2014 has definitely been an eventful year for social media and online marketing. It’s an area that changes and evolves constantly, making it very interesting to watch trends grow in popularity, become mainstream, and then die off completely. After a year of twists and turns in 2014, here are our top three social media predictions that we expect to see in the new year.
1. A Greater Shift Towards Image- and Video-Based Social Media Platforms
The industry has been moving in this direction for awhile now. In fact, earlier this month, Instagram announced it had eclipsed Twitter in users. Even on Twitter and Facebook, the veterans of social media, images and video posts always outperform text posts. It just makes sense that more and more people are switching over to image/video-based social media platforms.
Instagram, Snapchat, and other image-based social media apps have already seen major success, but we’ll definitely keep an eye on video sharing platforms like Vine to grow even more in popularity.
2. Private and Anonymous Networks Become More Desirable
As Facebook (and other social media) gets more sophisticated in its ad targeting algorithms, the privacy of individual users seems less and less important to big businesses. As a result, many users are leaving established social media platforms to ones that offer privacy and even anonymity.
The first one that comes to mind is Yik Yak, a location-based app that allows users to have anonymous conversations with users in their city. Yik Yak has been picking up massive traction in universities and high schools throughout North America. Secret is another app that allows users to share private secrets with their friends and the world while remaining anonymous. These apps give users a way to vent, rant, and say what they really feel without any of the consequences.
3. Paid Advertising Grows Exponentially
Facebook’s trend of cutting back on the organic reach for business pages has been happening for years now. On average, your Facebook posts will likely reach less than two to four per cent of your followers… if you’re lucky. Of course, the more people like, share, and comment on your posts, this number will grow, so interesting content will still perform well.
For many brands that don’t have a dedicated user base to engage with and share content, paid ads have definitely become much more prevalent in 2014, and there’s no sign of that trend stopping anytime soon.
In order for marketers and businesses to get the same results as before, they’re just going to have to be ready to spend… big time.
Have any thoughts about our top three picks? Contact us here or join the conversation on our Facebook page.
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