
 On average in one year, we will share 415 pieces of content on Facebook, we’ll spend an average of
about 23 minutes a day on Twitter, tweeting a total of around 15,795 tweets, we’ll check in 563 times
on Foursquare, upload 196 hours of video on YouTube, and send countless emails
 36% of social media users post brand-related content
 2 out of 3 social media users believe Twitter influences purchases
 One in three small businesses are now using social media
 40% of companies admit to having no training or governance of social media
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7. KEY SOCIAL MEDIA
TRENDS
Social media is not just about marketing. Since its inception this has been the focus for most businesses. But
already some are catching onto the other benefits – customer
service, communications, recruitment, PR, insights, even e-commerce...
What does this mean?
Social media is becoming integrated into all aspects of every business. The potential is being recognised. It’s not
something to be considered externally to everything else, to be tacked-on as an after-thought or used only for
dedicated social campaigns.
THE FUTURE = social media will no longer be a channel separated and siloed from everything else. Social
media will become a natural part of all business activity – involved from the beginning and even shaping offline
behaviour as much as it shapes online behaviour.
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8. THAT’S GREAT,
BUT WHAT ARE THE TRENDS?
 Higher level of integration across the business – integral to many more functions than just marketing
 Crowdsourcing
 Customer service
 Insights
 Visual emphasis
 Experiential element (incl. technological advancements, experiential marketing)
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9. CROWDSOURCING
GET PEOPLE INVOLVED WITH YOUR BUSINESS
 Ask your customers/communities questions – get
them involved in your business
 Doesn’t have to be in a huge way (eg. Doritos ad)
 Develops brand favourability
 Also free market research
 Feedback/suggestions for product
development, marketing campaigns, logos, naming
the office pet, referrals for jobs etc
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10. CUSTOMER SERVICE
MAKE THEM LOVE YOU
 The most basic social media opportunity – yet so
many aren’t doing it well
 Make an effort to go above and beyond
 Never delete negative comments (unless offensive) –
see them as an opportunity to prove yourself
 Actively monitor for brand mentions & start
conversations with your customers (current/potential)
 Build genuine relationships with your customers
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11. INSIGHTS
IT’S FREE MARKET RESEARCH
 Social media monitoring crucial element to strategy
 Amazing the insights that can be picked up by
listening to customers (current/potential)
 Much cheaper than soliciting feedback surveys or
market research
 Can truly contribute to product development &
business improvement (not to mention establish the
best and worst of your team members!)
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12. VISUAL EMPHASIS
MAKE THINGS LOOK PRETTY
 Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest!
 Facebook Timeline Format
 Our obsession with video
 Shorter posts get more engagement
 Social media users are becoming more and more lazy
– they don’t want to read text, they want to see pretty
things!
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13. EXPERIENCE
GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT
 Experiences (online & offline) prompt conversation
 PR is no longer about a media release, but about
creating a unique experience that people will want to
talk about (not a catchy headline)
 Much more value to your brand – shows
endorsements, favourability rather than passive
absorption of information
 Big trend in technological experience – eg.
Augmented Reality, Projection Mapping, Kinect
technology
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14. EXPERIENCE
GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT
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15. SO, IN CONCLUSION
SOCIAL MEDIA IS SET TO GET BIGGER
 It’s no longer a separate ‘marketing platform’
 We will start to see a shift towards deeper integration across all business functions
 It will become part of your entire business – part of almost every aspect – even internal
communications, recruitment, contact centres etc.
 From now on your PR strategies should revolve around what will get people talking rather than what will get
people reading (not about headlines, but experiences)
 Even offline behaviours/experiences will be designed to stimulate a social reaction
 Customer relationship management will have a new meaning – you can really get to know your customers
 Start thinking about what technologies may be suitable to showcase your business – get in early so that you get
the maximum attention,
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16. ANYONE HAVE ANY
QUESTIONS?
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