As consumer use of social media increased in 2010, the leading social networks retooled their advertising products to satisfy the emerging demand from brands and now are driving toward profitability after several years of trying to figure out how to grow up. “Likes,†views and followers will become more important on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkeIn and many more in future.
Social media is more incorporated into consumer’s daily lives nowadays and alternatives to the big social websites in the form of niche or location-based social networks have increased in appeal. Advertisers willing to experiment with media campaigns on these networks will have a distinct advantage moving forward as consumers become accustumed to text, display and even rich media ads. Whether they choose to go big or small, the social web equips advertisers with significantly more consumer data points than ever before to improve the targeting and relevance of online advertising.
Local advertising will becomes relevant again with location and location-based advertising will continue to grow in 2011. Facebook is also expanding with its location platform, Places. In addition to Facebook, many other players in the virtual world will condition shoppers to expect a deal or coupon for alerting friends of their whereabouts. Relevance will distinguish these services from each other as the two biggest players, Facebook and Google, have the most powerful social graph data to customize deals for consumers.
For many years in the past, advertising agencies use to offer the coolest jobs in big cities, but the dream jobs are now offered by online creative media agencies. After Facebook and Twitter started to generate revenue, advertising and marketing talent will not miss the opportunity to cash in even on smaller scales in the digital world.
Influencers are the new celebrities of the Internet, as consumers are constantly scouring the social web to decide where to eat, shop and stay. Brands are constantly analyzing Twitter, blog posts and reviews to understand not only who has the largest audience, but how much influence and social credibility individuals have. Creating thoughtful ways to leverage influencers is the thing to focus on. Business analysts believe that it is cheaper to keep and please already existing customers, than to acquire new ones.
The new “Big” social networks will be most probably be smaller. Entrepreneurs are starting to experiment with new platforms designed to communicate and share media with smaller audiences. Facebook also realized that many may prefer communicating with smaller networks and now Facebook’s Groups feature allows users to segment friends into personal, professional and interest-based communities. More such smaller, closed networks will launch in 2011 as people seek deeper connections online.
Brands will become more like media companies, as social media has empowered them to break their own news instead of relying on advertising or PR to distribute their message. As brands become increasingly comfortable with social media on the whole, more budget and attention will be focused on high quality content created specifically for the social web.
Facebook “Likes†will be very important for brands and most probably huge corporations will be tripling down on Facebook advertising in 2011. The process for acquiring Facebook “Likes†has evolved to accommodate this increase in demand.
