Here are my 3 predictions on the future of social media.

1. Data, Data, Data: More users in the social space can only mean one thing – more opportunities for businesses to extract relevant data regarding their customers faster and easier. The opportunities are endless. Large businesses have a greater opportunity to connect with customers. Nonprofit organizations and governments can also benefit by predicting outbreaks based on social content that is posted by users on the ground. More data, conversations and content will also change the way we do business. Social channels will learn more about your targeted audiences and customers. Social selling will be the new trend as platforms continue to grow. I predict social selling will be brand’s top propriety in the next coming years.

“Social media will change how we do business, marketing and sales with the continued improvement of socials ads and open graph searches like search.twitter.com. Facebook will learn more about their users for ad targeting. Social selling via native ads and open searches on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Linkedin will be the new trend as these platforms grow in 2015. Community management and customer service will move to social as it’s a cost effective way to handle questions, support issues and delight customers with high transparency.” – Xavier Major, CEO of Popular Media Consulting, LLC via Business2Community.com.

2. Wearable Technology: I predict wearables will completely replace mobile devices and social media will be hyper-accelerated Big Data. People have long been fascinated with the notion of people and machines becoming one. This emerging category of body-worn devices will become increasingly important. It’s still really early in the evolution of wearables, but already, there are hundreds of devices that monitor everything from steps and sleep to blood glucose. I predict the following four areas, over the next few years, will see their greatest impact.

• Data-Facilitated Care
• Personalized Wearables
• Active Coaching
• Gesture-Based Interfaces

 “Companies like AiQ Clothing, Hexoskin and OMsignal are already paving the way with biometric garments that measure body vitals. Future wearables could be more hidden by adding a thin film inside your favorite jewelry to measure biometric data, activity levels and even let you know when you’ve been typing at a keyboard too long.” – The Future of Wearable Tech via WIRED

3. Focus on Personality: Very soon I believe social media sites will focus heavily on the signup process-making sure users complete their profiles. This will allow marketers to tailor their targeted ads to a more refined and focused group of individuals.

“The future of social media will be hyper-personalized and location based. We are already seeing the emergence of technology like the Facebook Beacon that allows companies to push deals and alerts to nearby smartphones and it will soon be commonplace to be inundated with information related to the businesses in your proximity. Also, I predict personalization will continue to be perfected as companies collect more information on users and devices continue to be integrated. Amazon is already prompting shoppers based on past buying habits and I think we will see more companies leverage big data to better tailor their marketing messages to individual user groups.” – Quincy Smith, Inbound Marketing & Content at Uplift ROI via go-mashmobile.com

What are your predictions on the future of Social Media? Share them in the comment section below.

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Because it appeared quickly, social media has developed a reputation by some for being a passing marketing interest, and therefore, an unprofitable one. The statistics, however, illustrate a different picture. According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media marketing was important for their business, with 80% indicating their efforts increased traffic to their websites. And according to Social Media Examiner, 97% of marketers are currently participating in social media—but 85% of participants aren’t sure what social media tools are the best to use.

This demonstrates a huge potential for social media marketing to increase sales, but a lack of understanding on how to achieve those results. Here’s a look at just some of the ways social media marketing can improve your business:

1. Increased Brand Recognition. Every opportunity you have to syndicate your content and increase your visibility is valuable. Your social media networks are just new channels for your brand’s voice and content. This is important because it simultaneously makes you easier and more accessible for new customers, and makes you more familiar and recognizable for existing customers. For example, a frequent Twitter user could hear about your company for the first time only after stumbling upon it in a newsfeed. Or, an otherwise apathetic customer might become better acquainted with your brand after seeing your presence on multiple networks.

2. Improved brand loyalty. According to a report published by Texas Tech University, brands who engage on social media channels enjoy higher loyalty from their customers. The report concludes “Companies should take advantage of the tools social media gives them when it comes to connecting with their audience. A strategic and open social media plan could prove influential in morphing consumers into being brand loyal.” Another study published by Convince&Convert found that 53% of Americans who follow brands in social are more loyal to those brands.

3. More Opportunities to Convert. Every post you make on a social media platform is an opportunity for customers to convert. When you build a following, you’ll simultaneously have access to new customers, recent customers, and old customers, and you’ll be able to interact with all of them. Every blog post, image, video, or comment you share is a chance for someone to react, and every reaction could lead to a site visit, and eventually a conversion. Not every interaction with your brand results in a conversion, but every positive interaction increases the likelihood of an eventual conversion. Even if your click-through rates are low, the sheer number of opportunities you have on social media is significant. And as I pointed out in my article, “The Four Elements of Any Action, And How To Use Them In Your Online Marketing Initiative,” “opportunity” is the first element of any action.

4. Higher conversion rates. Social media marketing results in higher conversion rates in a few distinct ways. Perhaps the most significant is its humanization element; the fact that brands become more humanized by interacting in social media channels. Social media is a place where brands can act like people do, and this is important because people like doing business with other people; not with companies.

Additionally, studies have shown that social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing, and a higher number of social media followers tends to improve trust and credibility in your brand, representing social proof. As such, simply building your audience in social media can improve conversion rates on your existing traffic.

5. Higher Brand Authority. Interacting with your customers regularly is a show of good faith for other customers. When people go to compliment or brag about a product or service, they turn to social media. And when they post your brand name, new audience members will want to follow you for updates. The more people that are talking about you on social media, the more valuable and authoritative your brand will seem to new users. Not to mention, if you can interact with major influencers on Twitter or other social networks, your visible authority and reach will skyrocket.

6. Increased Inbound Traffic. Without social media, your inbound traffic is limited to people already familiar with your brand and individuals searching for keywords you currently rank for. Every social media profile you add is another path leading back to your site, and every piece of content you syndicate on those profiles is another opportunity for a new visitor. The more quality content you syndicate on social media, the more inbound traffic you’ll generate, and more traffic means more leads and more conversions.

7. Decreased Marketing Costs. According to Hubspot, 84% of marketers found as little as six hours of effort per week was enough to generate increased traffic. Six hours is not a significant investment for a channel as large as social media. If you can lend just one hour a day to developing your content and syndication strategy, you could start seeing the results of your efforts. Even paid advertising through Facebook and Twitter is relatively cheap (depending on your goals, of course). Start small and you’ll never have to worry about going over budget—once you get a better feel for what to expect, you can increase your budget and increase your conversions correspondingly.

8. Better Search Engine Rankings. SEO is the best way to capture relevant traffic from search engines, but the requirements for success are always changing. It’s no longer enough to regularly update your blog, ensure optimized title tags and meta descriptions, and distribute links pointing back to your site. Google and other search engines may be calculating their rankings using social media presence as a significant factor, because of the fact that strong brands almost always use social media. As such, being active on social media could act as a “brand signal” to search engines that your brand is legitimate, credible, and trustworthy. That means, if you want to rank for a given set of keywords, having a strong social media presence could be almost mandatory.

9. Richer Customer Experiences. Social media, at its core, is a communication channel like email or phone calls. Every customer interaction you have on social media is an opportunity to publicly demonstrate your customer service level and enrich your relationship with your customers. For example, if a customer complains about your product on Twitter, you can immediately address the comment, apologize publicly, and take action to make it right. Or, if a customer compliments you, you can thank them and recommend additional products. It’s a personal experience that lets customers know you care about them.

10. Improved Customer Insights. Social media also gives you an opportunity to gain valuable information about what your customers are interested in and how they behave, via social listening. For example, you can monitor user comments to see what people think of your business directly. You can segment your content syndication lists based on topic and see which types of content generate the most interest—and then produce more of that type of content. You can measure conversions based on different promotions posted on various social media channels and eventually find a perfect combination to generate revenue.

These are the benefits of sustaining a long-term social media campaign, but if you’re still apprehensive about getting started, consider these points:

Your Competition Is Already Involved. Your competitors are already involved on social media, which means your potential social media traffic and conversions are being poached. Don’t let your competitors reap all the benefits while you stand idly by. If, somehow, your competition is not involved on social media, there’s even more of a reason to get started—the field is open.
The Sooner You Start, the Sooner You Reap the Benefits. Social media is all about relationship building, and it tends to grow exponentially as your followers tell their friends, and their friends tell their friends, and so on. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be able to start growing that audience.
Potential Losses Are Insignificant. Realistically, you don’t have anything to lose by getting involved in social media. The amount of time and money it takes to create your profiles and start posting is usually minimal, compared to other marketing channels. Just six hours a week or a few hundred dollars is all it takes to establish your presence.
Conclusion

The longer you wait, the more you have to lose. Social media marketing, when done right, can lead to more customers, more traffic, and more conversions, and it’s here to stay. If you’re interested in getting started but aren’t sure where to begin—head over to my Resource Library or leave a comment below!

Article via Forbes.com 

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Content marketing can include articles, blog posts, videos, press releases, direct mail pieces, infographics, webinars, and many other content-driven tactics. When your company is creating content, you are thinking like a publisher and therefore attracting consumers seeking the information that is valuable to them. But, how does it benefit you?

Here are reasons why content marketing is important to your small business:

Content Marketing Increases Website Traffic

Content marketing provides traffic for your website. By way of search terms and useful information, you will get people to click on your site. This is the Attraction phase of the Inbound Marketing Methodology. The more people that click through to your site, the more people will convert from visitors to prospects. If your content is share-worthy, readers will share the information to their social channels (gotta love that online word-of-mouth doing the work for you!) This is a good way to constantly keep a new flow of people coming to your site.

Search engines will also gobble up your content, putting your links and information on their result pages. Targeting keyword terms relevant to your audience, truly being helpful with your content and having a degree of transparency is what will help set you apart from your competitors to attract your perfect customers.

Sharing Your Knowledge Positions Your Expertise

When you are constantly putting out knowledgeable content, your website visitors will take notice and this is awesome for your marketing potential. This means you should be thoughtful about the content you write as well as how frequent you come out with new content. Remember, more is not always better… better is better. If you have competitors, your expertise can make you look far more professional than someone else who puts out lackluster content.

Forces You to Stay Ahead of Industry Trends

When you are churning out frequent content, you will have to do a bit of research. You can learn a thing or two from doing your research and the more you read up on your field of expertise the better. There is always something new to pick up on or learn. You can then share that knowledge and, as content marketing for small business owners goes, reinforce that position as a valuable resource.

Increases Sales

In recent surveys, CMA research has found that over 50% of content marketing consumers say it has a positive impact upon purchase decisions, with 61% agreeing that it increases brand positivity. When you create content, you are providing a controlled and portable shop window for customers to consume in their own time.

Deepens Existing Relationships

These days, consumers have more choices than ever before, making for stiffer competition for every business owner (not just small businesses). Content marketing gives a platform to entertain and engage customers, while still keeping them up-to-date on your product announcements and news. A creative content marketing strategy will keep them coming back for more and more.

Goes Beyond Social

Increasingly, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others are expecting brands to pay for using their services (have you noticed the dive in organic reach?) Using social media as a way to communicate your message to current and potential customers is not as effective as it once was … and! …. even though you may own your content on these platforms you can’t fully control what happens to it. But, content created through your own website and landing pages is something you have full control over and can benefit from for years to come.

Do you have any content marketing tips? If so, I would love to share them in a future post.

Article via Business 2 Community

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