THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
What Top 20 Experts Think!
We asked 20 experts, 5 questions regarding the future of Social Media Marketing:
- What are the primary strategies you use to engage with your social media followers?
- Which are your favorite Social Media Marketing tools?
- What are your boldest predictions for The Future of Social Media Marketing?
- Which are the new social media platforms you expect will build momentum?
- Do you believe social media channels will increasingly become "pay-to-play" for marketers?
The future of Social Media Marketing according to Neal Schaffer, CEO at Maximize your Social
Organic will only get you so far unless you already have a large following or well-known brand. Those that don't will be forced to leverage more Paid Social
Your primary engagement strategies?
I use a combination of content and engagement. Social media is all about content and communication, so I work hard to both create and curate content that would best engage my followers. I also like to engage with my followers by sharing the content of and engaging in conversation with my advocates.
Your favourite Social Media Marketing tools?
Too many to list! I don't think there's any one-does-it-all tool, so I use a variety of tools in my social media marketing. The last 5 that I used today just before writing this are eClincher, BuzzSumo, SproutSocial, Schedugram, and CoSchedule!
Your biggest prediction for Social Media Marketing?
My boldest prediction for the future of Social Media Marketing is that companies will become more dependent on seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum: Becoming more dependable on social media tools in order to automate, scale and engage effectively and efficiently while at the same time becoming more human, authentic and transparent with their engagement with other users in social media communities.
The next up-and-coming social media platform?
We are undoubtedly moving more visual, so I do believe that Instagram will continue to be the second most active social network and Facebook and Snapchat will continue to grow. However, I do believe that Facebook will continue to dominate and Twitter and LinkedIn, and to some extent Pinterest, to remain relevant.
Will SMM become increasingly pay-to-play?
They already are, to some extent ;-) Organic will only get you so far unless you already have a large following or well-known brand. Those that don't will be forced to leverage more Paid Social, but it is still inexpensive compared to other forms of paid marketing - and it allows you to handpick your audience in a way that wasn't possible before social media.
