Happy Birthday, Facebook.
In February
2014, the world’s most popular social network will celebrate a major
milestone: it’s 10th birthday. It’s hard to imagine that what began in 2004 as a college side project for a certain introverted Harvard sophomore is now used by 1/7th of the planet.
Meanwhile, other networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ all have
growing userbases in the hundreds of millions. Global networks like Sina
Weibo and Qzone are quickly catching up.
The
bottom line: there are billions of people around the world already on
social media, more are joining every day, and this means big changes for
all of us. So what can we can expect to see in the near future? Here is
a peek into social media’s crystal ball for next year:
1. Learn to tweet - Your boss expects it. Social media will help you do your job better
You
know the old guy who’s been at the company forever and still can’t
figure out email? If you don’t get up to speed on social media in 2014,
you’re that guy. Compared to last year, there are 13 times as many jobs advertised on Indeed.com that mention the use of social media.
"We are seeing an increased demand for social savvy candidates across
the business - from human resources to product to customer service," Amy
Crow, Indeed's communication director told Quartz earlier this year.
Not only are departments like marketing, sales and customer service
expected to be on Twitter and Facebook, but teams as diverse as R&D,
logistics and HR are increasingly using internal networks like Yammer
to streamline operations. Social media has grown so critical to the
workplace, in fact, that major universities are beginning to offer certificate programs for socially inept corporate types to get up to speed.
2. Tweets that hunt you down. Local businesses invade your Twitter stream.
Get
ready to see ads from the neighborhood pub on Twitter. Native social
media ads - the ones that appear right in your Twitter and Facebook
streams - exploded in 2013. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re only getting
bigger in 2014. This year, expect some significant, if slightly creepy,
advances in location-specific targeting. Twitter, for instance, just unveiled a feature
enabling paid Tweets to be targeted by zip code. You walk into a
neighborhood, for instance, and suddenly Promoted Tweets for the local
sushi joint, dry cleaner and McDonald’s pop up in your Twitter stream.
This kind of “geo-fencing,” which Facebook has had since 2011,
enables businesses to court nearby customers who might actually want to
get ads offering special deals, in-store specials, etc. The upside:
more relevant ads and promos you can actually use. The downside: more
ads.
3. Tweet that complaint. Social media will
change the customer service game, giving you a chance to really call
out that big bad corporation.
The ability of
customers to air their dirty laundry to the world via Twitter and
Facebook has already changed the customer service game. A recent Nielsen survey shows more than half of all customers now turn to social media for redress; meanwhile, some 81 percent of Twitter users
expect a same-day response to questions and complaints. But this fall
things got even more interesting: On Sept. 2, British Airways passenger
Hasan Syed spent an estimated $1,000 to purchase several promoted Tweets
blasting the company for losing luggage. With paid social media now in
customers’ arsenal, 2014 may mark the beginning of the end of abysmal
customer service at major airlines, credit card companies, banks and
other repeat offenders.
By Ryan Holmes