Trends come and go, what was popular in March is soon forgotten about come May but always comes back round eventually to be just as important once more. In this piece I discuss some Social Media business trends that were apparent in 2014 as well as ideas that will be upcoming in 2015.
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14 Trends
During 2014, we saw some significant development in business use across Social Media. I have identified what I believe to be 3 of the most prominent. From productive content streams to being mobile friendly, businesses are learning that they need to keep on top of the latest movements in order to stay competitive.
Content streams
Businesses increased their focus on creating efficient ways of sourcing content to use in marketing programmes. The success of a content marketing campaign is obviously highly dependent on finding original, stimulating content on a consistent, timely basis. Building up a pool of reliable sites that you often visit, proved paramount in 2014. If you are looking to develop activity in this area, you might find this post from our archive interesting – 5 tips on where to find great content
Mobile Friendly
Unsurprisingly, mobile friendly content went from a luxury to a must have for any business wishing to succeed. In 2014, 50.3% of E-commerce traffic was from a mobile device. The majority of this traffic will use Social Media. Therefore if a business wasn’t focusing efforts on making Social Media a priority in 2014, they certainly should be doing in 2015.
Blogging got bigger
Blogging became increasingly important to businesses wanting to market on Social Media. People became even more engrossed in reading their favourite blogs. During 2014, 68% of marketers said they planned to increase the amount of original content they released in their blogs (Source Social Media examiner). This means that blogging will continue to grow further as people continue to jump on the bandwagon. So that’s whats been happening in the last 12 months, but now for the dangerous process of trying to make predictions for the next 12!
2015 Predictions
During 2015, investments by businesses in Social Media will increase. For a small business, is likely not to be solely a financial investment, as investing time and effort into Social Media, as well as gaining an understanding into why you are getting involved will also pay dividends. The following areas will rise to further prominence during 2015.
Video
The importance of video will increase, with consumers wanting quick and concise information. This is an area where Instagram will begin to excel, in so much as it offers a platform where businesses can showcase their products and services to over (300 million active monthly users.
Customer Service
Customers are using Social Media (particularly Twitter and Facebook) increasingly to ask questions, make complaints or give feedback. Engaging with the customer base through Social Media in 2015 will become paramount due to the number of people who now use it, and their desire to communicate in this way. Business who embrace this process are likely to be rewarded by increased exposure and customer loyalty.
Analytics
Social Media is growing, fact. Companies have to embrace it. In order to monitor their success, there will be an increase in the number of companies that use analytics tools to monitor their campaigns against their business objectives. People want to see results and systems that compile data across multiple Social Media accounts will prove popular. One analysis tool that we use, and which is proving very useful is True Social Metrics. We will be looking into this subject in more detail in the not too distant future so watch this space
