If you aren’t engaging in social media marketing at this point in time, then you are way behind pack. But don’t fret, there is still hope for you yet.
Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to market your brand, both in terms of costs and in results. If you are making use of social media marketing strategies, then you are probably aware of how quickly marketing trends tend to change in the online world. Because of this, it’s important to keep up with all the current social media marketing trends. The following are some of the key ones to keep an eye out for.
Blogging Increasing in Importance
Content is only growing in importance the more that companies understand its value. Not only does high quality content help to establish their authority and expertise within their industry, it also helps to build trust and loyalty. Not to mention that Google’s new algorithm focuses on the quality of the content that you produce, which means it can only help increase your website’s search ranking. Considering these factors, it’s no surprise that companies are putting even more resources into establishing and maintaining a blog.
Google+ is No Longer a Punchline
Google+ used to be viewed as a Facebook knockoff. No longer. In fact, Google+ is quickly growing into an integral part of every successful social media marketing campaign. Although Facebook and Twitter may be two of the biggest social media networks out there, your activity on those social platforms don’t affect your search ranking on Google as much as Google+. Google+ is also the easiest way to get access to Google Authorship, which allows you to identify all of your content and scoring your authorship based on expertise and publishing history with an author rank.
Mobile-Friendliness is a Must
The popularity of mobile devices will only continue to grow. Mobile users access the Internet every day through the use of their devices. In fact, Internet access via mobile devices is expected to eclipse access through home computers, if it hasn’t already. This means that companies need to make sure that all of their online content is optimized for mobile use. If a mobile user tries to read a piece of content that requires them to scroll left to right as well as up and down, they are going to become annoyed and may give up on reading the content. Odds are the majority of your target audience is mobile, so make sure all of your online content is as well.
Video Will Become a More Important Feature
As technology continues to increase, video is becoming easier and less expensive to both produce and to host. A number of social media sites have popped up that focus on video, including Vine and Instagram – not to mention the presence of YouTube, one of the major social media platforms out there. Other social platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to post videos as well. Considering the appeal of visual content and the fact that online users tend to have short attention spans, video is an ideal form of content, and one that companies are certain to take more advantage of.
Social Paid Advertising Will Continue to Increase in Popularity
Companies can now pay for advertising on the three major social media networks: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. According to companies that paid for ads on Facebook, they received 49 times more clicks than the ads that appeared on the right-hand sidebar. Paid updates on LinkedIn saw 45 percent more engagement than posts on Twitter or Facebook.
More Companies Will Use Visual Content
It has been estimated that around 63 percent of all social media is comprised of visual content. Consumers relate more to visual content, which means that companies will soon begin focusing on visual content. According to recent studies, around 29 percent of the users on Pinterest ended up purchasing an item after posting or re-pinning it. It’s also much easier for a person to read an infographic or a pie chart than it is for them to read through an entire document.
Social Media Will Be More Integrated with Other Online Strategies
Social media marketing used to be considered a separate entity to content marketing and SEO. This is no longer the case – a successful online marketing strategy needs to incorporate all three and integrate them seamlessly. Social media is essential to getting your content seen and shared.
These are some of the current social media marketing trends that you should not only keep an eye on, but that you should strongly consider implementing into your own social media marketing strategy.
Read our FREE Whitepaper for great tips on getting up to speed with these latest trends by clicking the link below.
