I recently had the opportunity to attend an event, Social Media Live, that was held in the RDS, Dublin. The event was organised by the event management company, Cogs and Marvel and brought various people involved in the Tech/Social Media Industry together to discuss and share their knowledge on the current trends in Social Media.
The event was fast-paced and engaging, reflecting the fast-paced and ever-changing nature of Social Media. There was lots of interesting information and insights shared by the speakers, each discussing the current state of social media from their perspective and what we might expect in the future. I will share some of the key messages that I took away from the event, below:
Human Truth
The message that kept emerging from the speakers was the fact that social media is about finding and sharing the human truth. As @nicnewman explained in his talk, this is achieved either through humour or the sharing of feelings or adding some kind of emotional value which makes humans feel connected. @davidschneider also voiced the same idea:
“Human truth is at the core of all things social”
One of the speakers, @davidschneider, the founder of @thatlot gave plenty of humorous examples that he uses to entertain and engage an audience. He also gave examples of how messages can be creatively tailored to suit the platform of choice which also wins in entertaining an audience. Here is an example of a Nike advert that illustrates his point, where the audience is compelled to engage with the advert– we all want to help the man lift the 200kg weight by swiping up, thereby engaging with the ad in a fun way.
Storytelling
Another message that emerged was the probably the biggest factor when it comes to being successful in engaging an audience in marketing and that is through storytelling. The final speaker of the day @malachybrowne from the New York Times shared the story of how social media was used to find the truth about what really happened at the Vegas Shooting. Although it was a sensitive topic to explore, it was interesting to discover the power that technology and social media has in uncovering the truth about what really happened and then sharing that truth with the world.
Trust
Another topic of discussion that featured a lot at the event was the issue of trust. Speaker @nicnewman spoke a lot about the current state of the various platforms and the perceptions that people have towards the various platforms. The image below illustrates some of these attitudes towards the various platforms:
Nowadays people are also less trusting of the news that they find on social media with a mere “1 in 10 trusting the news on social platforms.” Nic Newman also explained how Facebooks current goal is to restore its reputation and that the time spent on the platform would be: “time well spent”.
The Future of Social Media
There was some discussion about the trends that we might see in the future such as more of an emphasis on Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality and the use of voice recognition.
By looking at the past it is clear to see the massive progress that technology has made in such a short space of time. This means that the future of social media and technology will also see a lot of changes. According to @gradconn, Sprinklrs Chief Experience and Marketing Officer, “90% of customer service queries will be managed through social media in the next 3 years.”
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