January 6, 2014
It’s that time of year when we dust off the crystal ball and try to predict and prepare for what 2014 holds for some of our favourite social networks. And here’s what Bakti expects to see this coming year!
Facebook:
I’ve seen A LOT of articles peppered around the net claiming that Facebook is in crisis now that the younger generation are choosing more image-centric networks such as Instagram and Snapchat. I disagree that Facebook is doomed in 2014…whole-heartedly. We’re too emotionally attached to give it up. Facebook provides us with a way to stay connected to our friends and loved ones.
However as Facebook turns 10 in 2014, to keep up with the growth of Google+ and image-based networks, I foresee that the network will continue its focus on mobile, providing advertisers better opportunities to refine and target their ads.
In 2013, Facebook was in the testing phase of auto-play video ads and we should expect to see a gradual wider rollout in 2014. Ads that automatically play on your newsfeed will be difficult to ignore and could be a huge success for advertisers and marketers. But inappropriately targeted ads may be detrimental to Facebook and very annoying for the user!
Twitter:
It seems as if writing 140 characters is as tedious as writing an essay for many internet users who want to share and receive information FAST.
As a result, Twitter has become much more visual in the recent months with images and videos becoming more accessible, appearing directly on your newsfeed rather than having to click on a link to view an image, and this is set to continue in 2014. Through engaging visual assets, businesses are able to reach specific audiences, and there will be much more focus on ads now that Twitter has become a public company.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is still going strong as the number one social networking site for professionals and will continue to emerge as a primary player in the B2B market, attracting even more users. By positioning itself as one of the largest sources of content creation and curation for professionals, the advantages for B2B companies will become vast in 2014.
Following the introduction of LinkedIn Showcase Pages in late 2013, this year we may see these pages evolve to become more visually appealing with embedded videos and content that is unique and targeted to specific fans.
Google+:
Although Facebook continues to lead with the highest number of monthly users, Google+ is quickly gaining traction with a reported 300 million active users only two years after its inception. Google + is proving to be incredibly significant as a multi-functional social network. Google not only uses the platform to collect demographics, location, etc, but it is useful in terms of SEO, making your online presence stronger by helping to improve your chances of showing up in a Google search and offering your content better value by choosing to share via this platform. The progress of Google+ looks exciting indeed. Watch this space…
How do you think some of our favourite platforms will fare in 2014? Leave your comments for Bakti below or tweet us @iftweeter