Why the Future of Social Media Will Depend on Artificial Intelligence

Not having a social media account is more of an anomaly than a norm in the modern world. With close to 2.77 billion users on different social networks around the globe, these platforms have transcended their primary objective of connecting people in a virtual space and emerged as gold mines for marketing opportunities. On the flip side, however, the ever-expanding outreach of social networks is generating monumental mounds of unstructured data which hides a sea of information in its folds.

Businesses and marketing gurus need to make sense of this data and draw actionable insights from it to be able to leverage social media to its full potential. That’s where artificial intelligence (AI) comes in. With its ability to fuse cognitive technologies with machine learning, AI can make sense of big data. This would, in turn, make social network algorithms capable of delivering specific and relevant information to users, going well beyond the practice of working with targeted keywords. For this reason, anyone aiming to make a career in marketing, digital media, and social media marketing must learn AI to enhance their skill set. 

Impact of AI on Social Media 

Whether it is client outreach, image building, or nurturing business relationship, social networks are the king. As the business-influencer-customer network gains a stronger footing, social media has become an integral part of running businesses. Therefore, effective social media management is crucial to build up a brand and enhance its visibility. One of the key benefits of artificial intelligence for social media is its ability to segregate voluminous data as per trending topics, tags, and hashtags (depending on the platform) and then analyse it to reflect user behaviour trends. 

AI algorithms are capable of monitoring millions of user comments, likes, shares, retweets and so on to understand users’ behaviour toward a post or trend, and thus, carve out personalised experiences that are in line with the end-user’s sensibilities. 

If you learn AI and master its application effectively, you can use algorithms to generate content based on demographics and online activity. It is for this reason that most leading social networks today have collaborated with AI businesses to add more finesse to their platforms and catapult user experience to the next level. In this environment, an artificial intelligence course can set you up for impeccable professional growth. A large section of online marketing businesses and organisations today are exploring a way to leverage the benefits of artificial intelligence for social media growth. Some of the top ways AI tools are being used to extrapolate information on social media include:

Image Recognition 

AI-powered image recognition software is being used as an effective tool to gather actionable insights that can help decipher user patterns with the help of millions of images circulating on different social networks. 

Chatbots 

Virtual assistants and chatbots are one of the most impressive outcomes of AI. As you learn AI and get adept at its ways, you can use these highly sophisticated tools to facilitate seamless interactions between brands and users. The evolution of chatbots has been one of the biggest benefits of artificial intelligence as it has turned social media into a viable space of conducting business and increasing outreach.

Influencer Marketing

The progress in the field of AI has also positively impacted the growing trend of influencer marketing. By using actionable insights from social media data, businesses can predict exact incentives to motivate influences to endorse a product or service as well as assess their performance through social media post engagements and conversions. 

The Future 

It is already nearly impossible to build up a brand without a relevant social media presence. Going forward, a mere social media presence will not be enough to create brand value and recognition. Optimising the visibility of the things offered by social networks with help of the right tools to maximise output, customers, and ROI (Return on Investment) will be the key. With many small and medium businesses lacking the resources required to be able to sustain a staff large enough to monitor social media trends, patterns, and insights, AI emerges as a viable alternative for finding the right answers in a cost-effective manner. With the help of third-party collaborations with AI organisations, even the smallest start-ups can leverage the benefits of artificial intelligence in tapping into vast pools of social media data. 

The bottom line is, when it comes to expanding business outreach on social media, AI is the go-to. 

Written By

Saheli Roy Chowdhuri