What’s hot in social media

We’re barely a month into 2013 and there has already been a whole load of social media and online announcements from everyone from Facebook to Twitter to Google. Can’t keep up? Fear not. Rax Lakhani, head of social media at Lucre PR, explores the most important trends to look out for this year and explains why many of them will have a direct impact on the travel industry. Pay close attention…

Social search is here to stay:

Back in 2011 when Google announced the launch off its Google+ social platform, the promise of truly social search sent many brands into panic, having invested a lot of time and resource into traditional search engine optimisation (SEO) services. The idea was simple; when you search on Google, the results returned would be heavily influenced by what your friends had previously seen and voted for as being relevant. Well, fast forward to today and we’re starting to see Google’s vision become a reality. Google+, although dismissed by many as being a place where geeks hangout, is having an undeniable impact on the way brands are being displayed on Google.

But it’s Facebook’s recent announcement around what its calling Social Graph search that is raising eyebrows in the world of digital media. The new search feature (currently in beta testing mode in the US only) will be able to deliver data relevant to an individual’s social circles. So for example, people will be able to search for hotels that have been visited by their friends or holiday destinations that their colleagues have been to. You’ll be able to type into Facebook that you’re looking for holiday photos from your friends living in London aged between 25 and 35, taken in Europe. Specific searches like these have never before been possible. I suspect Facebook will be monetising these searches for brands to be able to also sponsor these bespoke results, so brands will be able to target very specific search requests for the first time.

On the move:

The other inescapable digital fact this year is that more and more people will be signing over to 4G mobile data contracts which means faster web surfing on the move. The impact this will have on social media is predictable but worth spelling out. More people will be using their social networks from a localised context. The whole act of checking-in, be it on Facebook, Google+ or Foursquare will become mainstream in 2013 and with the ability for brands to target customers contextually on-site will see the rise in popularity of mobile offers. For example, an airport-based food retailer could offer £2 off a coffee to anyone that checks in to its location between 2pm and 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon. These promotions and offers can be managed easily by brands and switched on during periods of low footfall. Similarly, car-hire firms could offer deals to people checking into an airport’s arrivals hall.

Video will get more interactive:

Whilst 4G-enabled mobile handsets will provide faster streaming of web-based data, it is probably video content that will emerge the real champion of 2013’s mobile connectivity revolution. However, when you trace the evolution of online video in its entirety, unlike other forms of content (photography, music, written blogs), video hasn’t really changed much in the way it is delivered on the internet. In fact, apart from the speed and quality – nothing much has really changed in the way that we consume and interact with videos on platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo.

My prediction is that this year we’ll start seeing new services emerge that allow users to easily create interactive videos that contain live web-feeds, real-time data and embeddable maps, tweets, links to news articles, etc. Already, services like Popcorn (https://popcorn.webmaker.org/) are pushing the boundaries of online video. For brands, particularly in the travel sector, this opens up a multitude of possibilities when engaging with consumers. Imagine having a video of a resort on a website with real, clickable links to offers embedded within the actual video, displaying live weather status updates together with a selection of recent trip-advisor reviews. For the first time ever, in-house teams will be able to access these creative tools for little or no cost.

Analyse This:

Finally, the other big thing to look out for this year is the evolution of web analytics. So far, services like Facebook and YouTube provide quite useful (almost realtime) insights which can reveal a lot about the ways in which customers interact with a company’s content. This is set to step-up a gear this year with integrated solutions to social analytics becoming more affordable and accessible to anyone with an interest in consumer online behaviour. Data will be able to highlight where people are engaging with your brand, how, in what context and what they respond to. All of this information will be as it happens, so if a particular promotion or news announcement begins to resonate with your audience in an unforeseen way, you will have the ability to turn the dial up or down accordingly.

In summary, 2013 will be about three things: relevant search, accessibility, ultra-targeting and useful data. However, as with all forms of digital engagement, the output is only as good as the input, so the more you put in, the more benefits your brand will reap.

The important thing is to get involved, experiment and above all: keep learning.

Rax Lakhani is head of social media at Lucre PR. He has spent over a decade advising brands on social media strategy and best practice. You can follow him on Twitter @raxlakhani or email him directly: [email protected]