Every year for the last six years, Activate, the leading management consulting firm for media, technology, entertainment, and sports businesses, has released the Activate Technology and Media Outlook.
Their outlook for 2020 was released on October 23, 2019. Activate CEO Michael J. Wolf presented the full report at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live Conference. It is also available on Activate’s website and on SlideShare.
Based on groundbreaking and proprietary research, Activate is speculating not only into 2020 but also as far forward as 2023. One prediction is that by 2023, the average user of social networks in the U.S. will use up to 10 different networks. The current average is 6.
That means there will be lots of ways to reach customers, but it also means fragmented attention and possibly having to be on all (or at least several) of them in order to maximize your social media marketing truly. On the flip side, it will make choosing which networks to be on easier.
Here’s How
This social network splintering is already affecting social media marketing. People are looking for more focused content and authentic and trusted connections. Because of this, smaller networks are sprouting up and catering to niche markets, such as Discord for gamers and TikTok for cosplayers.
For example, which of the two preceding platforms would you choose if your online marketing is in make-up? Discord is geared toward gamers, of which there are certainly those who buy makeup, but most likely, you would choose TikTok and go for the cosplayers who are much more likely to use and talk about your product offerings.
A TikTok influencer who likes your brand could put you in front of several people on that app. Understand this is just hypothetical, but you get where I’m going.
The Takeaway Is This
Facebook isn’t going away, but it will not be the future be-all and end-all of social media marketing. The platform is already growing on a slower scale than LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Twitter, according to Activate. Businesses using social media will have to figure out where they want to be and where they need to be to keep up and maximize their brand growth potential.