Three Social Media Trends to Prepare for in 2014
While no one has a crystal ball, there are certain social media trends that are gaining attention and are predicted to strengthen in 2014. The top three trends you should devote more time to when designing your social media strategy are:
1. Google+
Google+ has had a slow start, but they are making great strides to catch up with Facebook and as a result more people are looking at Google+ differently. Facebook has been a part of our lives for a decade now and the younger crowd is looking for something new. Google+ could be this something new. Google+ posts also help to increase your SEO score, allowing your posts to show up higher in Google searches than those posted from other social networks. In addition, Google+ Hangouts allow for easy video conferencing and ‘Circles’ take the work out of targeted marketing.
2. Images/Videos
Images and videos will gain more traction and interaction in 2014 than previously. Plain text will get lost among the visual appeal of images and videos. To capture your audience’s attention and to increase the emotional connection you will want to use images/videos in more of your posts, no matter what social media site you are using. This also means that Pinterest, YouTube, Vine and Instagram will continue to become more important for businesses to use to build their brands and increase the exposure of their products. The use of pictures has shown to increase the likelihood of a post being shared, hence increasing the viral power of your posts.
3. LinkedIn
LinkedIn will prove to be the best social site for B2B growth.LinkedIn offers the most qualified professional audience and most users of LinkedIn use it for business purposes, rather than personal. You can easily build a company page and interest groups around your products and services to promote your brand(s). Additionally, LinkedIn offers targeted email and ad options based on professional role which is more difficult or impossible to do with other social media sites. You can also easily track your updates, likes, shares and followers to see the impact that your posts and ad campaigns are having.
This doesn’t mean you should discount your current social media strategy or campaigns, but you should take a step back and make sure you are staying with the pack.
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