Social media is constantly evolving which means that social media for business and commerce is also constantly evolving as well. For example, when Youtube was first founded, you would see videos of kittens and double rainbows. Then we began hearing the language of, “hauls,” or “tutorials,” and reviews of the latest released games or electronics. It didn’t take long for ads to be placed into the videos that were relevant to the product being reviewed or demonstrated. Adweek quotes Diya Jolly, director of product management at Google, “We have 1 million channels on YouTube that are related to product review videos.”
Millenials are now conditioned to disregaurd or ignore ads that feel like ads which is why influencer marketing( Read here if you aren’t taking advantage of influencer marketing yet) and in app purchasing is becoming a large part of the evolution of social media for business and commerce. Just last year adweek shared YouTube’s plan to launch ads that will allow people to buy products directly from product reviews.
As you will see below, YouTube is one of the many popular social media outlets that have changed the way consumers shop effortlessly.
Social Media for Business and Commerce:
Pinterest image search
Scrolling through pinterest, we have boards with our dream kitchen. You see that Frigidaire appliance that you dream of having one day, but then you notice that one centerpeice that you need right now. When you click on the image, you are taken to the Frigidaire website. You need to find that centerpeice for your kitchen but you can’t find the words to describe it. Now, when you find something within an image you like, you can isolate the object to do an image search for that specific object. The image search also generates key words that they gather from the object selected, making shopping easier than ever. Read more here.
Snapchat in-app purchases
Snapchat is constantly evolving. The more recent Discovery feature within this social media platform allows users to purchase things such as movie tickets from the app. While the button to purchase tickets will take you to a different platform, you will easily be able to get back into snapchat. X-men tickets were available for purchase within the app along with a preview of the movie, and custom X-men filters. Once you see how cool you look with a filter that makes you feel like mystique or nightcrawler, you might be thinking to yourself, “I need to see this movie!” and now you can.
Facebook Messenger Bots
Facebook messenger is one of the most popular ways of communicating through social media since AOL instant messaging. We message our friends, coworkers, and acquantances to schedule meetups, reconnect, and even to discuss what to get our parents for Father’s Day. Well what if you decide on getting your dad a new golf club and when you type, “/shop for golf club set” you would be able to pick out a set just like that! Well it is not too far from reality in Facebook’s newest developments that you can read here.
Purchasing products has become increasingly easier. Now in order to buy a new app, instead of entering in information all you need is a fingerprint. How can your product or service benefit from the evolution of social media? How can you stay ahead of your competitors with these upcoming tools?
