Our continued Social Media Week wrap-up summarizes the top consumer trends identified by Ann Mack, a professional trend-spotter with JWT North America:

Internet + smartphones + social media have turned information into a constantly updated stream that we take wherever we go. We’ve become hyper-documentarians:

• We upload the equivalent of eight years of content every 24 hours.
• Over 845 million people are now on Facebook uploading 250 million photos each day.
• 200 million daily Tweets is the equivalent a 10-million page book every 24 hours.

The extreme social transparency that this flow generates is creating a type of social angst – the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), which will likely increase.

Social networks will figure out ways to fine-tune our personal data and further customize ads, content, search results, and shopping choices that we see; however, some users will say things have gone too far and push back against personalization.

In the future, consumers may trend toward more random on-line experience…the way things used to be when we first “discovered” the Internet. It’s possible that some, especially Millennials, will unplug and just go back to connecting with pals face-to-face. On the other hand, more digital tools will be used as “butlers”.

In the meantime, brands might be able to tap into social-media users’ interest in “doing good”, collaborating, and being part of a bigger network. The challenge for marketers will be to figure out how to harness FOMO to drive spending while doing more social good.

Your thoughts? To be continued…