Changes Brands Can Expect to See Due to Social Media

March 29, 2013

Back a few hundred years ago, before television, indoor plumbing, or even light bulbs, one might suspect that time crept by slowly in all aspects. From your day-to-day activities to waiting for the next big “technological” advancement, the human race, while always ingenious, really made no great strides in technology for thousands upon thousands of years.

But just rewind back 20 years in the past and look at the landscape, with computers on the rise, the Internet knocking down the door, and an entire world on the brink of something fantastic. In these few short years, we’ve gone from boxy computers with dial-up connections to 4G mobile broadband used to connect to social networks like Facebook.

What’s somewhat scary in this scenario is that we’re just getting started with these technologies. Businesses of today have changed significantly due to the Internet, particularly social media, and any brand hoping to reach a wide, active audience would do well to ride this wave.

Below are a few ways in which the future of business will change—and has changed—because of social media and sites like Facebook.

5 Ways Social Media will Change The Future of Your Business

1: The Sales Mechanism

While this may seem vague on its face, it’s important to understand just how social media impacts your entire sales system, from the way you market to the way you receive payment. Advertising using Facebook gives you a distinct advantage in the realm of social media. Not only can you narrowly target  a market, but there are a slew of apps, protocols and other social features which will allow you to build large, thorough and effective lists for the purposes of driving people into a conversion funnel.

2: Customer Engagement

Whether you’re dealing with your customers via customer service or if you’re simply keeping them engaged with your brand to build up some important loyalty and broader recognition, social media has changed the way brands engage with customers in multiple ways. Especially on Facebook, there are a range of apps to use to engage with a base, and this particular social networking site makes sharing material not only easy but also fun. The features by which fans and friends receive your material is also cutting edge, and engagement is only going to become easier going forward, as evidenced by newer features like Open Graph.

3: Brand Awareness

Facebook makes it a simpler process to reach a much broader scope with your brand in general. Even if you’re not dealing with strict metrics like your return of investment through ads on Facebook, having a wider brand reach can pay off in the long run. With a member’s News Feed, your brand’s Timeline, the ability to target fans and customers through mobile methods, and even new video ads and other features, the ability to increase brand awareness amongst your niche will change for the better as Facebook evolves.

4: Marketing Demographics

It’s already relatively easy to target different demographics when using a site like Facebook. Not only do the site’s tools provide you with a range of options to target different demographics, but third-party ad management apps also add to the effectiveness of your marketing campaign. As social media advances and mobile becomes a larger part of the landscape, reaching and actually engaging with people from around the globe—as in brand-to-customer—will become a huge part of a company’s success.

5: Marketing Costs

As more of the world starts to communicate via social media, advertising costs are going to continue to decline. That’s not to say that a lot of ad features won’t possibly move up in price. But with the aforementioned features throughout this article, organic brand marketing will become more and more effective. Focusing on quality, sharable material, targeting a more interested niche, and giving people more bang for their buck will ensure that you develop an audience without having to spend a fortune.

It’s hard to predict exactly how social media is going to change moving forward; but by following the already established trends and the recently released updates on the biggest sites, a clear picture can be painted. Thus a few potential improvements for your brand’s marketing can be deduced.

The important thing is to ensure that your brand gets started in social media now if you’re hoping to make an impact later.

Article Written By: Craig Robinson,  writer from Qwaya– a facebook ad campaign tool. He has spent his time writing social media strategies and features. He also loves to participate with other social media enthusiasts.