Social media has really blown in the face over the last couple of years and dare I say that it has neither attained critical mass, nor has its true potential been gauged. Yes, I say this secure in the knowledge that many of us have already become facebook addicts, that if twitter were a country it would be bigger than Switzerland, that Google already attracts more ad-sales revenues than the entire print media put together and such other “facts” that we are deluged with on a daily basis.
While you were busy playing Angry Bids, social media, unknown and unnoticed, has emerged as a huge tool of empowerment. From armchair crusaders to rate employees through to disgruntled customers and abused commoners – everybody with a connection is capable of voicing their ire and heard in the social space often with disastrous consequences for them at the receiving end. Whichever side of the fence you are on, brace up, for this trend is going to be more and more menacing with every passing day.Yes, in 2013 you will come across real angry birds seeking out the bad piggies and obliterating them with precision posts.
With such trends in social media gaining strength, the natural victim will be mainline media as it will witness a fall in its credibility and ability to mould opinions in direct proportion. For one, “breaking news” will be real time and because the ownership of original content will no longer be the exclusive domain of the media houses. Besides, what is hard news, will gradually be decided by the domain as opposed to the media telling the readers.
Naturally everyone from political parties to big business will have to realign themselves and their communication strategies for traditional spin doctors will lose their effectiveness to a very great extent as they will not have the “contacts” they can influence and plug stories. Traditional approaches of advertisement induced sugar coated stories or politically biased stories bought by pressure or pleasure too will become increasingly difficult to pull off. Needless to say, wherever they will surface, they will come laden with criticism and cynical outbursts.
The drone attack on traditional media will however come in the form of consumer preference. Already a significant number of people are making purchasing decisions based on internet searches. This will lead to more online commerce with advertisers shifting their budgets to the net. Incorporation of barcodes in print media advertisements which propel traffic to the web, in this context, is seen as the first step towards conceding defeat by the traditional media. With the action shifting to the handhelds, these trends will become more pronounced with every passing day and 2013 may indeed emerge as a watershed year in terms of a marketing exodus.
Recruitment and how employees are used to refurbish a company or brands social media salience is another area that will witness a paradigm shift in 2013 and the years to come. For example more than 17 million influential, affluent and connected professionals are Linkedin in India alone. Of them 69 % are business owners or managers and 44% are in companies with more than 1000 workers. In plain speak it means, the recruitment process is zooming to the new media and who hires whom, at what cost to the company will increasingly be decided in the net. This will create another major drain of revenues of the media houses.
Considering an average of 139 contacts per person, companies will also progressively try to use their workforce to act as ambassadors in the social media space. For one, they will enjoy the loyalty of employees and their natural connect with the brands and to cap it will find it much cheaper to use people who are already in the payrolls.
Remember those classic westerns depicting stories of the gold rush or the oil boom of yore? Well, 2013 is going to be one such year. The principal protagonists will be larger than life, the stories of epic proportions, the bandits mean to the core. There will be shootouts galore as we stretch the horizons of social media, where the traditional laws are yet to be established and the mavericks and fortune hunters abound. Many will bite the dust. And a few will emerge heroes – creating history in the process.
Welcome 2013!