This is Part 2 of a two part series on where Social Media is going and why. If you missed Part One, here it is. So Where Is Social Media Going? Part 1
Social Search Taking Hold
What many marketers have taken for granted and seemingly refusing to realize is consumers are humans. Many years ago the normal person’s first reaction to the internet was to embraced the entertainment value and social aspects. However, their initial reaction lasted only for a very short time before their interest turned into a consumer’s behavior.
This means the people who use the internet and social spaces today have learned (or in many cases have been taught) to maneuver around the unwanted content and images put into their way by uneducated marketing companies. After learning how to move around the potholes in the information highway consumers learned how to get to the un wanted content. And, where the consumers go, so does the internet. This is what brought about the change from Social Media to becoming Social Search.
Search For Fun
Of course there will always be the fun and witty conversation people have in the social space. These casual chats are a very useful part of people’s effort to drawn others into their online social community. The online communities consumers have built will be the people they go to ask about a product or service. The consumer will trust what the online community has to say more so than commercial advertisements being placed in the social streams to move around.
Google+ Takes Over
So where do consumers go to conduct their Social Search? Where else! Google!
Google has been for the last five years aggressively reeling back in the SEO monster they created. After sitting back for a few years and watching the youngsters of the tech world create a mess of internet marketing, all in the name of SEO, Google seemingly saw it was time they started to rectify the situation.
Google first started changing how their search spiders searched for content to put into the search engine. This was an effort to cut off all of the Black Hat SEO tactics Google was getting blamed for producing.
Then Google launched their own platform for people and consumers to gather to socialize in a brighter clearer environment. After several attempts of innovation to the current social networks Google+ eventually launched the platform they now exclusively use to find the content, products and services the now savvy consumers of the world demand.
However, Google did not stop with just matching what the other social spaces were doing. Google, as they are prone to do, got in front of developing the next form of content ‘interneters’ are interested in using to absorb the information has also changed. Video!
Google played their hand for all to see when they purchased YouTube….the largest video archive in several universes.
Visual Content Rules
Videos are now the consumer’s number one choice for information delivery. A social video of someone reviewing a product or service carries more weight towards influencing a consumer’s buying habit than many of the commercials a business will place on TV. Consumers are today by passing well written compelling word based content to go directly to a video on the subject matter.
Watching videos on a product or service is now much more compelling to consumers than being pitched the product by a retail sales person. Consumers prefer visual content that is more consist and to the point.
However, the curtains on the low quality laptop produced video are drawing close..finally. The video produced in someone’s home office of a guy or gal ranting on about something were cute but consumers are not interested in this form of low grade digital media. Consumers are now only watching videos producing in High Definition. High quality produced videos are now what consumers search for on YouTube and Google putting more credence to Social Search taking over Social Media.
Clear Direction Towards Videos
All of these changes confirm Social content has to be more searchable..or search worthy. Content has to be more entertaining and creative. A person’s or business’ blog is still the center of the social universe. Adding a high quality video to the blog makes it now the Black Hole of their efforts drawing in more of the searches consumers make to the Google search engine.
The key however is there still is a need to produce quality content and quality videos in order to increase the attractiveness of what you or your business has to offer. Studies are showing the social videos..in particular the G+ Hangout..are leading the way towards being another form of valued content consumers prefer.
Again, the higher the quality produced Hangout the greater number viewers. Social videos are still viable form of content. The change with social videos means they now have to be produced in HD, with quality sound and focused scripting to get anyone to view them.
Set Your Course to Change
The change has been made. Internet marketing has changed to digital marketing. Social Media has changed to Social Search. Word driven content has changed to video centric social communications. With all of these recent changes being made out here in La-La-Land it has become perfectly clear that the way people and businesses are using the internet will have to change. Businesses will have to conform to Google’s search criteria or be left out in the void of the universe of the internet.
Which way are you going with Social Media?
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