Social media is always changing – making it difficult to know where you should invest your time in order to get a solid return. Which platform is best for your business? What should you post about? What should your brand voice be? What’s the hottest new thing that’s going viral that you can tap into? These are all questions that business owners and marketers face while forming and evaluating a social media strategy. But riding the social media wave can be really overwhelming if you are always trying to go after the latest fads. Luckily there are some social media trends that will stand the test of time that you can use to anchor your efforts:
8. Hashtags… Not Just for Twitter
Hashtags used to be a Twitter-only phenomenon, but now they are everywhere! Google+ recognizes hashtags and automatically adds tags to your posts based their content. Hashtags appear on Facebook, Pinterest and even Instagram. People even use hashtags in normal conversation and in texts and emails. People have even gotten hashtags tattooed on themselves. Maybe someday the hashtag will cease to exist, but for the foreseeable future, the hashtag isn’t going anywhere! #Winning
7. Doing Location-Based Stuff
People like feeling plugged into the area around them. This is why location-based services are so popular. Whether you are looking for a restaurant for dinner, finding a local deal, searching for the closest store or just posting a social media update, people frequently want their location attached to their activates to get them connected to what is around them.
6. Feeding the Need for Visual
Human beings are visual, which means that we love anything we can look at (this is why Pinterest is so popular.) In recent years, we have seen more visual-based social media platforms and apps pop up (like YouTube and Instagram) and even watched as non-visual social media channels added visual elements (like when Twitter started allowing photos). The appeal of visual is not likely to go away any time soon.
5. Irresistible Infographics
People love infographics – they can’t help themselves. Why? Because infographics make information and data visual! (Please refer to the previous point.) Instead of just pouring through a long article with stats, a table of data or an excel spreadsheet, people would rather see numerical data presented in way that is aesthetically pleasing and even fun. It’s less geeky to send an infographic to a friend or coworker than it would be to send just the data, and the recipient is more likely to look at it when it’s pretty. This makes infographics more shareable and cements the idea that they are going to be around for a long time to come.
4. Exuding Personality
You can’t be successful on social media if you don’t have a personality. That is not to say that everyone has to like you, but you have to give people a reason to want to talk about you and follow you. The reason I can be so sure that this trend will never disappear from social media is because it’s 2014 and this has not disappeared from life yet. Having a personality is important when it comes to succeeding in your job, making friends, finding a mate, etc. Just like life, social media demands that you give someone a reason to care about what you do and say.
3. Authentic Interactions that People Crave
Social media hinges on the idea that you can interact over a computer and have it mean as much as it would in person. If your social media is on autopilot, you likely won’t have much success when it comes to building a solid follower base and engaging with your followers. People want to follow brands and personalities that they think will actually care about what they say and respond if they make a comment or ask a question. This desire for authentic interaction and connection is engrained in who we are as people.
2. Keeping Everything Short
As people get busier and busier, they are looking for ways to squeeze more things into the same (or less) available time. This is why social media platforms that allow for short, quick updates are so popular - namely Twitter. But you want to know what the funny part is? Even the shortest social media we have isn’t short enough for most people. Kevan Lee, blogger for Buffer, found that the most popular tweets were actually only 100 characters on average and the longer the tweet got, the harder time it had going viral Yep, you heard that right! 140 characters is actually too long for most people.
Think about it, everything in our lives has gotten shorter, smaller and more compact. We read headlines and skim summaries instead of full news articles. Even YouTube has started to give up a little traction to even shorter videos like Vine. As the trend moves toward shorter and shorter content and updates, social media will continue to follow in stride.
1. Giving Customized Recommendations
The digital era has seen an unprecedented rise in individualism. These days everything is customized for us whether it is search engine results, local restaurant suggestions, coupons at the grocery store, upcoming events, products for sale or news headlines and health topics. The “me trend” is not likely to end soon!
By Kate Pierce. Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
Hashtags used to be a Twitter-only phenomenon, but now they are everywhere! Google+ recognizes hashtags and automatically adds tags to your posts based their content. Hashtags appear on Facebook, Pinterest and even Instagram. People even use hashtags in normal conversation and in texts and emails. People have even gotten hashtags tattooed on themselves. Maybe someday the hashtag will cease to exist, but for the foreseeable future, the hashtag isn’t going anywhere! #Winning
7. Doing Location-Based Stuff
People like feeling plugged into the area around them. This is why location-based services are so popular. Whether you are looking for a restaurant for dinner, finding a local deal, searching for the closest store or just posting a social media update, people frequently want their location attached to their activates to get them connected to what is around them.
6. Feeding the Need for Visual
Human beings are visual, which means that we love anything we can look at (this is why Pinterest is so popular.) In recent years, we have seen more visual-based social media platforms and apps pop up (like YouTube and Instagram) and even watched as non-visual social media channels added visual elements (like when Twitter started allowing photos). The appeal of visual is not likely to go away any time soon.
5. Irresistible Infographics
People love infographics – they can’t help themselves. Why? Because infographics make information and data visual! (Please refer to the previous point.) Instead of just pouring through a long article with stats, a table of data or an excel spreadsheet, people would rather see numerical data presented in way that is aesthetically pleasing and even fun. It’s less geeky to send an infographic to a friend or coworker than it would be to send just the data, and the recipient is more likely to look at it when it’s pretty. This makes infographics more shareable and cements the idea that they are going to be around for a long time to come.
4. Exuding Personality
You can’t be successful on social media if you don’t have a personality. That is not to say that everyone has to like you, but you have to give people a reason to want to talk about you and follow you. The reason I can be so sure that this trend will never disappear from social media is because it’s 2014 and this has not disappeared from life yet. Having a personality is important when it comes to succeeding in your job, making friends, finding a mate, etc. Just like life, social media demands that you give someone a reason to care about what you do and say.
3. Authentic Interactions that People Crave
Social media hinges on the idea that you can interact over a computer and have it mean as much as it would in person. If your social media is on autopilot, you likely won’t have much success when it comes to building a solid follower base and engaging with your followers. People want to follow brands and personalities that they think will actually care about what they say and respond if they make a comment or ask a question. This desire for authentic interaction and connection is engrained in who we are as people.
2. Keeping Everything Short
As people get busier and busier, they are looking for ways to squeeze more things into the same (or less) available time. This is why social media platforms that allow for short, quick updates are so popular - namely Twitter. But you want to know what the funny part is? Even the shortest social media we have isn’t short enough for most people. Kevan Lee, blogger for Buffer, found that the most popular tweets were actually only 100 characters on average and the longer the tweet got, the harder time it had going viral Yep, you heard that right! 140 characters is actually too long for most people.
Think about it, everything in our lives has gotten shorter, smaller and more compact. We read headlines and skim summaries instead of full news articles. Even YouTube has started to give up a little traction to even shorter videos like Vine. As the trend moves toward shorter and shorter content and updates, social media will continue to follow in stride.
1. Giving Customized Recommendations
The digital era has seen an unprecedented rise in individualism. These days everything is customized for us whether it is search engine results, local restaurant suggestions, coupons at the grocery store, upcoming events, products for sale or news headlines and health topics. The “me trend” is not likely to end soon!
By Kate Pierce. Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
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