A decade ago there were fewer than one billion social network users. Last month, that number was 5.2 billion. Social network usage is expected to increase 20 percent during the next 12 to 18 months, according to Brand Keys’ 2020 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index. That user growth has fueled the rise of additional social platforms.
Internet access and social networking have increased consumer expectations an average of 18-20 percent year-over-year (YOY). Estimated growth in consumer expectations for 2020 is estimated at 26 percent, significantly higher than in previous years.
Brands and platforms, though, manage to keep up only with about 6 percent of consumers’ expectations. This leaves a large gap between what the rising number of online users expect and what brands are seen to deliver.
This year, consumer expectations will translate to a desire for new, more agile social platforms. More social network users and interactions also will fuel the desire for platforms, or places, to meet. The increase in social networking and platforms will lead to increased consumer demand for more topics to connect with and to share, as well as an increased opportunity for PR pros and marketers.
Marketing Mobius Strip
Think of the situation as a Marketing Mobius strip. Growing consumer behavior leads to increased expectations, which lead to more platforms created to meet those expectations, which increases consumer behavior, which leads to more frequent online social and retail behavior.
It doesn’t hurt that marketers always seek the newest thing to engage consumers, who have come to expect this. In part, this is why it is estimated that alternative social platforms will increase 30 percent YOY. This will lead to openings for PR pros to leverage stories.
History shows that expectations beget new – and higher – expectations. Consumers shop online. They share, search and learn online. And they expect access to everything in a nanosecond. They have come to realize, though, that they don’t have access to everything in a nanosecond.
Expecting Shoppable Posts
When they have questions, consumers search. But expectations are so high that they don’t really want to search for something when they see it online. They want to tap on an image and gain access. Where is it and what’s in it? What clothes are those people wearing? How much do they cost? Tap on an image and learn everything about it. Consumers expect that. In other words, they want shoppable posts.
Core B2C platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and B2B platforms, like LinkedIn, are at various stages of meeting consumer expectations. They are adopting or developing shoppable strategies that make them more competitive with online retailers like Amazon and JD.com of China. Estimated YOY growth in shoppable posts is 100 percent.
Alternative e-commerce platforms like TikTok allow brands to engage consumers who are migrating from older sites to those that better meet their expectations. Amid a maturing online marketplace, tech companies are working to make everything more transactional. Shoppable posts are the off-ramp for having to shop in a store.
Given the abundance of online social and retail platforms, and their estimated growth, more options mean consumers are going to expect more (26 percent more). Those increased expectations will force them to consider new, alternative platforms or else force brands to offer shoppable content to compete.
TikTok’s ads, for example, have a “shop now” button connected to UGC that redirects users to a microsite.
Instagram allows retailers with the Shopify network to embed point-of-sales items within posts.
(62,474 US consumers, 16-65 years old)
Social Shopping and More
Over the past two years, all the major players have created formats where online users can make purchases within the creative itself, even if they weren’t online to shop initially.
Tap on an item, and the price appears. Click on a price, and up comes product information. Tap on the information, and a link arrives. Tap on the link, and you’re shopping. The concept of a shoppable post gives consumers the opportunity to buy immediately. Could consumers expect anything more?
Yes. They’re going to expect a seamless blend of social and retail. This will entail PR crafting the correct messaging.
What will engage consumers more and more will be broader, more general, and more engaging than retail alone. Engagement is, of course, about awareness, but mostly about emotion. And emotion is the doorway for making something desirable and, when designed properly, eminently shoppable.
Start Small
Half a decade ago, you could argue that consumers needed time to get used to shopping on mobile devices. But with more than 85 percent of U.S. shoppers making purchases online, it’s a given that they’ll do it from their phones. And with those expectations a given, it will be the tap-on-your-platform-of-choice trend for the foreseeable future.
This is a big idea, but brands should start small, beginning with social networking and their websites. They need to merge their social content and e-commerce initiatives.
And, remember those 5.2 billion online consumers? With the continuing growth of social media and e-commerce, synergy between the two will be massive. Amalgamation will be the next big thing for online platforms, particularly new social networking platforms.
Native integration will make it easier for consumers to tag and shop. In addition, it will make finding product pages easier, more instinctive and immediate.
This promises to make online experiences more relevant, engaging and customizable. Again, this is a formula tailored for PR. It also provides a foundation for PR to create more favorable brand imagery.
PR and Analytics
Shoppable analytics should point the way to prioritizing the products PR professionals need to attend to and which clients want shoppable posts. Content that engages consumers is broader (and less specific) than retail or pure PR alone.
Today, engagement is about creating awareness and emotion. This is ideal for PR. Awareness and emotion lead to the doorway of something that’s attended to and desired. It’s thus eminently sociable, sharable and shoppable. The idea of shoppable posts gives consumers the opportunity to purchase immediately.
Over the past two years, the major players created formats where online users and social networkers can make purchases in the creative itself. And that’s even if they weren’t initially online to shop, but just to share.
Shoppable ads on new platforms specifically designed to accommodate them have the added advantage of providing visitation, attention and image-management efficacy. They provide nano-second measures of consumer attention, engagement, viewpoints, behavior and sales.
Most brands already have access to social and lifestyle content. And yes, a lot of it is silo-ed and not designed for commerce. PR can help to segment and repurpose this content. Consumer-generated and influencer content almost always yield material that can be used both socially and commercially. This all promises to make online experiences more relevant and engaging for consumers, which, in turn, will fuel demand for additional social and retail platforms, all of which will have more shoppable ads.
And, not-so-coincidently, this will generate greater visitation and visibility for platforms, and profits for brands.
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