Social media trends have reflected massive shifts within the industry. But even when trying to predict what these trends or shifts will be can illuminate an important change to come for the industry.
At the Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit, Nicola Mendelsohn (who is Facebook’s vice president in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) said that in five years, she sees the platforms shifting from text content to almost-exclusively video content.
This, of course, would be a change to be implemented further down the line. But, it’s key to note how strong of a message this sends on where the current social media trends are headed. Facebook’s algorithm currently favors native video and live video posts over plain text updates – but Mendelsohn predicts the shift was “user-driven and organic”.
At the summit, she says:
“The best way to tell stories in this world — where so much information is coming at us — actually is video. It commands so much information in a much quicker period so actually the trend helps us digest more of the information in a quicker way.”
Content Is King – But What Kind?
So, what does this say about where social media trends are headed? For so long, it’s been stated that content is key, no matter what kind of digital platform you use. However, the shift has been clear since news of Snapchat ranking in as the most popular social media app – content is still king, but written content may be on the decline.
Today’s social media users are more responsive to video content – they’re quicker to digest, can be done on-the-go, and are more interactive than reading text articles or posts.
Understanding where social media is headed and how to incorporate these shifts now rather than later can make a huge difference when it comes to saving and adding to the adaptability of various social media platforms. For these platforms to survive, they need to anticipate what’s coming.
Image Credit to Loowgren / Flickr.
