Emerging
trend: Systems that
analyze visual social media, such as Curalate,
add new dimensions to measuring online behavior.
Implication: Photos generate significant
interaction in social media. The ability to capture words and images will
increase the value of online content and highlight those influencers who
speak through images.
Action: Not everybody wants to write. When
drafting your content marketing strategy, balance verbiage with visual images.
Allow your followers to be able to clip and share those images on Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest and elsewhere.
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Emerging
trend: Facebook
will mirror Twitter’s power in trending topics by adopting hashtags.
Implication: Facebook will become more
useful to those who want to generate awareness on brands and issues. The hashtag streams will expand
closed-in friend networks and increase Facebook pages’ search visibility.
Action:
Identify words
people are most likely to use in reference to your topic. Use these as hashtags
consistently across all of your social media platforms.
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Emerging
trend: As hard
technologies (i.e., machine-based) become automated, soft technologies (e.g., social technology,
behavioral sciences) gain value as they still rely on human interpretation and
creativity.
Implication: Qualitative analysis skills, humanities education, and the
ability to process emotion will be critical to business success.
Action: Supplement hard science curriculum
with social sciences and humanities. Watch for executives who can fuse
analytical thinking with emotional intelligence and a sharp eye for
observations.
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