Social media networking has undergone a plethora of changes since its inception in the early 2000s. The year 2014 will certainly witness several dramatic changes in the way we formulate social media strategies for marketing and promotions. Some of the important social media marketing trends are as follows:
The Revival of Advertising
Social media will certainly have a major impact on conventional modes of advertisements and endorsements. Native advertising will witness a comeback after decades as it will form the backbone of social media marketing strategies used by most companies for boosting sales. To the uninitiated, native advertising is a technique of online advertising, wherein advertisers try to grab the attention of consumers by placing ads that match the context of user’s experience.
Social media can no longer be used for “free marketing” by companies. All major social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, and Pinterest have currently changed their mode of monetization. So, social media strategies will witness a shift from being “social” to “media and advertising.”
Employee Engagement
Most companies would prefer “employee engagement” to attract more consumers in the year 2014. Although most companies hire consultants for social media marketing, there is no doubt that employees can be considered as more effective since they have strong ties with the company. Every employee has their own sphere of social network. If we consider the social network of each employee, we can certainly develop a vast reach for promoting services of a company.
Strategic Changes in Facebook Marketing
As marketing policies of Facebook have undergone major changes last year, small business owners and non-profits can no longer afford expensive Facebook ads. They will have to revamp their marketing strategies in the year 2014. They would have to create a blog or website because Facebook is actually used to drive traffic to website where you can seek consumers to make a donation.
Pay to Play
Organic reach of social media has been vastly affected with changes in the newsfeed algorithm of Facebook. Twitter became a publicly listed company last year and it changed its monetization policies to drive revenues. Google+ also introduced the concept of paid ads. With this radical shift in monetization, the year 2014 marks the genesis of “paid social media marketing.” All companies will now have to pay these social media sites for increasing the visibility of their posts. This would certainly have a negative impact on small business owners.
Fusion Marketing and Dashboards
Fusion Marketing would be the most important keyword in the year 2014. Although fusion marketing has been used till date, the year 2014 would witness a sharp rise in fusion marketing trends. Fusion marketing is defined as the process through which we integrate conventional methods of traditional marketing with novel tools of digital marketing through the Internet. In other words, social media would form the crux of marketing for most businesses.