Social media is changing the way we do business. Most social media platforms are being adopted by businesses to promote brand awareness, advertise products and services, and even recruit talent. According to Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite, in an article written for Fast Company, these are the five trends that will change how companies use social media in 2016.
- Internal social networks will take the place of email
The upcoming Facebook at Work, Slack, and Convo are based around chat rooms and have search functions that will save people from having to sort through thousands of archived emails.
- Employees become brand ambassadors on social media
Companies will utilize their employees’ social networks by encouraging staff to share company updates with their personal networks, expanding the company’s reach.
- Social messaging apps use analytics
Holmes predicts that messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and others, will soon have analytics that will make data available to businesses for marketing purposes.
- Advertising on social media increases
As audience targeting becomes more precise and easier, companies are willing to increase spending for social media advertising.
- Social video becomes the most effective marketing tool
Snapchat, Vine, and other social video tools are increasing in use and are becoming one of the best ways for companies to marketing themselves.
The use of social media by businesses has come a long way in just a few short years. I’m eager to see if Holmes’ predictions will be accurate and how that may change the way we work.