Social Media Trends to Expect in 2015

With the New Year comes new trends and tactics in marketing. Social media marketing is no exception. Although we know that, compared to other marketing strategies, using social media is a fairly new approach, it never ceases to amaze us how much it can evolve in just one year’s time. As marketers, staying on top of these trends is a part of our job description, so to help you get a head start on 2015, we thought we’d share with you our two cents on what the year ahead may hold. Without further ado, here’s our list of trends and tactics to add into your social marketing mix in 2015.

• Social Advertising: Many small businesses like using social media as a part of their marketing strategy due to the fact that it’s virtually free to use. Although this was great a few years ago, Facebook and other platforms have since begun to limit the content your fans/followers are seeing in their feeds for purposes of personalizing the experiences of their users, making it harder and harder for businesses to stay in front of their social audience. Because of this, businesses are starting to recognize the need for paid exposure. Expect to see more and more businesses giving in to paid advertising within the social platforms that offer it.
   
• Personalization: In 2015, brands will begin looking at metrics to get a better idea about what’s working and what's not. As mentioned earlier, paid advertising will become a necessity. With paid advertising come more tools and options to help marketers target the right demographics. As a result, you’ll begin to notice a definitive focus on personalization and targeting in the ads/content delivered to the end user.
   
• Real-time Marketing: People now have access to social media wherever they go. This has helped establish our culture of ‘NOW,’ demanding that marketers keep up. Expect to see real-time marketing become more and more popular. More businesses will hire devoted managers for their social channels, and these managers will be expected to give virtually instant responses to the comments and queries that their customers and prospects are posting about through their various social channels. Marketers will need to be on the ball with news and current events, constantly ready to generate content that contributes to the online conversations surrounding these hot topics.
   
• Image/Video Based Viral Marketing: Visual content will continue to own in 2015, but on an even larger scale. Now, not only will image/video based content be generated on a more frequent basis, but the aim of these tactics will be to generate viral appeal.  Expect to see more video content containing a shareable or viral factor. Whether it be through comedic, relatable, informational, or emotional content, marketers will constantly attempt to collect on viral success and they will rely on visuals, video especially, as the best means to do so.