As I turned the corner, I saw the familiar yellow and blue sign of Social Media Week. The paparazzi must have seen me before I noticed them, because calls of ‘Taylor, who are you wearing?’ came rapid fire in my direction, and the clicking of the camera light bulbs wouldn’t stop. With a slight smile, I slipped inside and found a seat next to an equally exasperated-looking person.
“I wish they’d just leave us alone and let us get on with the coolest event of the year…” he whispered to me. “Me, too, Zuckerberg,” I said. “Me, too.”
Okay, it didn’t really happen like that. I actually rounded the corner and nearly ran into someone who was texting while simultaneously holding a cup of scalding hot coffee. And instead of ‘who are you wearing,’ I could have sworn I heard some mutter ‘what is that guy wearing’ as I entered the auditorium. Also – and you may have already guessed this – Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t there. But there is one element of truth in my story: Social media week is one of the coolest events in Chicago in November.
The four days were jam packed with keynote speakers with experience from all different realms of the digital industry, including crowd-favorite Emerson Spartz of Mugglenet fame; Chris Kerns, VP of research at Spredfast; and Claudia Malley from National Geographic. The range of subjects discussed was equally diverse: Politics, social listening, blockchain as the future of communication, and VR being among the more interesting.
So what are the main takeaways? What did we learn from #SMWChicago?
What’s going on in social media now?
Facebook average feed view time is going down. Users average 2.5 seconds feed view time on desktop versus only 1.7 seconds average feed view on mobile. You don’t have long to grab their attention!
2.5 second Facebook feed view time on a desktop vs. 1.7 seconds on mobile. #SMWChicago pic.twitter.com/1VFJgRfJ13
— Taylor Bennett (@tchazbennett) November 17, 2016
Video is everything right now. Period.
G. Andrew Meyer’s big message this morning: It’s a video-first world. #SMWChicago
— Taylor Bennett (@tchazbennett) November 17, 2016
Where are we going?
Chris Aston, co-founder and COO of Pundit, thinks the next big wave of social media tech is going to be centered around voice. According to his studies, “86% of all messages sent on WeChat are voice [yet] this behavior is largely untapped for brands.” The same can also be said for social media use in United States – our adoption of apps like WhatsApp for voice sharing is much lower than in other parts of the world.
Benjamin Foster with Ketchum thinks VR could be the next big wave of digital and social media story telling. He thinks advertisers could eventually overlay Facebook user data, for example, with a VR advertisement, putting you in your favorite store and advertising your favorite products to you. This still seems a ways away, but it’s fun to think about.
Finally, creating meaningful experiences for your users is still the best way to reach your audience and to lay the foundation for purchase intent and eventually conversion.
What trends should you be focusing on?
Anyone with a pulse on social media has heard about the potential of SnapChat. They’ve been inundated with buzzwords (someone actually said ‘disrupters disrupting the disruption’ at this conference), and are probably sick of hearing ‘organic is dead.’ But there’s a reason phrases like that exist, and there’s an equally good reason people are still talking about where SnapChat is going.
Anna Russett, a popular influencer on SnapChat and social media strategist at Havas, points out that snapping your life is actually a return to a more traditional form of media: Photography. The simplicity of taking a good photo or video and sharing it with your audience is not as easy as it seems, but brands that are able to do this well (and make their content look natural in the process) are finding huge success on this platform.
There is good evidence to suggest that you should be putting spend behind your posting to help reach a wider audience – some studies suggest you will only reach 1% of your owned Facebook audience with organic posting – but companies like National Geographic are showing that that’s not always necessary. A recent organic post was so highly shareable and beautiful that no spend was needed to get it out to a wider audience.
Remember this if nothing else: Content is still king. The kind of content that is king today may be different than last year, but that adage is, and likely always will be true.
67% of users will advocate for your brand if your content is good… even if they’re not buying from you! @heatherAtaylor #SMWChicago
— Taylor Bennett (@tchazbennett) November 17, 2016
