10 Social Media Predictions for 2015

At the end of every year, social and marketing industry leaders try to predict which trends will score big in the coming year. We asked experts for their marketing and social media predictions for 2015. Here’s what they had to say.

RadiumOne CMO Eric Bader on Mobile Advertising

• Native advertising will grow in social networks and mobile. We will see an expansion of brand advertising through native units in a space dominated by DR and conversion-seekers. But the real growth will be in standard units that are simpler to valuate and buy. Custom native will continue to grow, but will be more niche due to greater expense and production time.
• We will see a huge expansion of mobile video advertising. Video consumption of all types, including traditional TV content, is going to happen on devices. eMarketer is predicting that more than 77 percent of all tablet users will watch video programming on their devices at least monthly. Programmatic buying of video ad inventory will grow in step as it will give advertisers the most efficient access to these growing audiences of video consumers based on their behaviors rather than just their demographic profiles.

Engagement Labs CMO Eli Singer on Social

• YouTube Becomes Marketers’ “Shiny New Toy” Marketers will begin leveraging YouTube as a key medium within their mix. For too long, it’s predominantly been a place to play TV commercials, and has been ignored by most marketers. But the opportunity for long-form content and performance targeting, in addition to YouTube’s ability to develop custom features, makes a unique and exciting video experience for consumers.
• Niche Social Grows Up Marketers will fork in their efforts — some will be doubling down on the main social sites of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, while others will begin to shift their efforts to more niche sites such as Reddit and forums.  The direction brands go will depend upon their sophistication in regards to the space, as well as their social media budgets. It also depends upon how they use the medium, whether it’s for broadcasting purposes or engagement and community building.

Gigya on Social Identity Management

• Apple will become an identity provider. While the introduction of Apple Pay in 2014 marked Apple’s first real foray into identity, 2015 will be the year that Tim Cook and crew stake their claim as a true third-party consumer Identity Provider (IdP). With over 200 million credit cards on file, deep relationships with financial institutions, knowledge of users’ on-device browsing behaviors, and insight into app downloads and usage, Apple has the ability to provide its millions of customers with convenience as they move across the Web. By making Apple ID usable outside of the brand’s own products and services, Apple has the potential to disrupt the Identity landscape and position Apple ID as the new standard for consumer identity in 2015.
• Yahoo’s presence as an IdP will disappear. It’s hard to believe that Yahoo’s quarterly share of social logins has fallen from a notable 18 percent to a dismal 6 percent in just one year. Not to mention, the network’s once 21 percent share of logins across North America has dropped 15 percentage points since Q3 2013. Once an identity provider of note, Yahoo will continue to face a steady decline as networks like Facebook and Google+ edge the company out of the IdP game. Despite its attempt to own consumer identity on its “home base” by barring Facebook and Google+ login across major Yahoo properties, Yahoo will have to find a way to increase the value of users’ Yahoo identities to continue to rank as a third-party IdP – a move that the network is unlikely to make.
• Identity will become central to the Internet of Things. The number of connected devices is expected to grow to more than 25 billion by 2020. As consumers continue to build their arsenal of smart gadgets in 2015, they will look to brands to enhance connectivity and improve user experiences. The wristband that measures users’ activity levels will soon be a commodity. But the one that evaluates their heart rates and adjusts the speed of their treadmills based on their fitness profiles is golden. Central identity between devices will take the Internet of Things to a whole new level, enabling them to communicate with one another and create a personalized lifestyle for consumers.

Bloomfire President and CEO Trey Tramonte on Enterprise Collaboration

• File sharing will become an integration point, not a destination. There has been strong demand for file sharing the last few years, but even as new features have been added, there’s been a shift to accessing these files from inside other applications. In 2015, this trend will accelerate with fewer people working inside their Box, Dropbox and SharePoint applications, and more using these solutions as a key integration point.
• Small will be the new big. SaaS solutions have democratized the IT buying process, making software more affordable for teams and departments without requiring C-level purchasing approval. In 2015, Yammer, Chatter and Jive will start to feel the pressure as more organizations take smaller steps to implement their enterprise collaboration strategies, testing specific use cases within select teams and then deploying them more broadly across the firewall.
• Learning Management Systems solutions will lose market share to enterprise collaboration platforms. Learning Management Systems provide a critical repository for the administration and delivery of educational material. Yet they are also rigid and complex, and a stark contrast to social collaboration tools that promote greater openness, accessibility and sharing. This lack of flexibility and usability will ultimately allow emerging collaboration solutions gain market share.

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