Social media predictions 2015
It’s that time of year, again. Time to get out our crystal ball and look to the future.
Let’s take a look at our 2014 predictions, and how they turned out.
- Mobile usage will increase - CORRECT ;-)
- Social media will become more visual - CORRECT ;-)
- Automated messages won’t be frowned upon - CORRECT ;-)
- The fall of Facebook? - INCORRECT ;-(
But that’s 2014. That’s done. Let’s move on to 2015!
What do we think will turn up?
1. Filtered Twitter feed
Twitter has a problem with the amount of content being created. Surely the more content, the better? Yes and no. The issue for Twitter is that there is a lot of noise, and that is effecting its user experience.
When a new user signs up to Twitter, they have to find people to follow. Then, when they come back to their feed, they have a chronological feed that may be full of noise, or uninteresting content.
It is expected that Twitter will soon serve tweets based on algorithms - similar to Facebook.
In a way, they already do this with #Hashtags. If you search a #Hashtag, an algorithm will show the top tweets. All tweets can be viewed by clicking the respective tab.
2. There will be a battle for video
Video has always been a big part of social media, but 2015 will see more and more video being published by schools.
Facebook have continued to invest in their video technology, and this was seriously popularised with the Ice Bucket Challenge. During that period, it was impossible to go onto Facebook without seeing your feed full of auto-playing videos of people pour ice over themselves.
All major social companies have their own video companies.
- Google (YouTube)
- Facebook (Instagram)
- Twitter (Vine)
However, when you think about it more, there will be 5 places to possible post videos to in 2015:
- YouTube
- Vine
Twitter are the only social channel that does not allow you to natively upload video, yet. But this will be coming (likely in 2015).
Vine and Instagram are looking to be the platform for mobile video.
Instagram also released Hyperlapse in 2014 - an app that creates mobile hyperlapses. Will we be seeing more video apps popping up? Probably.
We’re starting to see more stylised video content - very similar to Instagram filters. This is due to software being readily available.
With the popularisation of GoPro products, slow-motion on smartphones, timelapses, and 360-videos, 2015 looks to be a popular year for creating video content. But which social channel will we upload our videos too?
3. Better social analytics
These social channels need to make money. And the way they will make money is by selling adverts. And to sell more adverts, companies need to know that the ROI is worth it.
Google have become hugely success full in selling adverts because they built Google Analytics - which shows people that the adverts they are investing in are worth it!
Social media channels will be doing more of this in 2015. Facebook and Twitter have their own analytics, but they are no where near the level of Google Analytics
We’re expecting Social Candy to be your go-to metric analysis tool.
4. Social conversions
Social media plays a big part in shopping - either for recommendations, offers, or other reasons.
So the opportunity for social media channels is huge. Twitter has already introduce Twitter Cards, which allows you add rich photos, videos, media, and other experiences to tweets.
In 2014, Amazon linked shopping to Twitter by enabling people to add products to their basket using #AmazonBasket.
Perhaps Twitter will introduce a ‘Buy’ button to tweet to allow direct purchases.
This would certainly be of benefit for Pinterest, who’s demographic is mostly in aspiration and shopping mode.
What are your predictions for 2015? Tweet us @intSchools
[5] BELOW are some “Left-Field” predictions by other web sources. Back to the Future 2 reality in 2015. Love that film.
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