It was a little over five years ago when MySpace was still popular and Facebook just rolled out the now iconic “Like” button. Since then, social media grew into a huge worldwide phenomena with more than 1,730,000,000 users uploading 20 thousand pictures on Tumblr, 104 thousand images on snapchat and 2.46 million posts on Facebook every minute.
These figures are expected to grow substantially next year, with a projected 2.44 billion users networking with friends and family on their favorite social networks. Such figures attest to how influential social media can be in how people communicate and engage with others online, as well as how they do business and commerce.
As much as 97% of marketers use social media, with up to 92% acknowledging the importance of this tool for their businesses. The following provides an overview of new trends, highlights and things to watch out for next year so you can prepare yourself and your business for what’s in store for social media in 2015.
1. Content Marketing Gets More Social – The strength of content marketing relies not only on the creation of an Epic content but on how you can effectively distribute this content for your targeted audiences.
2. Real Time Social Media Marketing will Be a Buzzword - By monitoring and responding promptly to their targeted audiences’ needs, business owners and digital marketers can generate better engagement that drives conversions and sales.
3. Audio and Video Will Dominate Social Content - Just like any other digital marketing channel, audio and video elements evolved to become powerful visual tools that generate better engagements and positive responses.
4. Steady Shift towards Mobile Social Media – With experts projecting that more than one billion people in 2015 will access the Internet only through their mobile gadgets, focusing on mobile social media will be a very logical thing to start right here right now.
5. The Continued Rise of Paid Social Media Advertising – The organic or natural reach of a typical Facebook post will only be a mere 0.073 percent. If you really want to get more mileage from all your social media efforts, then it would be wise to consider paid social media advertising.
6. Payment Features Using Social Media Wallets – The phenomenal rise of mobile usage have driven major online tech players like Paypal and Apple to take action and grab a good hold of the mobile payment space.
7. The Rise of the Social Media Commerce – Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are capitalizing on this by testing their eCommerce “buy” buttons that will eventually roll out next year in full swing.
8. Social Media Becomes Smarter and Analytical - Experts from Gartner and SocialCode all agree that the way businesses use social media will become smarter and more analytical in 2015 and beyond.
9. Social Media and the B2B Market – In 2014, Facebook still stood on top as the main social network used by marketers in the B2B arena, with a high 89% usage rate. LinkedIn however is following at a close second at 88%.
10. The Rise of New Social Networks - Among the more prominent of these new social networks include Ello which claims providing an ad-free social network that will not sell vital user data to third parties, Yik Yak which focuses on anonymous post exchanges on physically adjacent people. Others includes Tsu which offers revenue sharing on popular posts.
