Role of Social Media in Digital Space is phenomenon. It has empowered users to seamlessly merge their online activities across web and mobile platform to turn communication into an interactive dialogue.
Social Media: a strong medium!
Social Media as a medium is about creating conversation, cultivating 2-way relationships with your audience and at the same time connect and build relationship by listening to what your constituents are saying and thereby becoming more receptive and responsive.
Digital and Social Media Landscape in India
India has 560 million active Internet users as of 2019. India is the second-largest online market, behind China.
It is estimated that by 2021 there will be around 636 million active internet users in India.
The majority of India’s internet users are mobile phone internet users, who take advantage of cheap alternatives to expensive broadband/ Wi-Fi connections that require PC, laptop and other equipment.
Indians have 1.2 billion mobile phone subscriptions and downloaded more than 12 billion apps in 2018.
Driven by the increasing availability and decreasing cost of high-speed connectivity and smartphones. The government’s Digital India initiative is bringing broadband internet access to 250 thousand gram panchayats, or self-governing village councils, to make it easier for millions of more people to connect online.
Private telecommunications companies are offering attractive packages, providing bundled near-free smartphones and voice plans to anyone who subscribes to their internet services.
There has been a significant increase in internet penetration in India since 2015 and figures are forecast to increase in the coming years.
Source: Statista reports 2019
Role of Social Media in Digital landscape
Social Media Trends
Social Media Trends Are Transforming the Digital Marketing Landscape.
Once started as the platform to connect & interact with people, social media has come a long way to become a leading online marketing channel today.
Social media is able to create better engagement than any other online marketing channel for marketers.
It’s an effective way to connect with your target audience.
Consumer Behavior
Social Media shapes consumer behavior by influencing how they expect brands to interact with them; thus, alters the digital marketing landscape, in the process.
Mobile Revolution
The mobile revolution is already upon us, and there’s no doubting the fact that it is mostly driven by social media.
All in all, the mobile-centric advancements in the social media arena are pressing marketers to go mobile first in their digital marketing endeavors.
New & Popular Social Media Channels
For the last year, Instagram & Snapchat have emerged as the new popular social media marketing channels among marketers. Both of them are mobile specific platforms; thus, they are implicitly making marketers adopt a mobile-first social media marketing strategy.
Snapchat: Snapping in Real Time is a New Hyperconnectedness
Ephemeral Content
Ephemeral content has emerged as a disruptive digital marketing practice.
Snapchat pioneered the concept of ephemeral content through its Stories features.
Given its effectiveness, Facebook also implemented the feature across all its social media & messaging apps – Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
Read: 5 Reasons Brands Should Consider Ephemeral Content & Best Practices When Creating a Strategy
Augmented Reality
Besides ephemeral content, it’s the Snapchat’s filters that triggered the platform’s quick success.
Powered by Augmented Reality, facial filters, geo-filters, branded filters, etc., they take the engagement to a whole new level.
AR filters are already redefining the way how brands approach target customers with their products in the digital world.
AR And Social Media: Is Augmented Reality The Future Of Social Media?
Live Streaming
Brands who are making the most of their social media presence are the ones that are also dipping their toes in the live streaming pool.
The trend was started by Facebook Live feature and was quickly adopted by all the other social networks.
Getting Started with Social Media Streaming: What You Need to Know
Messaging
Messaging is one of the things that people do more than social networking.
And today, it is evident in the fact that among the top 5 social networks in the world, 3 are messaging apps. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat
Conclusion
As the need to provide customers a more enhanced personalized experience will continue to grow among marketers, social media will continue to evolve as a marketing channel.
In time to come, we will see many new innovative social media marketing features that will further alter the shape of the digital marketing landscape – making it more engaging and personalized; thus, helping businesses in building better relationships with their customers.
In today's context, social media has become a virtual world of interaction among people present on the Internet, mobile phones and other gadgets connected to Internet. So, social media is the effective use of web and mobile technologies to achieve whatever targets you have in mind from the people available online. These targets can be business opportunities, creative or intellectual interaction with like minded people, a mission (Anna's campaign against corruption witnessed millions of educated people on roads for perhaps the first time- a good example of their facebook and twitter campaigns) or any other thing under the sun!
yes deepa totally agree, its going to be a very strong medium.