2016年社交媒体五大发展趋势

尽管社交媒体行业在2015年获得长足进步，但在2016年，我们有望见证新技术彻底改变人们与社交媒体的互动方式。社交购物将日益普及。各大社交网络将加速演变成“无所不包的平台”。简言之，社交媒体将更加深入地融入我们日常生活和工作的方方面面。

对于社交媒体行业来说，这是值得纪念的一年。2015年见证了社交流媒体直播服务的诞生，Periscope和Meerkat等应用初战告捷，已经赢得了不少早期采用者。Snapchat也终于摆脱了小众网站的名声，目前已拥有超过2亿名活跃用户。与此同时，视频服务也在各大社交网络上发展得风生水起，Facebook用户的每日视频点击量达到80亿次（根据某些数据统计，甚至超过了YouTube）。

那么，在2016年，社交媒体行业又将出现哪些趋势？新技术有望彻底改变我们与社交媒体的互动方式，购物等新功能将相继开放，我们还可以通过社交网络分享更加实时、更加生动的体验。但新功能的不断涌现，加上“社交”范畴的不断扩大，也可能导致一些用户跟不上形势。现在就让我们预测一下2016年社交媒体领域的五大趋势。

虚拟现实登陆社交媒体：2014年3月Facebook斥资20亿美金收购了虚拟现实公司Oculus之后，其 CEO马克•扎克伯格曾写道：“想象一下，你不仅可以在网络与朋友分享一些时刻，还能分享整个体验和经历。”现在，我们不需要继续想象这种服务的体验了。Facebook已经开始将Oculus技术应用到它的360 Video服务中。这些通过新闻推送功能发布的独特视频，可以使用户从不同的角度产生更加沉浸式的体验（不管你从上下左右哪个角度看，也不管是在网页上还是在移动设备上）。

Vice和迪士尼频道已相继推出360度全景视频节目。此外，好莱坞巨制《星球大战：原力觉醒》也推出了一个相当酷的360度全景视频宣传片。随着发行商和各大品牌纷纷跟进这项技术，并创造新的内容，我们有望在2016年看到更多沉浸式的视频。作为一种完全沉浸式的虚拟现实技术，Oculus公司的Rift头盔即将在2016年年初上市，届时将为Facebook的推送带来更加有趣的可能性。Oculus已经推出一款名叫Oculus Social Alpha，可用于三星Gear VR头盔的观影应用。它可以让你“坐”在影院，与其他用户同时观看一段视频——这可能是Facebook新技术带来的第一款真正的社交应用。

社交购物将广泛普及：过去一年中，Twitter、Facebook、Instagram和Pinterest等主流社交网络都推出或升级了应用内置的“购买”功能，使用户可以在应用内直接购买衣服、工艺品和其他一些小玩意儿。从很多方面看，这个功能可谓姗姗来迟。人们早就开始在社交网站上发现和讨论产品了，有五分之四的人表示朋友发的帖子会直接影响他们的购买决定。在中国、韩国等国家，社交频道也早就整合了电商功能。

到目前为止，社交购物功能在北美地区最大的绊腿石就是易用性。要想在社交媒体上购物，我们必须先点击其他网站（这在智能手机上总是个问题），或者用户只能面临非常有限的选择（比如已经停用的Facebook Gifts）。但现在，诸如Pinterest的Buyable Pins等功能已经可以让用户浏览产品的颜色和款式，然后在应用内直接付款，整个过程都不需要离开社交平台。2016年，各大社交网站将有望不再继续充当“电商中转站”的角色，而是升级为用户直接购物的平台。

Facebook Live将使流媒体直播成为主流：2015年，一批流媒体直播应用的诞生给人们带来了不小的惊喜，它们使用户可以对粉丝进行视频直播。到2015年夏末，Twitter旗下的Periscope公司已拥有1000万名活跃用户，本月还被苹果评为2015年最佳iOS应用。

Facebook 2016年也将推出自己的移动流媒体直播功能，该功能目前一般被称为“Facebook Live”。届时，流媒体直播或将赢得主流用户的青睐。这项功能可以使用户通过Facebook平台与好友分享直播视频。目前Facebook Live正在美国的少数iOS用户间进行内测。最关键的是，你无需下载一个单独的应用，也不必离开Facebook应用界面，就能直接使用这个新功能。如果Facebook Live按照预期推出，它不仅有望主宰流媒体直播领域，更有望彻底改变Facebook与15亿用户之间的互动方式。

职场一族的社交媒体技能差距进一步加大：随着Slack（其同时登录用户人数已经超过100万），以及即将推出的Facebook at Work等职场社交网络呈现井喷之势，在办公室使用社交网络已经从一种禁忌变成一项必备技能。企业纷纷引入社交工具来来优化内部通讯，帮助销售员工接触客户，当然也用于营销和广告。但一些员工并不适应这一挑战。《哈佛商业评论》对2100家公司进行的一项调查显示，在使用职场社交媒体的企业中，只有12%的企业觉得自己在有效使用社交媒体。就连和社交媒体一起长大的千禧一代似乎也达不到要求。雪域大学社交媒体教授威廉•沃德解释道：“就算一个人从小时候就使用社交媒体，这并不代表他就会成为在工作中使用社交媒体的专家。”

社交媒体技能差距的恶果，体现在许多方面。比如，在社交媒体上出丑的企业越来越多，一些企业用错了标签，一些企业预先计划好发布时间的帖子出了岔子，更不用说企业效率和商业价值的下降导致的几万亿美元损失了（你没看错，就是几万亿）。2016年，我们有望看到一些企业为弥补这些技能差距而着手开展社交媒体技能培训——就好像当年的微软Office套件和后来的电子邮件刚刚成为企业的重要工具时一样。很多职场社交媒体已经开始提供在线自学课程，以及专门为职场设计的视频教程。（比如Hootsuite公司就在免费提供课程。）

社交媒体客服质量显著提升：社交媒体客户服务似乎一直都是个很好的创意。如果发个微博就能很快获得回复，为什么还要排队打热线电话呢？但现实却是另一番情景。最近一份针对500家顶级零售企业的研究显示，在这些企业中，通过Twitter回答消费者问题的企业只有20%，通过Facebook回答问题的企业也只有54%，其平均回应时间长达27至31个小时不等！更不用指望所有问题都能在一个公共论坛上得到解决了。

幸运的是，变革的曙光已经照在了地平线上。2015年下半年，Twitter和Facebook都显著加强了各自的客户服务功能。Twitter取消了发送私密消息必须首先“相互关注”的要求，意味着企业和消费者现在可以直接进行私密交流了。与此同时，Twitter也取消了私密消息的140字限制，所以私密消息已经成为一对一地解决消费者问题的一个很好的渠道。Facebook也不甘示弱地推出了Messenger Business功能的内测版本，使企业可以通过私聊渠道与消费者进行实时的私密互动。考虑到Messenger已经拥有了8亿用户，不难预见，2016年它将成为一个相当普及的移动友好型客服渠道。

社交媒体领域最大的变化或许就是，各大社交网络将加速演变成“无所不包的平台”。Twitter不仅仅局限于取消140个字限制，还在一对一私信、视频分享、客户服务等方面全面发力。Facebook也不止是要把你与好友们联系起来，它现在已经成为（或即将成为）一个职场效率工具，一个视频分享和流媒体平台，一家自由购物的电商。LinkedIn、Instagram、Pinterest和Snapchat等社交网站，也在进行类似的转型。社交媒体已经不再是人们从事日常沟通的一个孤立媒介，它还成为一切人类活动的一个自然的组成部分。这个趋势还没有出现任何减缓的迹象。(财富中文网)

本文作者Ryan Holmes是Hootsuite公司的CEO。

译者：朴成奎

审校：任文科

It’s been a memorable year in social media. 2015 saw the birth of live social streaming, with apps like Periscope and Meerkat winning over early adopters. Snapchat fully shed its reputation as a niche network and now counts more than 200 million active users. Meanwhile, video dominated social headlines, with Facebook fb users now logging an estimated 8 billion video views a day(even more than on YouTube, by some counts).

What does 2016 hold for social media users? Expect to see new technologies fundamentally change how we interact with social media, opening up new options like shopping and enabling us to share ever-more vivid, real-time experiences. But new functionality and the widening universe of social options also threaten to leave some users in the dust. Here’s a peek into the crystal ball at five trends that will change how we use social media in 2016:

Virtual reality comes to social media: “Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.” That’s whatMark Zuckerberg wrote after Facebook acquired Oculus, the virtual reality company, for $2 billion back in March 2014. Well, we won’t have to imagine much longer. Facebook has already begun incorporating Oculus technology into its360 Video. The unique videos, which have rolled out on News Feeds, allow users to experience scenes from different angles (looking right, left, up, down, etc.), on both web and mobile devices, creating a more immersive experience.

Right now, there’s 360 Video available from the likes of Vice and The Disney Channel and a really cool clip from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Expect to see more immersive videos in 2016 as publishers and even brands catch up with the technology and begin creating more content. As for true, fully immersive VR, the consumer version of the Oculus Rift headset is slated for release in early 2016, opening up even more interesting possibilities for our News Feeds. Meanwhile, Oculus VR has already released a new “social” app called Oculus Social Alpha, for use with the Samsung Gear VR headset. The virtual movie-watching app allows you to “sit” in a theater and watch a video in real-time with other users – perhaps the first truly social application of Facebook’s new technology.

Social shopping takes off: Over the last year, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest all unveiled or upgraded in-line buy buttons, which allow users to purchase clothes, crafts, gadgets and more without ever leaving their feeds. In many respects, this development is long overdue. We’re already discovering and talking about products on social media, and four out of five people say that posts from friends directly influence buying decisions. Plus, overseas in China, Korea and elsewhere, social channels have long incorporated ecommerce functionality.

So far, the primary stumbling block in North America has been ease of use. To buy on social media, we’ve had to click out to other sites (always problematic on smartphones) or we’ve been offered limited selection (a la the now defunct Facebook Gifts). But innovations like Pinterest’s Buyable Pinsnow let users browse color and style options and pay, all without leaving the platform. In 2016, expect to see networks’ role shift from being channels whose primary function in ecommerce is providing referral traffic to being platforms where users make purchases directly.

Facebook Live takes live streaming mainstream: 2015 started off with lots of excitement about the new crop of live streaming apps, which allow users to broadcast live video to their followings. By late summer, Twitter-owned Periscope already boasted10 million active users, and just this month it was named by Apple the best iOS app of 2015.

Expect to see live streaming reach a whole new, mainstream audience in the year ahead as Facebook rolls out its own mobile streaming functionality, generally referred to as Facebook Live. Already being beta-tested among a small number of U.S. iOS users, the feature allows for instantly sharing live video using the Facebook platform. What’s key here is that you don’t have to download a special app or leave Facebook to use the new video functionality. If Facebook Live rolls out as expected, it’s likely to not only dominate other live streaming options but also to fundamentally change the way Facebook’s 1.5 billion users engage with the platform.

The social media skills gap at work widens: With the explosion of workplace social networks like Slack (which recently saw more than 1 million userslogged in at the same time) and the imminent launch of Facebook at Work, using social media in the office has gone from taboo to a requirement. Businesses are incorporating social tools to streamline internal communications, to help sales staff reach customers, and, of course, for marketing and advertising. The problem is that front-line employees aren’t up to the challenge. Among 2,100 companies surveyed by Harvard Business Review, just 12% of those using social media feel they use it effectively. Even millennials brought up on social media are falling short: “Because somebody grows up being a social media native, it doesn’t make them an expert in using social media at work,” explains William Ward, professor of social media at Syracuse University.

The consequence of this social media skills gap can be seen in mounting corporate social media gaffes, from misused hashtags (see #WhyIStayed) to scheduled posts gone awry, not to mention trillions of dollars (yes, trillions) in lost productivity and business value. In 2016, expect to see social media training finally begin to make its way into the workplace in an effort to close this gap – similar to initiatives launched when office software suites and later email and the Internet itself emerged as critical business tools. A number of online offerings now provide self-paced lessons and video modules designed for the workplace. (Hootsuite is giving our course away free.)

Social media customer service gets a lot better:Customer service on social media has always seemed like a great idea. Why wait on the phone when you can Tweet and get an answer immediately? But the reality has been quite different. A new study of 500 top retailers shows that only 20% answer questions sent via Twitter and 54% respond via Facebook. And the average response time ranges from 27-31 hours! Not to mention that not all customer service problems lend themselves to being handled out in the open in a public forum.

Fortunately, change is on the horizon. In the latter part of 2015, both Twitter and Facebooksignificantly upped their customer service functionality. Twitter ditched the “mutual follow” requirement for its DM (Direct Messages) feature, meaning companies and customers can now contact each other directly and privately. At the same time, it lifted the standard 140-character limit for Direct Messages, so DM now makes a great one-on-one channel for tackling customer issues. Facebook, not to be outdone, has launched a beta version of Messenger Business, offering a new chat-based avenue for companies to have real-time, personal conversations with customers. Considering that Messenger has more than 800 million users, it’s not hard to see it evolving into a ubiquitous, mobile-friendly channel for customer service in the years ahead.

Perhaps the biggest change in social media is the accelerated evolution of networks into “everything platforms.” Twitter isn’t just for blasting out 140-character updates anymore: It’s for one-on-one messaging, video-sharing, customer service and more. Facebook isn’t just about connecting with friends: It’s now (or soon to be) a workplace productivity tool, a video sharing and streaming platform, a place to shop, etc. Similar transformations can be seen across LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat, among other networks. Social media has become less a discrete thing that people do than a natural component of everything they do. And that trend shows no signs of slowing.

Ryan Holmes is CEO of Hootsuite.