Social Media Business Trends for 2016

By Phillip Quay

Social media marketing has always been a peculiar animal. Since its early days, where platforms were finicky and critics insisted that social marketing was not a viable marketing strategy, we’re now witnesses to an era with rock-solid platforms, useful business advertising options, and plenty of free opportunities to make our content public.

Still, the world of social media changes quickly, with dozens of new platforms arriving each year and most existing companies scrambling to stay ahead of the game with new features and innovations. If history and some recently emerging trends are any indication, 2016 will be a host for a variety of new trends and changes in the social scene.

Here are my Top 5 predictions for 2016.

What was once considered something nice for a business to have – optimising your company’s website for mobile devices - has become a necessity and a valuable investment for the future.

 

This past March marked the first time the four leading messaging apps in the world has amassed the same amount of users as the top four social networking platforms. More and more, shoppers are turning to using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to research a product, comparing deals online, finding a retail outlet, and most importantly, making the purchase.

 

2016 will see In-the-moment updates dominate the competition. While Social media is already “in-the-moment” by it’s very nature, but there are some social media platforms that are more “in-the-moment” than others. Think Periscope and Snapchat, the new fascination with live-streaming and live social will continue strong in 2016.  Increasingly, social media apps will aim to put their users at an event—virtually.

 

While Google still remains the king of SEO, the way that consumers search for services and products in 2016 will evolved passed simple SEO. In a recent study, Eighty-eight percent of consumers online are influenced by reviews and online comments by other consumers. Those consumers are going directly to sites like Facebook, YouTube or in apps like Trip Advisor. A reason for this shift is the growing popularity of Pinterest, helped by the fact that its market is largely dominated by women in their 30s with young families, a demographic known to do most of the shopping.

 

In 2015 Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook introduced Buy buttons, in 2016 you can expect to see other apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Vine and focus on making mobile and social commerce seamless. In-app innovation geared towards online shopping will likely be top of mind for anyone who wants to stay ahead of their competitors. By the end of 2016, most major social media brands will feature some kind of buy button naturally as an element of their advertising campaigns.

 

The use of videos for marketing purposes has been steadily grow in 2016, and is set to explode in 2016. Videos are the perfect way to show how a product works. From the multiple ways it can be used for optimum results to how it resolves a daily issue, brands have started focussing on video content more than their text only content strategy. Expect to see a lot more of the ‘how to’ videos coming out in 2016.

 

Content remains the King for all businesses in online marketing.

The truth is that if you are not updating your content regularly, Google will have to assume that your content is losing its reliability. So why not? Over time you will build up a great backlink profile by sheer longevity while at the same time keeping content as fresh as new competitors entering the space.

 

 

 

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