For marketers, end of the year is the time where they measure and evaluate the effectiveness of their social media campaigns to see if their efforts have made a significant impact on their revenue. They may also be finalizing their social media strategy for the year to see if they are properly allocating their resources, while some are probably already looking into their marketing plan for the upcoming year. Our social media strategies are constantly evolving. We need to keep up with the trends and learn to ride with the changes. Just as technology and consumer behavior will evolve in unpredictable ways, we should be prepared for these new developments as these will change the way you connect with your audience. We must plan for these changes, so we do not get caught off guard when that time comes. While it’s hard to predict how the future of social media marketing will look like in the next 10 years, there are several trends that can be forecasted.
Here are some expert predictions on how of social media marketing will look like in the future:

1. “Hire” more chatbots and leap into the future of social media marketing.

You’ve seen them.  You go to a website, and almost immediately a person sends you a message asking if they can help you. But that person isn’t really a person; it’s a chatbot, programmed to interact with you Chatbots are arguably a big part of the future of social media technology, according to Shana Haynie, co-founder and COO of Vulpine Interactive, a social media marketing company based out of San Diego. “If businesses aren’t jumping on this bandwagon, they should be,” Haynie says. She is particularly impressed with Facebook Messenger chatbots. “People can easily opt-in to your messenger list, where you can set up simple, or extremely intricate, workflows to guide your subscribers towards your desired results,” Hayne says.

2. “When news breaks in the future, it will be covered by a multitude of eyewitnesses streaming live video.

These streams will knit together into a single immersive video, enabling the viewer to virtually experience the event in real time. For better or worse, the world will feel like it’s right around the corner.”- Cory Bergman, BreakingNews Co-Founder

3. Smart speakers.

Consumers are increasingly discovering new ideas, content, and products on smart speaker systems. In fact, most analysts project that the majority of search activities will be conducted through products like Alexa and Google Home. Since much of what we do in the world of social media and content marketing is geared toward helping people find our products, this is a vital trend. When we ask Alexa to find an answer, we don’t get a list of blog posts, videos, or research reports to choose from, we get the ANSWER. So this is a profound development for marketers.

4. Brands will exist across news feeds, stories (where possible), and within messenger services.

The intention isn’t to inundate, but to better integrate into the daily lives of their audience. Bots and virtual assistants for messenger services, or devices such as Amazon’s Echo, allows brands to be seamlessly present. This is happening today with Uber’s and Domino’s availability to take commands on the Echo, and with Harvard Business Review’s bot on Slack. It’s possible that Facebook will open up its M assistant to work with brands to empower more suggested activities based on the conversations users have on its Messenger app. – Kristine Neil, Owner and Creative Director for Markon Brands.

The most recent political cycle has exposed a lot of what was rotten in social media, making us all so constantly aware of what is wrong with ourselves and others that we barely have space in our heads for anything other than frustration and anxiety. If they’re smart, new social media platforms will understand that create a new kind of social networking, a kind that actually feels like a personal asset instead of a detriment.