May 27, 2015: You may recall our social media trend list for 2014. With new networks, various updates, and advances in technology, quite a few things have changed in the world of social media since last year’s list. Are you wondering what’s in store for this summer? Here are 10 trends that we’re excited for:
1. Rise of Private Messaging: As we’ve written before, the instant message is back and better than ever. Millennials and younger users tend to opt for more personal, direct communication using apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Line, GroupMe and Kik. These apps are just starting to get the hang of native ads, so it’ll be interesting to see how well they do this summer.
2. Mobile-friendly or Bust: Thanks to the increase in smart phones and algorithms such as “Mobilegeddon,” your website has to be updated and place nicely with mobile. Many networks and websites may try to take advantage of mobile shoppers now more than ever with special social offers and contests.
3. “Facebookgeddon”: Facebook released algorithm updates that seek to provide a more user-friendly, personalized experience…which apparently means less content from business pages. It may be necessary for some businesses to incorporate paid ads into their social media strategy, beef up their content to be way more engaging, and shift their focus from one network to several.
4. In-Network Publishing: Not the best news for the blog, but with the (new this year) LinkedIn Publisher and Facebook’s “Instant Articles” deal with several huge publishers, it looks like more content is going to start living inside of the social networks.
5. Visual is King: It’s been a huge year for visual networks such as Snapchat and Instagram, and they only continue to grow. If your business doesn’t yet use imagery to its advantage, we can’t stress enough how important visuals are to social media success. If you’re a B2B business, try a network such as LinkedIn-owned SlideShare, which promises to explode in popularity among businesses.
6. Native Videos: Speaking of visuals, there has been (and will continue to be) a huge spike in video content in 2015. Vine, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram have been around, and this year we saw new live-streaming networks Meerkat and Periscope. Marketers can now reach audiences through bite-sized and live videos, providing rich content that has younger users more engaged than ever. This year has actually seen more Facebook-hosted videos than ever before.
7. Paid Ads Everywhere: “Pay to Play” has become almost necessary on some networks thanks to the “user friendly” updates mentioned above. Across the board, networks are expanding their advertising programs and making it worthwhile to put some more money behind social media campaigns. While “boosted” ads are going to become more of a reality for marketers, this change may not be as noticeable to users.
8. Tech Changes the Game: The Google Watch and the emergence of new ways to view networks, such as Oculus Rift, may even further change the “live” experience on social platforms. Expect quicker news, more intuitive feeds, and more bite-sized information delivered in more convenient ways. While we can try to make predictions on what’s around the corner, or gauge how much people will adapt (Google Glasses, anyone?), it’s certainly interesting to think about how the surface on which we view our networks may be completely different soon.
9. Niche Networks: We may start to see the emergence of more “community” based networks this year. As much as Ello was a failure, it did spark an interest in highly focused communities that weren’t as “all encompassing” as Facebook. Plus, with all the new algorithms, some marketers may find more success targeting specific demographics within specific communities.
10. Integration: More than ever before, marketers need to be able to sync their efforts across multiple platforms and practices. PR, SEO, and Content Marketing all need to work together to achieve an optimal holistic experience for users. Using SEO optimization will help your content and PR efforts, and your social media campaign may cause a PR disaster without following the correct tactics. It’s no longer efficient to have marketing branches that don’t communicate.
Have any more trends for this summer? Tweet @diditmarketing with your suggestions!
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