The Past, Present and Future of Social Media in Business

Evolution of Social Media

Let’s examine the past, present and future of Social Media in Business. About 10 years ago, social media was evolving from an online fad to a daily part of our lives. Facebook was approaching 50 million active monthly users and would double that number by August 2008. Twitter was in its infancy but gaining in popularity due to its ability to connect people directly to famous athletes, celebrities, and real-time news. LinkedIn has reached 17 million active users and would nearly double that number by 2008 to 32 million.

Social Media Becomes an Important Tool for Business

It was between 2007 and 2008 when companies started to look at social media, not just as “something young people do,” but as a business channel; an opportunity for a new type of interaction with customers and an innovative way to generate leads. At this point, Facebook built Facebook Pages, which allowed any entity to create a Business Page on Facebook. In addition, Facebook expanded its advertising capabilities and continued work on developing its Mobile App.

During this time, early adopters paved the way for brand pages on social media channels. Their strategy was simple:

• Be where the people are
• Post content
• Learn from customers based on their reactions, comments, and feedback
• Evaluate if customers’ online behaviors translated into their behavior in stores
• Experiment with advertising on social media

Today’s Social Media Landscape

Fast forward to today: The social media landscape has evolved from “The Big Three,” to encompass other channels such as Instagram and SnapChat and continues to grow as a financial powerhouse for marketing strategies. Over 50 million businesses use Facebook, with 2 million businesses advertising on the website. Twitter’s year-over-year growth is up 8%, and 39% of LinkedIn account holders pay for premium accounts.

Not only do companies have a strong presence on social media, but social has become a primary channel for digital marketing and online business operations. Executives work to integrate social media into all other aspects of their strategy, from marketing and sales, to customer service and business analytics.

Sprinklr as the Social Media Platform of Choice

The rapid growth of social media as a business channel has demanded businesses to implement all-in-one solutions for their growing social presence. Sprinklr allows brands to manage all aspects of their social media strategy in one complete system. With advanced and customizable governance workflows, asset management, monitoring, audience profiling, campaign execution, and analytics, among other innovative features, Sprinklr’s solutions can be designed for any brand in any industry and help organizations reach and exceed their strategic goals more quickly.

So, what does the future look like for social media? Marketers are working towards an omni-channel ecosystem, in which social media is directly connected to website and email content, online reputation management, and even offline channels just as print and direct marketing. Social data will allow brands to more accurately research and forecast new product and services, and even predict a crisis or major change in customer sentiment and actions.

More interestingly, a user’s identity will begin to center around their online accounts, enabling brands to build a comprehensive CRM database with a 360 degree view of a customer and his/her unique information. This will enable brands to develop proactive solutions for customer problems and concerns.

Simply put, social media influence and relevance to both companies and their customers alike are only continuing an upward trend.

For more on how Allant Group can help your organization maximize social media as a business driver,
contact us.