The year 2015 is over and we are not all walking around wearing our virtual reality glasses. At least not yet. Keeping this in mind, let’s have a look at what we can expect from this years’ future:
1. Social Selling: Since the year 2015, several social media networks have introduced buying options on their platforms. One example for social selling are the Buyable-Pins on Pinterest. Facebook is currently testing a new form of e-commerce with a so called shopping feed that will turn your news feed into a virtual store window for advertisers.
2. Mobile Live Streaming: Live-steaming had its breakthrough in 2015 with the mobile app Meerkat but ill surely find its way into our daily live on other social media. Other platforms have meanwhile developed their own apps and functions for this purpose, like Twitters Periscope as well as the live-stream function on Facebook. This offers new ways for companies how to interact with fans and followers: Announcements, breaking news and Q&A-sessions can now engage customers in real-time and with full-video to interact with a company.
3. On-Platform-Content: Social Media sites, like Facebook are now trying to get users to upload content directly on their pages rather than just sharing content from other sites. While previously users used third-party pages, e.g. YouTube or WordPress to create content and then share it on Facebook, now it should be possible to upload it directly to their site. The goal for social media sites is to retain users on their sites for longer time.
4. Ephermeral: „Ephemerality“ originates from the Greek word „Ephemeros“ which translates to „something that only lasts a day“. Social media pages use this function to put something like and expiration date on content. Examples of this trend are Snapchat or Periscope which already introduced the self-destruction function to their services.
5. Reciprocal Ratings: It’s not only the company who gets rated online. Thanks to companies like AirBnB or Uber, it has become more and more common that the consumer of an online service as well as the provider get rated. The driving force behind this trend might be consumers’ desire for building trust in the digital world where privacy and security are users’ biggest concerns.
