Where the Future of Social Marketing is going

Knowing how many retweets or likes a post has received is a hugely important tool in any company’s social marketing kit. It’s how we spread the word, how we get more attention and of course make more sales. Marketing analytics are so powerful today that those in charge of a businesses social media are alerted every time someone likes or even mentions their brand. Is this enough though? Is knowing when your company or product has been mentioned enough to help secure more attention and more sales?

Do marketing analytics take into account the many variables which only a human eye…and brain can distinguish? Think about it; I happen to like a certain local restaurant and I mention it on my Facebook page, but I use the abbreviated name instead of the actual name. This abbreviated name is used a lot in my circle…but it’s rather nonsensical. Result of course is that the post is missed by those monitoring social media for the business.

Natural language processing software lacks the human touch…it’s unable to detect humour, sarcasm or slang and it doesn’t know a funny comment from a serious one which is a big issue. In the near future, as technology improves, we can expect more sophisticated software to cope with these very human, idiosyncratic habits.

It goes even deeper than language in those terms though and another challenge for the near future is to look at the different ways people communicate across platforms…most people may not notice but our language and browsing habits change very subtly depending on which social platform we’re using.

Twitter is far more anonymous than Facebook…most of us have a large amount of friends and family on Facebook with whom we actually interact with on a daily basis; whether through work, places of education or in our communities we are more likely to know our Facebook friends in person whilst on Twitter and Pinterest, we mix and mingle with the stars and with strangers as though they were our next door neighbours…except they’re not and this affects how we use the sites and how much information we share.

In the near future there will be help for businesses to alter their monitoring software to allow it to better understand the subtle differences in the way people use their various social media accounts and as a result, better tailor their posts and better follow the posts of their audience.

Social marketing is still young but it is so full of potential that its future will be even more fascinating than its present…and that’s saying something! As we fully grasp the potential and the prospects of what’s on offer to us through social marketing, we can better control and utilise the platforms out there…and there are many of them! Learning to use the platforms in a more targeted  and specific way is the next step and that next step will change the way in which we all use social media…both socially and professionally.