It’s about time businesses stop hearing “use more social media to drive your business forward”. Most of them are already growing with it.
In 2015, there were some serious shifts in how small businesses took advantage of social media for marketing and many of them remained active throughout 2016.
Although you’ll find that not every trend that comes along fits your business perfectly, there are several “must follow” trends that will increase your success on Social Media.
1. Video
Fact – people are more likely to be stimulated by visual content instead with just words. When it comes to promotions and advertising, visual content is the most valuable asset of content marketing. Since videos make people curious, they’re the most efficient way of telling a story, whether it’s for promotions, entertainment, advertising, branding or SEO. Furthermore, videos can be used as educational or explanatory content for your products.
Therefore, in 2016, it’s only fair to expect to see a significant increase in their use in content marketing strategies.
2. Automation
With the increase of the amount of content that you, a small business owner, should deliver to your prospects and clients, you must consider using marketing automation tools, in order to keep up with everything. Software platforms for marketing automation allow businesses to market across several channels at the same time. It’s 2016, it’s absurd to manually perform all the repetitive tasks like marketing on social media channels or sending out emails. Technology changes everything including business, so it can be quite rewarding to invest in it. When choosing from many available solutions, it’s wise to go for what best suits your needs and won’t harm your financial plans.
3. Social Messaging
Most of your audience (if not all of it) constantly have their smartphones on them or nearby. In addition, consider that they are also part of multimillion social media apps user population. Logically you’ll get the idea that social media apps represent your direct link to them and provide you with the opportunity to reach your customers where they communicate and interact online.
However, to create a desirable engagement, besides knowing which mobile messaging apps your audience uses, Snapchat, Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, Skype or similar, you also have to know when they’re open to interaction. Also, keep in mind that with this tactic you have to modify your messages to be interactive and conversation inviting. Otherwise, it would be just forcing messages on your audience.
In 2016, this trend will continue to grow as more people become irritated of Twitter’s and Facebook’s nonstop rush of irrelevant updates. Consider how you can take advantage of this trend for your social media marketing strategies.
4. Employee advocacy
No one can generate more credible exposure for your company as much as your employees can on their own social profiles so this should be a vital part of your social media marketing strategy for 2016.
Lots of leading companies (such as IBM, Dell, Cisco…) are largely gaining success and benefits from implementing employee advocacy.
Businesses of all sizes can benefit from growing thought leadership and social sharing among its people. Simply put, some employees have a vast number of social media connections, and the same goes for some of those connections and their followers. Do the math and see if it’s worth having your employees promote and talk about your business or organization. Having employees talk about your business on social media not only gives people the impression that your workers enjoy working for your firm, it also indicates that you have enough trust in your employees.
5. Pay More for Traffic
According to social media marketing experts in 2016, you will have to pay more for traffic. Partially because organic social reach lost effectiveness it once had. When you pay for advertising you are granted with advanced targeting options. This saves your premium ads from being wasted on people who are unlikely to engage with your brand and buy your products and services. Facebook has perfected its advertising platform and made it a valuable enhancement to any businesses’ marketing strategy. With LinkedIn, you have several different types of advertising which can be placed on customized place within networks interface. However, with social media ads, the focus will be again set on mobile devices instead on computers.
Now that you know what are some hot marketing trends for 2016, focus your attention on them like a pro and you’ll be able to maximize social media marketing results for your brand.