From the MDG Advertising blog comes this rather interesting infographic full of predictions about the near future of social media (but first, a video overview)…

And I’ll offer a few observations after you take it all in…

There are two trends that jump out at me as quite important for the church to understand. First, the idea that content must become more immersive. True.

Now, how does the church pull that off?

• More live, in-the-moment video, unpolished.
• More behind-the-scenes media.
• Online worship that somehow feels like you’re there.

And there is much more, I’m sure.

The other trend that jumped off the page at me was that brands will be focusing on fewer platforms.

Wise social media marketers have said for years that you don’t have to be on everything. It’s why I’m still not on Snapchat even though some younger leaders keep telling me it’s the best thing since Twitter.

But it also makes me think about the number of startups that have faded off the scene that were attempting to compete with these networks. There was a time, nearly a decade ago now, that it wasn’t uncommon for an email signature to have about 20 tiny icons linking to all sorts of social networks.

Now? These three remain… Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. And the greatest of these… is actually Snapchat? I don’t know.

I just know that the era of being present all over the interwebs is fading into more of an emphasis on doing it right. In other words, it’s less about being on social media and more about being social.

Those are challenging trends, but they yield great opportunities for church communications specialists.