Social media revolutionized how the world communicates, does business, plays games, shops, and even enjoys meals. By allowing people from across the globe to connect as seamlessly as if they were in the same room, this monumental trend significantly changed the landscape of many industries. This includes commerce, politics, music, entertainment, gaming, society, and activism, among others. More importantly, social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok transformed the internet, expanding its capabilities beyond being a search engine. Below, we look at some of the social media trends that drove and continue to drive this transformation.
Social Commerce
Social media platforms allow businesses to connect with their target audience outside the formal office environment. This somewhat relaxed interaction is responsible for the advent of social commerce. Over recent years, analysts have noted that social media heavily influences consumer buying habits. For instance, Forbes reports that 3 in every 10 consumers in 2018 confessed to purchasing products or services through Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram.
Mobile Commerce
Shopify also estimates that mobile commerce will be worth $620.97 billion by 2024 and account for nearly 43 percent of all commercial purchases. This shift to more-specific mobile commerce has fueled growth in industries like online gambling. With mobile proliferation at an all-time high, providers have been devolving their services to mobile platforms. These services are available across the globe and you can access online casinos accepting AUD and other currencies, depending on your location.
Generative AI
Generative AI is a more recent player on the scene. Like AI, generative AI uses algorithms to perform human activities, in this case, creating content. The full impact of this technology is yet to be discovered but it has transformed the rate, cost, and process of content creation. Generative AI allows influencers and social media marketers to create images, videos, text, 3D renderings, and more faster and for less. Some experts worry that it might make some jobs obsolete while other stakeholders maintain it is improving productivity and profitability.
Content Creation
Speaking of which, content creation as a social media trend helped pioneer an entirely new career. Social media influencers were born of the idea that people with large followings on social media could drive commerce – and they do. Crowdriff reports that 71 percent of consumers trust the account of social media stars, vloggers, or bloggers concerning brand experience. Moreover, more numbers show that buyers are 12 times more likely to trust marketing coming from social media influencers than from brands. This is how content creation has turned the internet into a marketplace.
Short-Form Video
The short-form video movement was pioneered by TikTok, which now received an average monthly viewership of 1.5 million. The content model was conceived to cater to the reducing concentration span of consumers and social media users, allowing people to engage with bite-size content. Over time, short-form videos became so popular that TikTok overtook YouTube as the leading source of video content and even made it a viable marketing strategy. According to a 2022 report, 88 percent of consumers say they were convinced to make a purchase through a brand short-form video, so businesses can definitely benefit from growing their TikTok following.
Looking Forward
By January 2019, about 8 in every 10 online consumers had bought a product or service through social media ads. This is just one example of how social media trends like content creation and social commerce have diversified the internet. And as new technologies like the Metaverse continue to gain ground, the internet is bound to become unrecognizable for what it is today.
