It’s hard to believe that January 2016 is almost over (didn’t it just start?) and even as I write this, tactics, strategies, and options in social media are shifting. I understand that as a small business owner, you’re not just seeking the best ways to spend your digital marketing budget, but also trying to understand the latest trends and how they could help you. Here’s a summary of what to expect in 2016.
Up-and-coming Social Media Platforms
To stay ahead, social media marketing in 2016 will involve more than just the traditional “Big 3 Networks” of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. While it will be challenging for a new platform to overtake Facebook’s dominance anytime soon, the trend in 2015 showed increased activity and growth among B-tier social networks. This trend is not expected to change soon. Some notable newcomers include Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr, which are working to integrate themselves and their users into the mainstream through advertising and significant growth.
Smart social media marketing professionals are currently investing in even more obscure networks such as SnapChat, Ello, Medium and Periscope to see online brand development goals come into fruition.
Specialized Content and Context
Savvy online marketers have already accustomed themselves to the notion of covering specialized networks and offering more unique content, but the need to specialize and offer more value to a specific niche has never been greater. Too often up until now, content on social media has been largely text and image based. Finding room to add video in the mix in 2016 by using platforms such as Periscope, Instagram, Vine, YouTube and Facebook will add immense value to any forward-looking social media effort.
To get into the specialized context area requires finding more specific areas to spend time creating content and communicating online. Excellent such examples are online communities and groups such as those which can be found on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.
Social Commerce
Whether you believe it or not, social media influences shoppers buying decisions. But, fear not, you can tap into this growing trend by exploring advertising options for each of the networks. Pinterest recently rolled out Buyable Pins, and Instagram started offering ad options to everyone (it was once only available to a select few.) This on top of hte already robust offerings of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. In the coming year, small business owners will want to explore more ways how you can integrate these features into social media and content strategies.
Whether you achieve your full effect online this year by achieving niche mastery in fine groups and communities, by exploring the new networks, or including social advertising – the goal is to stay relevant online. This isn’t to encourage a completely reactionary social media marketing approach, but to remind managers of accounts that the future will not sit and yield to the past — innovation and growth is a constant necessity if you seek to reap the reward of successful social media engagement.
