The 7 Leading Social Media Trends for 2016

by Pearl Johnson CMO at Thomson Data

2015 marked some significant shifts in how local businesses used social media for marketing, many of which continue in 2016.

Below are the top seven trends in social media what local businesses can do to get their marketing message out using them.

1. Video Content

In 2016, there is a considerable increase in the application of videos for content marketing.

Video comes in various categories that you can employ to accomplish your several tasks, which include:

Educational video.

Video has become a cornerstone of marketing. According to research, educational video is a productive part of marketing. Through an educational video, not only are you instructing your audience, but you are also marketing to them at the same time.

Explainer videos.

Explainer videos demonstrate viewers the procedure, how to use your product. For example, Pinterest comes up with an explainer video that explains the advantages of the social network.

Videos for Entertainment.

For your audience entertainment and engagement, you can develop a series of short videos whose one and only objective is for viewers to share. The best example is Buzzfeed that has done an accomplished job of this by bringing together education, entertainment, and shareable content in a series of short recipe videos — all without selling anything. The page that contains the videos has intrigued more than 15 million likes on Facebook alone.

2. Pay for Publicity

In 2016, paid advertisement on social networks is a new favorable trend. The reason that partly influences is, the organic social reach — those shares you get from family and friends — are not as compelling in marketing as they once were.

Paid advertising allows you to reach a specific demographic rather than just count on organic social reach alone. When you turn to Facebook’s advertising platform, you can market to a particular location, age group, gender, and other parameters — something that a Facebook post shared organically cannot do.

3. Social Shopping goes ahead

The trait of social commerce is emerging day by day in the marketing arena. The practice of selling via social networks — is increasing in 2016.

According to a report by Business Insider, e-commerce referrals via social media heightened nearly 200% between the first quarters of 2014 and 2015.

The implementation of “But Button” is partially responsible for this growth by allowing consumers to buy from these sites directly.

4. Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation helps businesses market across various channels simultaneously. It lessens the need to perform monotonous tasks such as sending emails or marketing on social media sites.

5. Facebook- the powerful means

Facebook continues to be the powerful social media platform in 2016 with some changes.

If you are looking to market to any age group or any specific criteria, then Facebook is the place where you should concentrate your marketing efforts.

6. Search is efficient

While most people still turn to search engines for any information, rather many are performing searches on social media sites.

The reason that is partially responsible is, users are getting bored of text-heavy search results and drawing toward visual content such as images or videos, that you are more likely to find on social media.

Users are also more inclined to search on social media because they receive information such as comments, feedback, and reviews from real time users more so than with a search engine.

7. Mobile Marketing Strategy

The concept of the mobile-friendly website is the prominent thing in marketing. For years, marketers have been suggested businesses that they must optimize their sites for mobile users.

Mobile-optimization has become the norm, and it’s no longer a feature to address later.

As per Google report, in 2016 for the first time, mobile searches exceeded desktop searches.

So, in 2016, it is expected to see companies in the marketing arena putting more efforts to mobile users.