This holiday season is an important time to market your products and services, as well as create engagement to attract new and existing customers through social media. There have been numerous tips and tricks buzzing over the past several weeks about finding the perfect holiday strategy for your company. However, as the season comes to an end, many may be stuck on where to begin for the New Year or resort back to the traditional ways of the past.
With the New Year approaching, it is important to start coming up with new strategies to keep your company fresh and successful in 2014. It is never too late to come up with a new type of marketing that allows your company to reach customers at an eventful time in the year. These new trends for 2014 are easy to maintain and add an extra touch to jump start the new year.
Social media marketing has grown tremendously over the past couple of years and there is no doubt that this will be any different in 2014. In order to keep your company at the top of a customer’s interest list, it is important to stay up to date on the latest trends that will attract more customers. Here are a few trends that will be sure to arrive early in 2014…
Content.
Content marketing is a very important aspect that allows customers to feel relevant and compelled to your company. In 2014 this strategy will take a more targeted approach to create a language that will target specific audiences. This will go in many different directions; from short messages to key words, content marketing will make a bigger impact on your customer with less effort.
Images.
Even though Instagram and other imaging sites (i.e. Tumblr and Pinterest) have not made strides in social media marketing industries compared to Facebook and Twitter, 2014 might be the new start that they were looking for. Companies will need to become more open to the idea that photos can drive significant benefits that will allow customers to relate on a whole new level.
Hashtags.
Although hashtags have been around for some time now, they have not really established a distinct purpose in social media marketing. However, 2014 will see a rise in search generated by social media users in the form of hashtags. If your company is reluctant to use hashtags in content creation, you may see yourself falling behind on the trend in the New Year.
Employees.
As more and more companies take to social media for marketing it is important that their employees jump on broad with the change. In 2014 there will be an increase in company’s employers taking a liking to social media pages and also creating engagement with customers to establish a relationship that will be maintained on a more personal level.
Google+.
With Google+’s increase in users, it has become the second largest social media platform. There should not be any hesitation to have your company create a page on this rapidly expanding site. It may be scary for some; however, Google has created some of the easiest and most important features to help with social media marketing.
67% of social media marketers prefer Google+ over Facebook when it comes to engagement, searches, and even targeting content.
Storytelling.
Something that will give your brand a leap ahead in the New Year is by offering a story to your customers that provides the same information in a more captivating way. By simply showcasing your products you are not truly allowing your customers to engage and come together with the product. When a customer listens to a story, it provides them with the mission and personality of your business.
Even though the year is coming to an end shortly, there are still plenty of new ways to connect and engage with old and even recent customers made over the holiday season. With these new trends arriving early in 2014 there are many New Year’s resolutions to provide for your company. From starting on a whole new platform, telling stories, and even creating specialized content there are many ways to keep your company in a fresh new light after the hype of the holidays. What other trends have you heard about starting in 2014?
Read more: Social Media Trends for 2015