Top 5 social media marketing trends for 2014

The unbeatable growth of social media has made it a valuable marketing tool for businesses regardless of their size, demographics, or product or service. As of today, social media is considered the number one place for online advertising. Networks such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter have become mandatory accessories in day-to-day life and will continue in 2014. So today we are going to take a look at the top 5 social media marketing trends that are expected to dominate online marketing in 2014.

Location-based marketing

Location-based marketing means using GPS technology to match the mobile advertisements to the geographical location of the customer. This helps in creating and delivering advertisements that specifically cater to the users’ needs. In the social media context, applications such as FourSquare, Path, and Ban.jo already employ such strategies.

Google+ on the go

Although Facebook will still dominate the social networking world in 2014, Google+ is quickly catching up. As of September 2013, Google+ has increased its user base to 1.15 billion and records the second largest monthly user base. This popularity will make Google+ an excellent marketing platform in 2014. Google+’s rise would not be as rapid as Twitter’s, but in 2013, it experienced remarkable growth.

increase in mobile usage

Businesses need to focus on social network marketing on mobile platforms, as social network usage via mobile phones is becoming increasingly popular. The latest smartphones are coming with different, innovative features and mobile applications, some of which are essentially targeted towards marketing. It’s becoming extremely easier to share content via mobile phones, which makes it imperative for marketers to increase their presence on social media.

Snapchat marketing

Snapchat is a novel mobile application that’s used to send out text and multimedia messages called “snaps.” The difference in the application is that these snaps get automatically deleted after a pre-defined time (e.g., 10 seconds). This feature has caused millions of people to embrace this application. Marketers can ask customers to share their stories or interact with them while in their store, hotel, or destination to increase engagement and share-of-wallet with in-store promotions.

Video marketing

Using videos for social media marketing has become extremely popular. The emergence of social media platforms with video capabilities, such as Vine and Instagram, seems to provide major businesses with a promising future in video marketingto provide major businesses with a promising future in video marketing. There’s an increasing trend where major companies are adopting short videos as a quick and effective means of communicating the story of their brands.

While most business owners recognise the importance of having a well-defined social media strategy, most businesses will realise in 2014 that it is critical to devote the necessary time and resources to social media marketing.

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