ONLINE social-networking platforms (OSNPs) are the next marketplace, a Twitter executive said. Expect this trend to get bigger in 2017, as social-media platforms “will not be bound just to company-consumer conversations or attracting new prospects,” Twitter Managing Director for Southeast Asia and India Maya Hari said.
Hari said such development prompted Twitter, which is also an OSNP, to “provide opportunities to improve conversion rates.” “[OSNPs] will work as new conversion channels and offer tools to convert prospects directly into buyers,” Hari said in a statement. “The challenge for established brands is responding to these new models with digital transformation.”
Citing Global Web Index (GWI) data, Twitter said more people would be more active in the mobile platform this year. At present, GWI data revealed 50 percent of Internet users today spend more than three hours a day connected; more than 90 percent of these own a smartphone.
In Asia-Pacific, GWI said 51 percent of Internet users found mobile phones the most important, against 26 percent who chose laptop. The GWI also revealed the top mobile activities are viewing websites, reading email and perusing OSNPs on mobile devices.
“In 2017 if you’re not catering your content, ads and online experience to a mobile user, then you are missing a massive opportunity,” Hari said. “Everything from your business website to email campaigns needs to be mobile-friendly.”
With this development, Hari said businesses have to face the challenge of real-time information and distractions over what’s real and what’s not, “to reach, engage and win over customers.”
“The ability to capture and retain a customer’s shortening attention span is now more important than ever.”
Hari added that while use of mobile technology is already pervasive, the brands are not ready.
Personalization of brands will also be a key element of businesses to get the attention of consumers. Hari defined personalization as involving the “segmentation” of the content to reach different types of audience members based on their preferences, interests, habits, etc.
“The most common form of this strategy is through lists, where certain content gets sent to certain types of users based on which lists they’ve opted into.”
Hari said live video shows signs of the next-level opportunity. Exclusive social video, she claims, is experiencing massive popularity as a content marketing creative, and this growth is expected to continue this year.
“Platforms are making it easier to broadcast live through any smartphone,” Hari said. “In 2017 be associated with the trendsetting brands experimenting with live video.”
Although many brands and businesses have adopted OSNPs as part of their marketing strategy, Hari claims majority of these organizations have failed to leverage real-time social data analytics.
She said brands should this year step up in leveraging the full archive of public Twitter data, which has 10 years of conversations around almost any topic.
“By analyzing the substantial data, businesses can discover newer insights to give them [customers] more details in developing better decisions.”