As social media is constantly growing and changing, it’s important to keep track of where it’s headed.
When companies are investing their time and money on social media resources, it’s particularly important to know the latest trends, to ensure you don’t invest in something that’s outdated the next month.
Here are the predicted social media trends to keep an eye on in 2016:
Google+ will gain authenticity
In addition to it’s excellent SEO benefits and Google authorship, Google+ has just recently changed how people can comment on YouTube videos. The authorship of Google lets writers claim their personal content and if they gain popularity other articles written by them will similarly rise closer to the top of the search engine.
Google+ has many benefits, and it’s likely that start-up companies will resort to it as their primary social network because of this. Google+ profiles will not just be seen as a more boring version of Facebook, but they will be utilized by people and companies to expand their social media reach.
Video and photo sites will grow
Social media sites such as Snapchat, Pinterest and Vine are rapidly gaining popularity as a platform to express thoughts and ideas. Visual communication such as photo and video is highly captivating and could be a crucial part of future social media strategies.
These said sites also allow a different and more personal means of interacting with consumers, in particular Snapchat which gives a ‘real’ insight.
Similar to other social media platforms, an audience will only be gained if the content is quality and ‘shareable’. Relevance is key.
LinkedIn will maintain popularity in B2B markets
Sometimes the consumers are also businesses, and this means they will have completely different needs to your typical household customers. The way to interact, the decision making process and the marketing strategy will all need to be different when dealing with another business.
The LinkedIn influencer program allows you to follow industry leaders who share their professional opinions and knowledge. Following these thought leaders and interacting with them helps people/businesses to gain self awareness and thus increase personal brand awareness.
Social media investment will be a must have
Previously, having a social media website was an additional resource that some chose not to invest in due to time constraints and lack of credibility. This year and for the years to come, social media marketing will transition from a ‘should have’ option to a ‘must have’ requirement. This meaning that in order to engage your audience and create/maintain relationships with consumers, there must be a social media presence.
People are spending an increasing amount of time on the internet, and you can guarantee that some of your target market will be on there. If you don’t have a presence on a particular social media site, its likely that your consumer will then turn to a competitor who does.
Social media assists with company branding, increase customer loyalty through maintaining relationships, and increasing brand awareness. To effectively generate traffic to your site (and thus revenue) your overall marketing strategy will need to incorporate social media.
MySpace will make a comeback!
MySpace was the number one social media networking platform from around 2005 until 2008 when Facebook began to gain popularity, and the majority of users switched over. Today, MySpace is a completely different site than many would remember, most probably because of it’s change of ownership in 2011. Together with Specific Media group, Justin Timberlake purchased the network and rebranded it to be more music focused.
People can now listen to their favourite bands and music on the site, as well as share music updates, photos and radio stations on their streams. Music streaming programs such as Spotify are becoming increasing popular for their sheer convenience and ability to share playlists with the click of a button, so for businesses involved in the music industry, MySpace will definitely be the go-to site.
