Social media marketing trends 2016: Insights & Predictions

Every business can succeed initially in the market by introducing a product that is unique and outstanding than the one that already exists in the market. But the same business can fail, if it fails to catch up with the market trends. It is not just because of the product but because of the marketing measures that does not meet up with the day to day trends. Predictions about the marketing trends of the forthcoming year are necessary for a business. The predictions made every year can help the business to stabilize and by the end of the year, on reviewing the real time values, we get to know where a company stands in the market. Here are a few predictions to catch up with.

Updates in SEO

Google’s algorithm assigns Page Rank to every site and gets them listed on SERP (Search Engine Response Page) once a keyword is typed by the user. Unlike earlier times, building a site to reach the audience via SEO is an outdated technique. But it is not dead. The algorithm never remains the same for ranking a page. SEO results have become much helpful to users than before. Google provides answers more precisely to user queries. It provides results to the customers based on location, device, and previous searches.

In the year 2015, EU filed a case against Google for violating Antitrust Law. The paper says that Google dominates other online shopping lists. For every search of a product, Google displays it’s own online shopping item on the top of the SERP.

In the year 2016, Google will not affect so because it clearly displays the items in the ad sector along the paid list. It shows that Google has turned into a commercial search engine.

In 2008, the 4-word searches were considered as a long tail keyword search. In the year 2015, it was either 2-words search or 9-words search. Sometimes, the words used are unique. SEO has come up with an answer for such scenarios. Google’s algorithm gets updated by searching bulk amount of contents of the site. It assigns KBT (Knowledge-Based Trust) score to a site once it understands. Google has started to display Twitter tweets on SERP. Analyzing social media is also a part of SEO now. So the KBT is totally based on faith about the site. If a company has not signed in the social network, it is totally at the edge of the business.

Another search engine Yahoo has joined with Mozilla Firefox. SEOhas started looking up for contents more than keywords. It even searches on hash tags in Twitter. Updating a site with faithful content is much vital this year.

Influencer marketing that amazed Google

Influencer marketing is nothing but targeting certain people and making them influence others to buy the same. Example, a sports star wearing a watch and casting picture through his personal social media pages. As the first step, it targets publishers and store owners,next the fans and consequently the friends of the fans.

It reaches to the maximum extent because social media is best at targeting customers.Social media keeps people connected with their friends, and is the best advertising platform now. The personal details of an individual, life events like birthday or wedding day and the relationship status of an individual are used to target the customers and influence them to buy a product.

Though influence marketing has not been popular for more than a quarter of a year, people have started following this as it is a new technique. This may end up like TV commercials at any time.

Visual’s role in marketing

Pictures speak more than words. Reading a paragraph full of words may be boring. Pictures can post a message to viewers in a most touching way like greeting cards. More than words, pictures pop out in our brain and induce to purchase a product. This idea leads a way to visual marketing. There are series of tools available in the market like Photoshop, Pic Monkey and so on. The best example for visual marketing is Pinterest and Instagram. There are new social networks this year such as Periscope which focus on visuals. The visuals help to distinguish a brand from its competitors. Images are considered the best so far. Videos need to buffer to load. But images load faster.

If a company sells blender, the company can announce prizes for posting a recipe on the social network. The images must include the blender. The brand reaches the audience faster by this way. As users start posting the ad about the product, it gets better reach.This is called as User-Generated Content- UGC.

Pop-up image is the next visual marketing technique. When mobile icon moves to a picture or once a cursor goes to a link, a video or an image pops up. This grabs the users attention, if they are interested.

Videos falls next to images. Videos are worthier for advertisers. All social networks have video commercials. The next trend for this year would be live streaming videos. One cannot edit such live videos. This mode gives reliable information to customers. Same way, customers can report a fault in the product through live videos. So companies must prepare to answer them at the earliest. Customers expect response and reliable information.

Meerkat and Periscope are the social medias focused on live streaming. This year is the year for live streaming videos. Soon the companies would sign up for this feature to reach customers.

Never go out for shopping, Social networks have ‘Buy’ buttons

As more of the devices used for browsing the social networks turns to be mobiles, the swapping between the screens makes a customer fuzzy. Here comes the ‘Buy’ button to make a customer sit tight on chairs and get arrested in the social networks’ prison. The buy button helps you save the time.
Applications like Groupon has captions before buy buttons with status of the inventory like 100 Bought or 13 Left, which forces customers to buy before the offer closes. There are also “Call” buttons in Facebook that connects to companies. This feature helps to save time.
Is using the card information in the social network safe? Even if a customer buys something, will it be possible to return it in case of any repairs? Are there any options to track the shipments? This year, these questions must be answerable for the success rate of buy buttons.

Business with Emotional customers

Emoji seems to be powerful in Facebook like hashtags in Twitter. Emotions like cry, laugh, smile are shown easily with a single emoticon. The time spent to look at the content is saved here. Sure, it is a driving factor for the business. It is dangerous too. A customer might think that the product is irritating. It is about an individual’s perspective. The product might be useful to some other customer. So Emojis can either save a business or totally screw it. There are so many stickers which the social networks are introducing. The Emojis help to reduce the chat words like OMG or LOL. That’s why it’s becoming popular. It is helpful if the emoticon induces a person to read the content. Best Products reach customer for sure using emoticons.

Think Mobile

Nowadays, the device used to access the Internet is mobile rather than a desktop. 80% of the Internet users are accessing the Internet via mobiles. A survey taken in the US reveals that 75% of the US population use smart phones.Thinking about this and identifying the relevant metrics will help a company to develop. If the content created for a website is suitable to view using mobiles then it would reach customers for sure. This year can turn into the best year for a company, if it creates mobile friendly sites.

Social Media strategies for Ads and Responses

As the world is moving towards an era of addiction to social medias, there is a huge increase in customer reach. Social listening has increased almost in every area. Interaction between customer service centers and customers is possible. Automation tools support customer service a lot. Customers always expect prompt response from the customer service desk. If customers do not receive any answer, there enters the competitors to grab the opportunity.

Customer’s attention through Automation tools

Automation tools reveals every strategy to the competitors, so business needs to get back to the previous step, say, TV commercials. In content development, uniqueness is insisted more than ever. Though automation tool can convey the strategy to the competitor, it can never affect KBT score.

Identifying Social Media Metrics

Business development team cannot rest once it creates an application or sign up in social medias. Social media is just a source. Measuring certain metrics on a regular basis and taking decisions based on it would benefit a business.

>> Checking Network Traffic- visitors of the site
>> Network Strength- members, fans and followers of the site
>> Response of the Customer- likes and comments
>> Activity time- How long a customer is active on the site
>> Regular Visits- buys or checks regularly
>> Leads- referrals
>> Bounce back- immediately move out of the site
>> Responsive Blogs- continuous update in blogs and responses
>> Brand name usage- checking name of the brands if mentioned or discussed
>> Loyalty- customers referring and sharing the links regularly

Keeping track on social media considering these metrics helps a business grow.

These are the predictions for the year 2016. These predictions may not be precise but are made to help business planning. Reviewing the predictions for every quarter of the year will yield better results. Plan accordingly to win the race.