The Rise of Social Media: Intelligent Social Learning Platforms
The most relevant of mega trends today is the rise of social media, for both our younger and older generations. More than ever before, users from around the world are able to connect and collaborate through one base platform. Social platforms are utilized for social purposes, but these platforms have the potential to be even more practical. First, however, it is important to realize how much of an impact these social media sites have on our everyday lives. By learning more about these expanding platforms, we can grow in our ideas to enhance them. Here are just some of the latest findings on social media mega trends:
Facebook is still dominant as a consumer social channel. Two new users join Facebook every second. The total number of worldwide social media accounts, including both consumer and enterprise accounts is projected to be $4.9B in 2016. Social networking accounts for 22 percent of all time spent online in the U.S.
There is continued growth of image-powered or image-centric networks. Sharing only images (e.g., Instagram) with supported #hashtag commands for channels and filtering. Brands are quickly realizing that “words tell, but images sell.”
• Twitter continues its rise; however, only about 15 percent of Americans have a Twitter account. In a recent Edison report, only 11% of Americans “have not heard of Twitter,” which means 89 percent have. The fastest growing age bracket on Twitter is 55-64 years old.
• Exponential increase in big data (“meaningful data”) and the management of big data. The real issue is making sense of big data and finding patterns in it that help organizations make better business decisions. This is the ability to capture the digital exhaust, detect meaning from the noise, derive meaning, and turn meaning into action.
• Context-aware computing (CAC) increases with behavioral targeting. A contextually aware system anticipates the user’s needs and proactively serves up the most appropriate and customized content, product or service. This market is expected to grow from $12.74 billion in 2013 to $55.71 billion by 2018. In the coming years, enterprises are expected to increasingly invest in context-aware applications and technologies, driven by the popularity of trends across
enterprise mobility.
• Year-over-year growth in social networking is greatest among people age 45 and older. However, over half of social networking users are 12 – 34 in age. Of this group, the gender composition leans slightly more female (54 percent) than male (46 percent). Nearly two-thirds of social networkers use social sites daily.
With nearly the entire world coming together to collaborate through social media, the opportunities for international communication are endless. Here at IQ technologies, we have turned those opportunities into a reality. Social media platforms are the basis of what makes up our institutions, businesses, and organizations, leading to an interconnected world.