We spend a lot of time here at GOOP keeping up with advances in the social media space and other digital trends and it can be difficult to keep up to speed with the rate of change. Things come and go and we aim to sift through the information and identity what is important and relevant for our clients.
We are curious to see what the social landscape looks like for 2013 and naturally for many businesses it can be a watch and learn and wait and see mentality that dictates behaviour and action (mind you, if you are using or doing something that is working, don’t ditch it to keep up with others!).
We have compiled a really brief list of things to watch and what we see as being themes and big movers when it comes to social media and digital marketing for this year. We will review this list on an ongoing basis and report in with developments.
1. Ignorance is not an excuse anymore – we will see more small business get on board the social media train. Most importantly, businesses will look to pursue one or two of the major social networks, understand how to use them for their business and use them to drive awareness of their brand. Remember, if you are not there, chances are someone is on social media talking about your brand – good or bad!
2. Google + – it’s here whether we like it or not. It is a really interesting ‘beast’ and the potential with it for businesses is huge. It’s ability to group real life social or business connections, followers into communities and to target specific content accordingly is clever. It’s going to take momentum and patience to get the following (and to shift people from Facebook over to Google+).
3. Content marketing – look at your business and see how much you have to tell and share with your followers. It’s information overload out there and you have an opportunity to distil it, or better still, create your own, pertinent to your audience’s need and want and post it in varying online forms. Customers are dictating more about what they want to see – listen to them and help them get that information, and watch them convert.
4. Social media strategy – may be an overused term but still grossly underutilised, especially with small business. We suspect though, that small businesses are taking social media marketing more seriously and are looking to be more strategic to be smarter about how they market their business. No more ‘silver bullets’; having clear objectives, clear thinking and clear planning will help build brands, get follower engagement and ultimately drive sales.
5. Engagement – people are there online but time and interest is a rare commodity. Keeping interest and their following (let alone their custom) is a challenge. However, the shift from just ‘being online’ to being ‘engaging’ is gaining momentum (see point 4 above!).
6. Instagram, Slideshare and YouTube – the power of all things visual continues its juggernaut this year. Businesses are increasingly becoming confident and creative about using these mediums for maximum benefit. With a little bit of training, intuition and fun, these channels are really inexpensive, yet totally powerful tools for your business.