I have no long denied it and even had some fierce debates with friends of mine who clearly saw the light ahead of me (marginally I must say) but I am finally on board with the fact that social media is going to be the biggest shift in marketing strategy since television. I’ll go a step further in fact and suggest that in 10 years or less, TV ads will be a massive waste of money because everything ad budget is going to be dedicated to the social media channels which we currently have and which will be developed in the coming years. 

Here is why I believe that this is the case, and why I have to finally come around to admitting I’ve been a little later to this party than many of my peers. 

Early Adopters  

I read an article recently which stated some statistics which they had found after researching the younger generation and their ability to adapt to social media, and most importantly the ease with which they will flip-flop between social media platforms. In contrast we see as expected the older generation putting up some resistance to this, poo-pooing the idea of change. Surprisingly however young adults and middle aged adults (below 45) are also open to the idea of doing away with TV, or at least combining TV with social media channels. If that is the case now given so little exposure for social media right now, just what will that look like in the future! 

Speed

The speed with which social media platforms are emerging and then improving is breakneck and in just a matter of months we are seeing social media channels truly take over, where there was nothing before. The speed with which word spreads is going to be key for marketeers in the future, just image what could happen when their branding is on the next hot YouTube video! If businesses are able to latch on to a wave, there is no telling whee it will stop. 

Costings 

If social media blows up as so many of us anticipate it to do (yes I am now fervently in that category of people) then I see one compelling reason why marketing agencies which switch their focus completely and begin to look at social media rather than TV and that is cost. There is no way that social media platforms will elevate their costing to the place where TV ads, for no other reason than the sheer volume of ads which they will be able to weave into their sites. I may definitely be wrong about this but I just fail to see how the cost of a small banner ad or maybe even some kind of promoted post, will come at anywhere near the cost of say a 15 second ad in-between shows. 

What are you thoughts on the future of social media and marketing?