T. Stephen3,4

The Author(s) 2019

Abstract
Social media allows people to freely interact with others and offers multiple ways for marketers to reach and engage with
consumers. Considering the numerous ways social media affects individuals and businesses alike, in this article, the authors
focus on where they believe the future of social media lies when considering marketing-related topics and issues. Drawing on
academic research, discussions with industry leaders, and popular discourse, the authors identify nine themes, organized by
predicted imminence (i.e., the immediate, near, and far futures), that they believe will meaningfully shape the future of social
media through three lenses: consumer, industry, and public policy. Within each theme, the authors describe the digital landscape,
present and discuss their predictions, and identify relevant future research directions for academics and practitioners.
Keywords Social media . Digital marketing . Future of marketing
Introduction
Social media is used by billions of people around the world and
has fast become one of the defining technologies of our time.
Facebook, for example, reported having 2.38 billion monthly
active users and 1.56 billion daily active users as of March 31,
2019 (Facebook 2019). Globally, the total number of social media
users is estimated to grow to 3.29 billion users in 2022, which will
be 42.3% of the world’s population (eMarketer 2018). Given the
massive potential audience available who are spending many
hours a day using social media across the various platforms, it
is not surprising that marketers have embraced social media as a
marketing channel. Academically, social media has also been
embraced, and an extensive body of research on social media
marketing and related topics, such as online word of mouth
(WOM) and online networks, has been developed. Despite what
academics and practitioners have studied and learned over the last
15–20 years on this topic, due to the fast-paced and ever-changing
nature of social media—and how consumers use it—the future of
social media in marketing might not be merely a continuation of
what we have already seen. Therefore, we ask a pertinent ques￾tion, what is the future of social media in marketing?
Addressing this question is the goal of this article. It is important
to consider the future of social media in the context of consumer
behavior and marketing, since social media has become a vital
marketing and communications channel for businesses, organiza￾tions and institutions alike, including those in the political sphere.
Moreover, social media is culturally significant since it has be￾come, for many, the primary domain in which they receive vast
amounts of information, share content and aspects of their lives
with others, and receive information about the world around them
(even though that information might be of questionable accuracy).
Vitally, social media is always changing. Social media as we know
it today is different than even a year ago (let alone a decade ago),
and social media a year from now will likely be different than now.
This is due to constant innovation taking place on both the tech￾nology side (e.g., by the major platforms constantly adding new
features and services) and the user/consumer side (e.g., people
finding new uses for social media) of social media.
Mark Houston served as accepting editor for this article.

• Rhonda Hadi
  [email protected]


• Andrew T. Stephen
  [email protected]
  Gil Appel
  [email protected]
  Lauren Grewal
  [email protected]
  1 Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, 701
  Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
  2 Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, 100 Tuck Hall,
  Hanover, NH 03755, USA
  3 Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Park End Street,
  Oxford OX1 1HP, UK
  4 Monash Business School,