Love it or hate it, social media is ruling the minds today. We might have survived the ‘Mayan Catastrophe,’ but now we are on the verge of a fiscal cliff and the fluorescent running shoes are here to stay! Social media is the one that started these trends. But it’s not just about the fashion fads, it’s also about bringing Arab Spring to the world – a transparency that allows people to embrace the spring through Facebook and Twitter. Similarly, social media made London Olympics a raging success and provided details about Lance Armstrong’s claims and his doping charges. Over the last few years, social media has evolved from its infancy and became a more mature forum.
We witnessed several significant social media trends recently, including Facebook purchasing Instagram for a billion dollars and then going public. However, the question regarding Instagram’s impended future is yet to be answered! Similarly, Pinterest became a darling for fashionistas while Twitter grew incredibly and Google+ claimed over 5 billion +1 buttons being clicked each day with over 400 million users. Linkedin also reinvented itself to become a socially equipped site.
- Content reigns supreme
Content is definitely the basis of social media and marketing. For instance, Google change the social signs of its site +1 to + so that it attracts users and pops up earlier in search results. Therefore, content marketing tools are growing with each passing day, newer tactics and strategies are coming up. The ‘newer’ and ‘intelligent’ content wins!
- Social at Scale
Since new content is required more often and it is difficult to source, create, publish and manage the content, therefore, big players are coming up with social media at scale to reduce the time consumed in these tasks. For instance, big players like Adobe Social, Exact Target and Salesforce.com are coming with newer tools and platforms for these purposes.
- 140 characters
Twitter has managed to ignite the creative spark among people. Expressing yourself in 140 characters is difficult and challenging, which is persuading more and more people to say things on Twitter. Plus, unlike Facebook, the content isn’t censored and therefore, it’s more and more attractive.
- ‘Social dominatrix’
Facebook is still thriving, because it is known for providing endless choices along with mobile advertising and integrates several apps. So, keeping an eye on Facebook is a must.
- Visuals
Pinterest manages to outpace Facebook with its real revenue and cash systems. The social web gives platform for web design interfaces. At the same time, it gives you opportunity to rent, buy or sell!
Last but not least, getting social on a mobile is the need of the hour. Social mobile web is an important aspect of social media. Therefore, content has to be created and designed in ways that people can check the information on their tablets and smartphones. Since tablets seem to replaceng magazines, opting for mobile friendly content would serve well.
