You’ve learned all of the fundamentals of social media and what’s happening now, but what’s coming next? Social media is quickly changing and moving forward so it’s important to stay on top of the trends and predict future ones.

Here are some of our thoughts –

ROI Measurement

Right now there is little understanding of how to measure ROI. Like you read about yesterday, community engagement is becoming increasingly important. Rather than focusing on the number of fans and followers, brands will continue to shift that focus to creating an active community. Quality fans and followers will become more important than quantity.

Social Commerce

Online shopping has become the norm and brands have been pushing fans to their Facebook pages to build their communities. Both of these shifts will continue to become more connected to driving measureable results. The 500 Million Facebook users will be able to purchase products on the social network that they spend 700 Billion minutes per month logged in to rather than being redirected to another webpage. Express, a men’s and women’s clothing store, already has all of their items for sale on Facebook, but more and more brands will follow. Flash sale sites which are already invite only will create even more exclusive sales on their Facebook pages, which consumers will be able to access by “liking” the page. Rue La La has already taken the lead on this but many others will catch on. Not only does social commerce include Facebook store fronts, but also using social media for marketing promotions and couponing.

Better Targeting

For consumers who are new to social media, the amount of content out there is overwhelming. Information that has been collected by Google and Facebook, such as likes, dislikes and interests, are going to be used even more to better target people for brand programs and promotions. Rather than having to search, the information we want to see will find us. It will save consumer’s time and marketer’s money.

Geo Targeting

Mobile technology is already important, which we discussed during the last Deep Dive Week, but it will become even more frequently used and heavily relied on. The number of people with smart phones will continue to increase and marketers will be able to use that to their benefit. Location based apps have been around, but haven’t yet been utilized for true ROI. Near Field Technology will continue to be improved and will be used to offer consumers tips, promotions and coupons based on consumers’ location.

Many things are happening in social and it’s important to constantly be looking for new innovations that could work for your business. Social media is going to continue to become more integrated into marketing and will keep changing as technology does, stay informed so you don’t fall behind. Things move fast around here!