Social media marketing is not fading away. As 2013 comes to a swift close, SM Marketers are looking back at the year in review and projecting some potential future trends for the coming year.

Brian Solis: “This year marked social media’s move into the mainstream. Social media is now part of our fabric of society, like mobile phones and computers — it’s a staple of our everyday life.”

SMM continues to expand exponentially and you should be on board with the 2014 trends; otherwise you may just be shouting noise with a plugged up megaphone or simply lost at sea. Since its inception, SMM has exploded the opportunities and platforms for both B2B and B2C. The online digital office provides YOU with a GLOBAL reach but only with the right strategy and planning for your brand. It is a mandatory tool for businesses of all sizes. You can’t NOT have a presence if you want to be found, talked about, and grow your revenue.  You will want to be “linked in so you are not left out.”

2013 offered a great deal of tools, tips, platforms, and innovations, but what still stood out?

Content Marketing! It is a must have, must do, in your marketing arsenal. Uberflip’s infographic clearly outlines the trends and potential for CM. Remarkable content reaches your audience. It is shared. It is talked about. It has the potential to reach pain points and have an impact on your buyer. As one of the main 2014 trends, you need to consider how YOU will bump up your efforts, your blogging, your website and all of your content, to seize the attention of your audience. If you don’t, your competition will be serving the entree.

In a recent study by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute their results demonstrated that 93% B2B organizations now use content-based tactics for their marketing promotions and 73% specified they now produce more content than the previous year!

Other projected social media trends

Justin Pearse: 

1. Brands will start investing in the people, processes and technologies to deliver truly compelling content.

2. 2014 will be the year job titles such as head of content and content director become common at brands, both B2C and B2B.

Juliet Stott:

1. 2014 will see more brands embracing social media as an integral part of their content marketing strategy.

2. There will be a race for engagement on social across all the channels.

3. Brands that delight and reward their followers and harness the invaluable (user generated) content they create will be the most successful.

Ben Barone-Nugent:

1. Businesses and agencies are going to more formally recognize distinctive types of content strategists.

Jayson DeMers:

1. Investment in social media will become a necessity, not a luxury.

2. We’ll see even more companies hiring social media strategists or full-time social media managers.

3. Businesses who are finding themselves spread thin with their social media efforts will increasingly turn to Google+ as the closest thing we have to a ‘one size fits all’ social network.

4. Visual content will increasingly become a critical piece of any solid content strategy, and social networking site.

5. LinkedIn is positioning itself as one of the largest sources of content creation and curation for professionals.

TwinEngine

1. Content marketing is the key to attract and retain customers.

2. Images outrank words for engagement.

3. Companies engage with consumers in real-time.

4. Hashtags become a leading search tool.

5. Mobile marketing surpasses traditional marketing.

6. Digital exceeds a traditional marketing budget.

7. Building relationships with inbound marketing is critical to long term growth.

WOW Isn’t that an extensive list of social media projections!? How can a business possibly manage to stay on top of the trends, research the current tips, tools and best practices, never mind maintain all of the social platforms? It sounds so painful and extremely time consuming when you need to run your business, attend to your clients, troubleshoot and every other day to day task.  That is just way too much for one person to consider.

BUT what if you had a team?

A vested partner perhaps to help you:

• deal with the overwhelming social media trends
• with your social media plan for 2014
• to execute and manage ALL of it
• invest your valuable time where it should be spent
• become more productive and efficient
• scale your business!

While you are very cognizant of the FACT that social media is a necessity for your business, it may not represent the best use of your valuable skills and talents. It isn’t your core genius! Your passion! Your job! BUT it is a requirement to help promote your online marketing efforts and generate income.

CONTACT us today to discuss how we will kick off 2014 and make it a more profitable and productive year.