Avenues for Augmentation: How AR Will Change Social Media Marketing Forever

By Adam

Social media has been arguably the biggest innovation of the 21st Century to date, and if not the biggest, certainly the most impactful. The rise of Facebook, Instagram and latterly TikTok has changed the way we communicate and interact with one another in both a social and business sense. Now, as social media is adapting to welcome the emergence of augmented reality technology, we’re getting our first glimpses into how marketing may change forever as a result.

(Image: eMarketer)

As we can see from the data above, the number of US social network augmented reality users is expected to climb to over 48 million by 2022, with the rise of platforms like TikTok attributed as a driving force for such change.

The emergence of AR as a key trend in the future of social media holds significant potential for marketers looking for new ways to engage with users at a time when more traditional marketing techniques are struggling to adapt to a post-Covid-19 pandemic business landscape.

(Image: McKinsey)

As the data above shows, the digitization of customer interactions has accelerated at a significant rate all around the world – forcing marketers to think faster about how they can adapt to these new web-based frontiers. With this in mind, let’s take a deeper look into the role that augmented reality will play in the future of social media marketing:

Galvanizing The Product Experience

There are countless platforms and apps that have been developed to replicate the virtual ‘try on’ experience for brands in augmented reality, but let’s look to Facebook’s work with AR as a prominent example.

Social media giants, Facebook, have been effective in their accommodation of augmented reality for multiple purposes. To help to encourage adoption, Facebook’s Messenger app incorporated some AR games like Asteroids Attack and Don’t Smile into its entertainment offerings. These games simply utilized a similar technology to the AR filters we’re used to seeing on platforms like Snapchat and Instagram to enable users to navigate a spaceship using their faces and mobile phone camera, and enter into staring competitions with friends.

The social media platform has also integrated 3D filters into its business offerings, meaning that it’s become much easier for brands to use the platform to create augmented content for their audience. This has enabled the social network to allow sellers to create a virtual product experience scenario, where products can be superimposed into reality using a smartphone or device camera in order for customers to see what they look like while trying on certain products.

One example of AR in action could be found in the handbag campaigns of Facebook, where customers could use their cameras to understand how big the bags actually were – helping them to make a more informed decision about making a purchase.