In the last few years social media has been seen as an add-on to marketing activity, however there are now a number of well documented cases where social media is becoming an intrinsic part of businesses and a few where it is the fundamental function. Organisations of all sizes are now waking up to how they are engaging with their customers whether B2B or B2C and how social media can help them drive client acquisition, customer service and alternately profitability.
C24 try to keep abreast of all the latest business and technology trends to help our clients and alternately their clients. During research we have highlighted a number of technology trends that we believe will be important or at least very interesting over the next two years.
Retail: Social media has changed and is continuing to change how we shop, now is possibly the most important time in the history of retail for retailers to think about how they are engaging with their clients within the social media landscape. Latest technology updates from Facebook and Amazon now allows shoppers to get access to their friends tastes and to discover new tastes, the ‘earned’ media points are now becoming increasing valuable possible more valuable than celebrity endorsements that brands pay extraordinary amounts for.
Other interesting developments in this arena is the group buying sites concept, so much so that at the time of writing this blog according to the New York Times Google is preparing a $6 billion offer for Groupon truly signifying their value of this particular technology. Groupon for those who don’t know emails or tweets limited-time discounts to users each day, but a certain amount of people must respond to make the deal a reality, sometimes with discounts up to 90%. Is this business worth $6 billion, well Google thinks it is.
Other retail models are being tested all the time however it is vitally important that retail organisations test the existing and new models and think about how they are presenting products and interacting with new and existing clients. The next few years will be an extraordinary time to be involved in retail marketing.
Another area that is gaining significant momentum is co-created content, where brands and consumers work together on content that for instance can highlight how the product is being used, or modified or in some cases idolised. Some companies even allow users to place design images online and get all users to vote on the best design and then put it into production really creating a community driven business model. Companies that have made a success of this type of model are Nike iD and Burberry, however there are countless smaller companies who are thinking outside the box and making a real success. This type of strategy is allowing consumers to get intimately involved with brands and drive true value and the creation of small micro brand communities.
Finally mobile, C24 have discussed many mobile technologies and adoptions strategies, however it is one of the most important business areas of tomorrow, Google recently shared with us that 10% of its search volume is mobile and this figure is growing considerably by the month. Location based services introduced by Facebook, foursquare etc are now driving the adoption of geo-localised marketing and allowing brands to consider where their consumers are at any particular moment and how they would like to engage.
Up until now most businesses have seen the mobile platform as a simple extension of their website, however with growth predictions for mobile devices considerably outstripping desktops and Moore’s law predictions showing a 10 times increase in power now is the time to see the mobile device as an opportunity to bridge the gap between the online and offline world. Organisations need to start to think about how the mobile can start to enable them to engage more and how that will enable them to increase the amount of times the ’till rings’. The future really is mobile.
So in conclusion the next few years (especially in retail and B2C) we and others believe will be shaped by new social media models, co-created content and earned media points and empowered mobility devices. We all really need to watch this space.
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- 2011 trends: Social media marketing and ROI (commetrics.com)
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