8 Ways Blockchain Technology Will Affect Social Media

By Swati Kishore

If you have been keeping yourself up to date with the latest technology news, then you must be aware of the ripples that the Blockchain tech is making across industries- from logistics, real estate, education, to healthcare. Blockchain refers to a decentralized ledger that records transactions chronologically and these transactions are secured with the help of cryptography. The transactions are also immutable. This revolutionary technology of our times is positioned to take over many other industries, and Social Media Marketing is one of them. Let’s see how Blockchain will impact Social Media to transform our lives.

1. Increased transparency

The complexity involved in social media marketing requires the need of third party tools for the validation of data. With Blockchain technology, it will be possible to validate you own data, which is also known as first party verification. For consumers of social media data, it would mean that they will be relieved that the data they are viewing is factually accurate. Marketers will also be able to make informed decisions which would lead to a higher ROI.

2. Crypto- enabled social media

Future social media platforms will allow the users to earn cryptocurrencies for their behaviour. This will be a win win situation for both the social media network and the users since users will be attracted towards platforms that reward them for their specific behaviour, while the networks will be able to build communities of like-minded people.

3. Less fake content

Today, the social media networks are filled with false news, fake profiles, and bots. With the help of Blockchain tech, the social media networks of the future will ensure that content on their platforms is verifiable, authentic, and can be traced easily.

4. Facilitation of Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

When a user logs onto Facebook or makes a search on Google, his data is captured by these third parties and further released to advertisers. Blockchain negates the need of intermediaries or the middle men, hence data privacy becomes the priority. The distributed ledger tech will thus have a huge impact on the social media industry as it transforms the marketing model.

5. Better consumer targeting

With Blockchain, marketers will have all the consumer data in one place. Hence, it will be easier to build consumer profiles; also it will be more accurate. Plus, if consumers are interested in a company’s products or  services, they will be able to provide their data willingly. Hence, Blockchain will allow for better consumer behavior monitoring.

6. Consumer data might become pricier

As discussed above, the marketer will be required to go to the consumer for the purpose of collecting their data. One of the drawbacks of this method as compared to traditional marketing will be that the consumers will get to decide how much they will charge for the information being asked, therefore consumer data will as a result become pricier. But the positive aspect is that talking to potential clients might result in more customers.

7. Smart Contracts to be deployed in digital marketing

With Smart Contracts, Blockchain technology is able to ensure that transactions are completed swiftly. Marketers can use it to their advantage as Smart Contracts will facilitate the easy tracking of agreement terms. Moreover, the steps towards fulfillments of the terms are automated, hence social media marketers can easily receive payments without having to wait for prolonged periods of time.

8. Better revenue generation

Bots as well as individuals have been used maliciously to click on ads for better statistics. This not only leads to falsified data, but the ad revenue generating also falls below the projected levels. The accuracy rendered by Blockchain tech will ensure that all this comes to an end.

Blockchain is on its way to disrupting the social media industry and creating better online communities where transparency and authenticity will be key. Let’s wait and watch where this distributed ledger technology takes us in the future of things to come.