‘One day we’ll be tweeting from the Moon, said the wise old owl to the eager baby beavers’
This sounds like something you’d see written in a story tale, but incredibly, it’s now actually true.
What does the future of Social Media look like? And how is it affecting our business and learning practices?
With the introduction of mobile smart phones and tablet computers in the late nineties, Social Media is accessible from virtually everywhere and has become an integral part of our daily lives.
It’s interesting to observe our businesses which now flourish under this relatively new found LCD light. Evidence of this is further highlighted by Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, who have adapted their platforms substantially to support these growing needs and trends.
Social Media commerce is now officially on the rise. Businesses understand that a social media presence is both required and a perfect marketing channel for advertisers looking for social “likes” which enhance brand visibility and reach.
Social media helps to humanize brands and builds loyalty through engagement with their followers. It gives consumers a chance to provide their thoughts and comments, which in turn helps the brand to monitor its reputation through various mentions and interactions.
Social Media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter support the rise of the independent consultant, placing them as online industry experts who offer advice to the general public in seconds, all thanks to search engine optimization. It’s now easier than ever for an independent to assess their online ROI by using the analytics that these platforms provide.
These tools will become more sophisticated and advanced as time goes on. I believe we will continue to see a huge growth in people setting up businesses and using these platforms to market their personal brands.
The effect of this will be wholly positive as it gives new levels of freedom in regards to our work-life balance, which is becoming increasingly important in our ever stressful 21st century work environments.
Look at the past of Social Media to see this growth trend:
- Friends Reunited, affectionately referred to as the ‘Granddaddy’ of Social Media at the beginning of the millennium paved the way for the hugely successful Facebook; which now has a whopping 1.6 billion active users.
- In 2008 Facebook tried to unsuccessfully buy Twitter.
- Twitter now has 200 million active users after catapulting into the media mainstream when it first broke the news story of the US Airways jet plane crashing into the Hudson River.
- I read very recently about two people who set up the Swedish Twitter University, which brought lectures in a series of tweets to a class of around 500 Followers.
Twitter University was the first time Twitter was used to deliver higher education, so it seems only apt that we should consider what this social media platform might do to transform the classroom? And how might it open up a new space for future public education?
I think we will see an influx of Social Media platforms that can out-do some of the well-known brands we are familiar with today. This is because we are living in a modern world that tends to gravitate towards convenience and efficiency.
Every app and social media platform is a product that serves our uncontrollable need to have everything right here and right now. This will produce spectacular results and shape the way we interact and do business in the future.
cool beans !!!