Social media has grown more and more sophisticated over the years and it has evidently had an incredible impact on the way businesses interact with their customers. But social media is now going to change.
Up until now one of the best ways for businesses to reach and engage with their audience on social media, has been through posting pictures, with pictures on Facebook getting 87% more engagement and 35% more on Twitter. So it would seem that as we have evolved in to a very visual society, the natural progression from pictures is to videos, which continues to be a growing trend.
But now with advancements in video-based technology and portable devices that can handle large bandwidths and more complex software, it seems that live-streaming is the future of social media, or at least the new channel that brands will have to think about.
Gartner released figures early this year that show 50% of all mobile data is video, and is due to increase to 60% by 2018. These figures coupled with Twitter’s $100 million acquisition of Periscope, show that there is a real potential for live-streaming.
With the recent launch of live-streaming apps such as Twitter’s Periscope and Meerkat and the massive success they have been having since their birth a few months ago, it is apparent that there is a lot of potential for them to grow. Using these platforms effectively will be key to their success. With other launches of new social platforms most of the content from businesses at least has been adapted from other social media channels, so it may take a while to see what sort of original content emerges from these live-streaming platforms.
For brands it could potentially be a great way for them to build on the connections and conversations from other social platforms, with real-time streaming of behind the scenes, product demos, interviews, Q&A’s, product launches, and much more.
Some brands are already starting to understand the potential of this new wave and are experimenting with it. We too at 4D will be demonstrating how these new concepts can be introduced and worked into exciting experiential campaigns over the coming months.
So it certainly seems for now that live-streaming is here to stay.
For more information on how 4D can help your business get a better event experience from social media contact Suzanne Malhotra
