This holiday season, Twitter will try to sell you stuff
What’s the mark of a successful social media campaign? It’s all about likes, followers, re-tweets, shares, and comments, right? Not any more! That list describes social media engagement, but we have entered a brand new era. That era minimizes the value of engagement and places a premium on a social media campaign’s ability to close a sale.
This marks a clear shift in the priorities — and assessment — of social media campaigns. This holiday season, you can expect to see evidence of this new way of thinking in full effect.
Social media campaigns are now emphasizing conversions.  From Mike McCune.
You might have already noticed sales pitches on Facebook (they are typically clickable ads disguised as posts in your newsfeed, and are labeled “suggested post”). So what will be different? And how are Twitter and other social media giants going to claim a stake in the game?
Mairead Ridge, senior manager of marketing at Offerpop in New York City, investigated the movement in a guest post for VentureBeat. Ridge reports that Facebook and Twitter both plan to “debut ‘buy’ buttons that allow in-feed sales.” In the case of Facebook, the “buy” button removes all veils from the “suggested posts” and makes it quite clear that the intent is for the reader to engage in a transaction. In the case of Twitter, it’s not uncommon for brands and spokespeople to offer links to purchase, but again, the “buy” button takes things up a notch. A big, expensive notch.
It is estimated that Americans will empty out their pockets to the tune of $650 billion this holiday season. Facebook and Twitter figure they might as well get their hands on some of it, especially since consumers are increasingly turning to online spending in lieu of braving the cold and crowds at brick-and-mortar stores.
A reported 72 percent of American adults are active on Facebook at least once per month. (Let that sink in for a moment and be appropriately astonished.) As Ridge points out, that overwhelming figure presents an incredible opportunity for digital marketers to “influence a majority of holiday shoppers on one platform alone.”
Platforms such as Instagram, which doesn’t currently allow hyperlinks, are perhaps less intuitive as a channel for digital marketers, but Ridge says “brands are intrigued by the highly visual platform’s potential to add depth and reach to their holiday campaigns.” In other words, they hope that people will see the gorgeous sweater or fabulous boots on Instagram and be inspired to go pick up the item.
Social media holiday campaigns are the “new normal,” and they are headed your way whether you “like” (pun intended) it or not.
