Social media is increasingly getting entry into everyday life, and websites like Facebook, Twitter Pinterest and Instagram are ruling the internet. However, technology in social media is not the same anymore and is constantly evolving to provide users with a varied and more unique experience each and every time they log into their accounts. The year 2015 witnessed the advent and rise of live social streaming and apps like Meerkat and Periscope dominated the market. 2016 and beyond is poised to see the coming of more unique technologies, some of which include the following:
Virtual Reality In Social Media
When Facebook acquired the virtual reality company Oculus in March 2014 for a couple of billions, he promised the ability of users to share full adventures and experiences with their friends online. With 360 videos already coming, and rolling out on News Feeds, users can get the opportunity to enjoy scenes from varied angles when they look down, up, left or right on both laptops and smartphones. The experience is going to be more immersive in the coming years.
Social Shopping
Although this technology in social media has been there for some time, it did not really catch on. In 2015, all the major social giants – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram – released their cutting edge in-line buy buttons that lets users buy everything from gadgets to clothes without needing to leave their feeds. The trend is really catching on and most users have mentioned that their purchase decisions are directly impacted by posts from their friends. The ecommerce feature has been long added by social channels in countries like Korea and China, although it has been newly launched in the Western countries.
Live Streaming
It was unveiled in 2015, and is set to grow bigger in 2016. Live streaming has gone mainstream with Facebook Live. The new generation of live streaming apps is helping users in broadcasting live videos to their followers. With Facebook supposed to come out with Facebook Live, its own unique mobile streaming functionality, things are going to get more exciting. It lets users share live videos instantly with the FB platform and has been beta-tested already among some iOS device users in the U.S. Facebook Live is expected to dominate live streaming options of other social media majors.
Advanced Social Media Customer Service
Both Facebook and Twitter came out with highly improved customer service functionality in 2015 itself. The “mutual follow” requirement of Twitter was substituted by Direct Messages or DM, which allows customers and companies to privately and directly communicate with one another. It also relaxed the 140-character limitation for the Direct Messages, which has made it better for handling consumer problems. Similarly, Facebook has come out with a beta version of a chat-based platform known as Messenger Business which lets companies engage in personal and real-time conversations with consumers. There are over 800 million users for Messenger at present, and it can easily be understood that this technology in social media will get more acclaim and widespread use in the years to come.
