The ever-changing world of social media and digital marketing sees the arrival of many new trends every year. And 2014 was no different in that respect. One of the most popular social media trends was that of sharing images and videos on dedicated social networking websites like Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram and Vine.
Whether it is posting images and videos of our special occasions or simply showing off our photography prowess with clicks of random objects and people around us, we all used these social networking platforms for some reason or the other. LinkedIn was another networking site that gained considerable attention, especially for facilitating B2B transactions and aiding in the promotion of new, smaller businesses.
Apart from these, the original social networking giants like Facebook and Twitter also introduced many new concepts that became the talk of the “digital marketing” town. On the other hand, certain other platforms like Google+, experienced a gradual decline in popularity, thereby increasing the probability of its eventual shut down.
But that was last year. Now, as we enter 2015, it is time to anticipate some new or modified trends that might take the social media industry by storm in the forthcoming year.
#1. Prices for Promotions on Facebook & Twitter Will Increase
The past year saw a significant decline in the extent to which organic posts were reaching the users on FaceBook. For those of you wondering how it may affect you, here’s a brief explanation. If you own a business and use the platform of Facebook or Twitter to endorse and interact with your client base, this kind of decline may prove particularly detrimental to your business promotion, as these social media platforms gradually limit the number of free posts that your fans can see.
Taking advantage of this situation, Facebook and Twitter are likely to increase the pricing for more number of promotional posts and ads, thereby making the use of these networking portals for business promotion, more expensive than before.
Read here: Techniques to promote your blog on Facebook
#2. Meaningful Client Interaction Will Become the Need of the Hour
Gone are the days when one could get away with dull, monotonous campaigning strategies when promoting their business to the clients. Now, as more and more people have started valuing quality content and clever interactive techniques, businesses will need to truly connect with their clients and provide all the essential information in a clear and concise manner with the help of exciting and engaging methods, to attract more customers and retain the existing ones.
#3. Quality Content Will Still Remain Essential
You may have heard the expression, “Content is King” many times while surfing the net. Let me tell you, there is no better way to describe the importance of original, quality content than through this small line. However, only writing good, authentic content will not help.
With the increasing popularity of image-based social networking websites like Pinterest and Instagram, web users will expect a good stream of attractive images and interactive videos to go along with your content. Moreover, creating unique content will also include SEO and hence, will need specialized optimization techniques to appeal to a wide customer base.
#4. Rise in Popularity of Micro-Video Sharing Platforms
There was a time when YouTube was the only name that would come to your mind when talking about video sharing. But with the advent of apps like Vine and Viddy, video sharing is no longer restricted to YouTube. The increase in popularity of this concept, while cementing the position of YouTube as the top video sharing site on the web, has also led to the emergence of several such dedicated video sharing apps, a trend which is expected to continue and gain momentum even in the coming year.
Not only that! Even established social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are already using, and are in the process of adopting new video based sharing strategies to keep the users appeased. Because lets face it, all of us would rather watch a 2 minutes long explainer video than read through long pages of informative content, any day!
#5. Mobile Internet
Perhaps the most noteworthy trend which is expected to reach new heights in 2015, the use of smartphones to access and surf the net, especially when it comes to social networking, has been the highlight of the social media industry in the past year. So much so, that Facebook has already reported a significant rise in the number of daily active mobile users, with a figure which is much higher as compared to the overall number of daily active users.
Since Facebook is often considered the pioneer of social networking, I think it is safe to assume that the same trend is already catching up with the rest of the social media platforms, and will continue to do so in 2015.
Based on the available data from the trends that dominated the market in the past year, these were just some of the social media trends that are likely to influence the digital marketing arena in 2015. Either way, this booming industry is showing no signs of stagnation. All you have to do is keep your eyes open, figure out how to make the best of these brilliant new marketing strategies for your business and enjoy the perks of clever social media marketing!
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