Social Media had been fun, trendy, and viral for the past years. Facebook and Twitter was fun to frolic, and addicting enough to be the one beside every morning coffee. With that, we’ve discovered that these social networks have greater potential than posting interesting posts and ads. For this year, online marketing will definitely move more in maximizing the benefits social media networks. Here are some trends to watch out this 2014.
Go Mobile
Mobile devices are now designed for online presence and social media, and not just for phone calls and SMS. Almost everything, from Facebook posts, emails, business apps are done on mobile phones and tablets. Business will likely focus more on improving their websites for easy navigation on mobile media. More brands will develop their own apps, more services will be accessible via mobile, and more people will transact through it.
Image-based sites
It’s easier to retain information visually than reading long texts. For marketing, it’s also easier to advertise with images than words. That’s why image based websites like Pinterest and Instagram will still grow and be used as medium for sharing trends and information. This will also demand better image advertising styles online.
Video marketing on the rise
Businesses will take advantage of social networks and advertise products not just with blogs and tweets, but more on videos. Videos are now easier and faster to create, and with faster speed and technology by internet service providers, video ads are easier to distribute. We’ve left the TV and moved on to seeing more ad clips while browsing the news feeds on Facebook or on websites.
Credibility and authority
With the constant updates of what we do, eat and like in social networks, people will mostly like businesses who show authority and credibility online. Getting feedback on online social media gives better image and authenticity. We will slowly move out from the days with paid product reviews. With social networks, everyone can post their problems and opinion, businesses can respond and create good image on how each customer is attended to. More and more businesses will develop their own authority over a product or niche via social media.
Customer Service in social media networks
There are more customers who stay online rather than on the phone. With this customer service centers will develop better response methods on social networks. Faster response online will also be in demand, and nobody will ever like template responses again. And because people are able to voice out their opinions and product feedback on social networks, businesses will focus more on building better customer service image on Facebook and email.
Brands will also recognise that having better customer service on social networks will help more in driving better online leads and sales.
Content is still in demand
Social media marketing will still use web content to propagate their presence online. SEO will still be used, but readers will likely prefer blogs and articles that are written with more passion and experience. Bore a reader with too much keywords before they get to the core information, they will most likely move to the next website on the search results page. With this, more brands will mostly hire better writers and publishers for online content.
Spam be gone
Users are tired with spam and will demand to get only ones with quality content and with what interests them. This applies not only in emails but also in social networks like Facebook, Tweeter and Google+. Imagine browsing through your Facebook news feed with ads that doesn’t even interest you. It’ll be like browsing a travel blog that has more advertisement boxes that the content. Social networks will provide better filters and ads just for targeted audience.
This article is written by Daniel Mathews. He is a representative of Hotelscan.com. Hotelscan.com helps to find the best hotels in San Francisco.
I agree with the image marketing completely. We process images so much faster than written words. You can convey so much more in a shorter amount of time. I’m a little biased because I’m a designer 🙂 who creates interactive ebook templates for use with iBooks Author. But I also know how addicted I am to Pinterest and Instagram. Pinterest helps me sort through an entire category of ideas in just a few minutes. Imagine do that with a list of written words? Images are just so much easier.
Some times I wonder how many people actually use pintrest like they use Facebook…ok instagram I agree has a great potential for addiction…but Pintrest?
And the other thing that I don’t understand is how Linked In can help you get nice traffic.
Thirdly, I feel that StumbleUpon and Digg have completely become outdated these days. Although digg still has some more time left. But I feel bad for stumble upon. I wish it gets as active it used to be in the past. My blog is the kind which people from Stumble upon would love and its dwindling use affects me 🙁
Very true. Social media, Mobile Apps (such as banking apps) are playing very vital role in our day to day life. Nicely written article!!!
Now a days everything is mobile first so true for social marketing too.
I agree with all your points.. I have more faith in image marketing..now a days social media rocking in mobile apps too..i thinks social media added to our day to life
Without social media marketing it is very hard to grow in online market because if you will not find out new markets and customers definitely you loose your time and money. In this scenario your shared information and tips are very helpful to be successful in this business. Videos marketing is very helpful way to get good figure of traffic and business.