Keeping up with the key trends

In this blog report I look back on 2009 and identify some key trends for social media in 2010, outlining how you can implement them to achieve your goals in the coming year.

Still learning to use the “telephone”?

The rise of social media marketing has been prolific to say the least. It wasn’t that long ago we were saying things like “You won’t catch me on Facebook, it’s a waste of time. Why would I want to know what someone has had for breakfast anyway?” or more simply, “How does this new-fangled thing work?”.

A wonderful analogy is that social media is at a stage similar to where the telephone was in 1915. Back then, businesses were terrified of allowing their employees to use the phone, many banning it outright afraid their employees would go rogue and cause all sorts of trouble, inviting litigation. If we’d stuck to that approach where would be now, I wonder.

The potential for social media is similarly great, but it has been held back so far by the exact same attitude. How many businesses and organisations still ban their employee’s access to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on? The vast majority as it happens. But the tide is definitely turning.

Over the past few years we have seen businesses start to make more “calls” via social media, some even letting their employees use it for business use! Some have gone on to use it even more strategically – targeting, monitoring, responding, recording and analysing their social media activity. Many though are still trying to figure out how this new-fangled thing works and, crucially, what the real benefits are.

2010 looks set to see many businesses really getting to grips with social media and understanding its strategic importance – either on its own or as a slice in the marketing pie.

Time to get serious with social media

The fact is, at the end of 2009, social media IS mainstream, like the telephone. Check out just a random selection of 2009 stats:

• According to a social media study in 2009 by Neilsen, social networks and blogs are now more popular online activities than email.
• If Facebook were a country, its population would be the 4^th largest in the world, just behind Brazil, Russia and Japan.
• 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week during campaigns – with 39% using it for 10 or more hours per week.
• 78% of consumers trust recommendations from friends rather than brands.
• Over-50s are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook.
• Twitter is changing the face of journalism and content distribution

Businesses are now taking it seriously and some are over-hauling their marketing strategies accordingly. Those with a good social media strategy are getting some serious results.

6 key social media trends – and how you can stay ahead

In this report, we have identified 6 of the biggest predictions for social media in 2010 as follows:

1. The rise of the social media strategy
2. The year of the social media policy
3. Mobile social media goes mainstream
4. Social media sharing up – email down
5. Integration, integration, integration
6. Social media data drives creative and offline strategies too

So what does this mean for your business? Here we look at each of these trends in turn, and outline how you can keep ahead of the curve.

1. THE RISE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

2010 will be, as one commentator has described, “the year social media goes corporate” as businesses accept that customer behaviour really has changed for good and their business needs to change as a result.

We will see more and more businesses and organisations developing sophisticated social media marketing strategies. They may have created a Facebook Fanpage or Twitter account and maybe thinking, “well that hasn’t done much, what a waste of time this social media lark is”.

Well it is a waste of time if it’s not done properly. A robust social media strategy is vital for it to be successful. For one, it needs time and resource dedicated to it, and I’m not talking about giving the responsibility for social media to the work experience guy in the corner. (Habitat tried that and epically failed in the process!).

Social media require serious attention and respect – and it looks like this particular penny will finally drop in 2010. If you are seen to be shabby in social media you won’t be taken seriously. This is now true for small and big brands alike. Customer expectations are changing and they expect you to be just as available, accessible, respectable and trustworthy in social media as in any other area.

The 7 key considerations of a good social media strategy are:

1. Objectives

Be clear about what you are aiming to achieve: revenue, sales, brand awareness, customer service, database development etc

2. Target audiences

Who and where are they in social media?

3. Channels and platforms

Which ones are right for your business to operate in?

4. Influencers

Who are the people/organizations/media owners you should engage and focus your online PR efforts on?

5. Content

Remember, social networks are tools. Without creating the right content you will be disappointed with the results. It’s all about conversations, innovation and creativity.

6. Sentiment

Respect the environment you’re in and understand how your audiences want to be communicated with in social media.

7. Social media rules of engagement

When, how and how often? There are likely to be different rules of engagement between social media channels – it’s important you understand this and get it right.

 

2. THE YEAR OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

Yes indeed, it’s looking like 2010 is likely to be the year of the social media policy (sorry, I can’t make that sound any more exciting!).

The fact is if your business currently bans access to social media, it doesn’t mean you can stop employees using it. They can still access social networks via their mobile at work and use it freely at home. Without clear company guidelines for social media staff may not recognise that an ‘innocent’ negative comment on a social network related to their job/customers could actually have significant consequences for the business.

So with this in mind – and if only for peace of mind – establish a social media policy. What are you waiting for? Sounds grand but depending on the size of your business, it doesn’t need to be complex – just certain rules of engagement, expectations and consequences of misuse built into employee contracts – similar to those that already exist for email and so on.

You can build in the “use of social media for business purposes” to job descriptions. For example, you could make it a requirement of the job to answer customer queries via Facebook or Twitter.

As long as you have a robust social media strategy and policy in place, social media can only benefit your customers and your business. You wouldn’t tell your employee’s to stop using the telephone to talk to customers now would you…?

3. MOBILE SOCIAL MEDIA GOES MAINSTREAM

The digital marketing industry has been heralding the ‘year of mobile’ for years, but guess what – it’s actually here! Social media usage has driven a totally new way in which we use our mobile phones.

2009 has seen a massive surge in the numbers of people who own a smartphone, and 2010 will see this grow exponentially. This means we have mobile internet and social media applications accessible wherever we are – and we are using them.

More and more people are getting used to using mobiles to do the sort of things we’ve just got used to doing on a computer. Things like shopping, surfing and searching the internet, playing games, blogging, Facebook and so on.

This presents opportunities for businesses and organisations to be available wherever and whenever customers (and other audiences) are looking for your products, services or related subjects. Mobile-ready shopping carts for retail businesses will be seen more and more in 2010 – social commerce opportunities are huge.

Mobile-optimised websites are a must for all businesses. But so is having a presence in social media, outside of your own website – social networks, applications etc.

4. SOCIAL MEDIA SHARING UP, EMAIL DOWN

We have already seen in 2009 that social networks have overtaken email as a preferred communications method. 2010 could well see a further drop in the use of email as a way of engaging with audiences. People are now less likely to forward, or ‘share’ an email to friends (unless there is a big (usually financial) reason to do so). However, they are now much more likely to share social media content to multiple friends or followers.

So, use email where it is appropriate by all means but don’t ignore the fact that social media are key channels for sharing and recommending content. This is only set to rise in 2010.

5. INTEGRATION, INTEGRATION, INTEGRATION

We are already seeing the rise of third party applications allowing us to integrate our social media experience (e.g. Tweetdeck, Friendfeed, Google Wave, status integrations and so on). This looks likely to continue with the big players taking more of an initiative than that already taken by third party entrepreneurs.

This will increase the efficiency with which audiences will be able to interact, update and share social media accounts through perhaps just one application. Increased efficiency in social media means more ease of use – which means wider adoption, for example by more diverse audiences. This means that social media activity will effect even more change for your business.

6. SOCIAL MEDIA DATA DRIVES CREATIVE AND OFFLINE STRATEGIES TOO

The increase in the adoption of social media means that more and more target audiences are interacting online revealing attitudes, behaviours, wants and needs like never before. This means that the social media landscape is a rich source of audience data.

The use of social media data and intelligence for social media strategy purposes is obvious. What, till now, has seemed less obvious is the fact that this data can be used for offline and creative strategies.

Data and creativity have fought a long-standing battle. Social media, however, looks set to break down some of these barriers with more creative campaigns – online AND offline – using social findings and conversations as their basis.

Social media activity is a hotbed of realtime market research data and insight. By monitoring your business online and the behaviours of your target audiences in social media environments, you can generate current market insights that are invaluable across marketing channels and disciplines.

Looking ahead

Here I’ve looked at just some of the most likely trends for social media in 2010. It is by no means an exhaustive list and simply type “social media trends 2010” into Google to find out many more. If you would like more advice or information on any of the above, please do get in touch below.

Simon Heath is Director of Friend.