ONE. The more expression-based platforms will lead the way for user growth. I came from the chat room and forum generation. Honed my chops at making a social profile on Friendster. For a while, tried out Multiply. Then, like many looking for a new space to be at, Facebook happened. Facebook has lasted this long (over ten years, would you believe), and this successfully, because the platform allows users to fully express the person behind the screen. The platforms that died out became obsolete because it relied on the power of connections alone; other people in our networks were expressing us for us. The up and coming platforms such as Snapchat represent this expression-based behaviour. As long as a platform allows its user-base to publish and create content (on top of allowing others to create content for them), then that platform is here to stay.

TWO. The social media command centre model will be the norm rather than the exception. It’s been a privilege to have been a part of a team that pioneered this model in our market, and I find it inspiring that other businesses are slowly but surely finding it in them to believe in the power of structured and organised social. When it comes to growing an audience base, creating and driving engagement, and — most importantly — establishing lessons and insights from data, nothing beats having a full-blown social media command centre that works together to deliver personal brand messages to consumers. Speaking of being personal…

Facebook says the average user has access to about 1,500 posts per day but only looks at 300. (“How News Feed Works”, by Victor Luckerson, published July 9, 2015)

THREE. The consumer will need and look for personalised content. How does a brand or business get any message across anymore, when the competition is 300-strong? The answer is highly-personalised content. Sure, we’re getting better at targeting content (goodbye, traditional demographic segmentation!) by specific interests, schools, places of work, and maybe even favourite movies, but this kind of messaging still ‘talks’ to huge swathes of the population. There is a reason why Dave Kerpen’s Las Vegas story is so timeless; we all want a brand message that speaks to no one else but us.

FOUR. The days of static-only content will be over. A few years ago, brands and businesses would be fine with simple text status updates on Facebook, or a basic tweet. Say goodbye to those days. 2015 has given us so many more formats to play around with, and be disruptive with. News Feeds are full of non-branded content that spread like wildfire: from funny looping GIFs and microvideos (under 15 seconds or so), to artsy Cinemagraph content, to interactive place-a-finger-here videos. To get more ‘thumb time’ from consumers (that is, stopping their scrolling thumbs from skipping your content), it’s imperative that we do whatever we can to capture and hold attention.

FIVE. The rise of ‘machined media’ will be upon us. The Philippines in particular enjoys the phenomena of ‘love-teams’, a fictional couple with a love story hyped and built up by mass media. These popular love-teams seem to change almost yearly, and their fan bases are generally the same large groups of people. What’s interesting is that these fan groups are highly organised and methodical in promoting their preferred love-teams, going so far as helping promote the brands and businesses endorsed by their media idols. The media mileage gained by brands and businesses is, in my opinion, impossible to categorise as “earned media” (due to the inorganic nature of how fan groups behave). Instead, it’s time we add a new category in our media arsenal: machined media. Highly organised, methodical propagation of content (like paid), outside of a brand’s direct influence (like earned), is a real beast when unleashed.

SIX. The rigid content plan structure will be on its way out. If there’s one thing we learned this year in the industry, it is that brands and businesses must be incredibly nimble when it comes to content creation and publication. Content plans in 2016 should allow plenty of publication space and a chunk of the allocated media budget to play around with, to be utilised when a situation or momentous event calls for it. Oreo has always been a case study for timely content creation, KITKAT blew the Internet away with this concept in 2014, and McDonald’s has been steadily practicing this agile approach this year. I understand how this could be inconceivable to budget-minded businesses BUT if we truly want to make the most out of social, we must be ready to invest in minute-correct and contextually accurate content.

SEVEN. The role of media support will be more important than ever. The reality of the crowded and noisy world of social marketing is that even the most beautiful pieces of branded content can be useless if it’s not pushed and delivered with the right amount of media support. Branded messages are rarely done “for the heck of it”, the way memes and funnies are, so these are unlikely to spread as much. Delivering targeted content ensures we increase the chances of great content being shared and being spread. This is because the content is pushed to a specific audience group most likely to find said content relevant and relatable.

EIGHT. The number of legitimate social marketing professionals will only continue to increase. Two years ago when I first began teaching in the Certified Digital Marketer Program, the average number of students in my Social Media Marketing webinars can be counted with two hands, and often with just one. I am ending 2015 with my classes having at least fifty students from various backgrounds. This is a great sign for the industry, as it tells us that more businesses are investing in the digital competencies of their employees, with social an accepted discipline-to-learn for them. It also means that the currently small pool (relative to the size of the industry) of social marketing professionals will continue to grow and grow, and new talents will be discovered.

NINE. The content designed for mobile will be the content designed to scale and spread. I personally find it incredulous that brands and businesses are still designing desktop-specific content, and then translating these content pieces directly onto social. Mobile devices are quickly becoming the top social media access point for Filipino consumers, helped by dropping device prices and mobile networks enabling free access to social platforms. We know that our market is going more and more mobile (39% of social media users in the Philippines alone log-in via a mobile device, compared to total population) so social content should follow suit, and be adapted for mobile consumption first.

TEN. The value of original content will be higher than ever. Look at the publishers and social content producers that populate our social news streams: Buzzfeed. Thought Catalog. 9GAG. Berlin-ArtParasites. The concept of creating and publishing original content isn’t new, but brands and businesses have yet to fully embrace it; there just aren’t that many brand blogs or behind-the-scenes Instagram accounts showcasing culture. The ones that do — the likes of H&M, Virgin, and Blizzard come to mind — end up producing content that not only looks good, but racks up positive PR points on social.

Social is an increasingly complicated and crowded world to navigate in for any brand or business, and this industry is not looking to slow down from where I stand. 2016 will be an interesting year of social competition in this pocket of the world we’re in, as virtually all major players in digital have built up significant experiences on this channel.

On my end, I can’t wait to see which predictions will turn out to be wrong — or right.

J