As 2013 is nearing its end, marketing has clearly changed over the course of the year especially through social media. These changes are laying down the groundwork for what’s to come for social media marketing in 2014.
1. Media Platform Distribution – In order to achieve the highest marketing potential for your business, you must distribute your content through as many different types of media and platforms as your budget can handle. The spread of your content is the key to marketing as you tell your audience of your business, products and reviews through this. As media multitasking is growing, it’s harder to gain the attention of your audience and it’s important to be visible on all platforms so that you gain more opportunities for sales.
2. Smartphone Device Adoption – Half of the population now owns a smartphone and because of this, media multitasking is growing. According to Research by eMarketer, the amount of time that people spend on a mobile device is also growing at 14 times the rate of desktop usage. Because of this, mobile platforms are also becoming the more prominent channel for sales. Businesses now need to prioritize their marketing strategies to become “mobile-first” in order to keep up with the advances of technology and their audience.
3. Content Marketing – Marketing through content is still dominant in this industry. The three top types of content include social posts and updates, email newsletter and news/feature articles. In-house marketers still use content marketing as their prominent tactic to sell their products and services. Consumers interact with content rather than advertising and brands should use this insight to craft ads with the highest potential.
4. Facebook – Of all the social media, Facebook still dominates as it added features including graph searches and hashtags. Brands that use hashtags have a higher reach than brands that don’t with the ability to directly advertise to those who have clicked the corresponding hashtag. The graph search option helps you find those who like your page and allow you to create content, ads and even free giveaways and opportunities for fans in your geographical location. This would encourage a more interactive local community and benefit as a strong ground point.
5. Newsfeed Branding – People don’t usually search for brands or look at the ads in the sidebar. When your ads are integrated with your audience’s newsfeed on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, it is looked at because it looks very similar to the statuses and images of your friends and family. As the world is very fast-paced and people scroll through newsfeed on their smartphones quickly, people are way more likely to look at an ad and read it before even realizing it. This is the one of the best kinds of advertising as you know it will definitely be opened and read. Once your audience consumes the information, they can choose to ignore it or take action.
By understanding how your audience interacts with technology and how they interact with others socially, you can figure out how to incorporate your advertising into their daily lives with the highest potential. It’s important to analyze and understand this for the new year to stay ahead of the marketing game.