Our Top 5 Social Media Predictions for 2014

What a busy year in Social Media 2013 has been! What was for a long time considered a fad, is now being taken seriously by those in the web industry and businesses alike. The power of the people and the weight they hold in regards to marketing has been realized and is set to take off in 2014.  We've been sitting here thinking about what our predictions for 2014 in regards to Social Media will be, and we agree that it is in the field of social media marketing where it will all happen this year. So read on & consider where your business will be positioned for the New Year.

1. Brands previously reluctant will start to surface on social media

Businesses have been seeing the impact of social media in the areas of lead generation, revenue & referral traffic. Shy brands will begin to stake their claim on prime social media real estate which will validate their existence.  It has become a blend of the best of SEO, social media and public relations.  It has become about trust and transparency, and not having a social media presence these days can question credibility.  Social Media advertising has gained more traction and evolved to become a standard in social engagement, which will become an ROI driver in 2014.  Visual content is becoming a critical part of any solid content strategy.  Social networks such as Pinterest will become an integral part of business marketing strategies.  Think of it as the 4 P's.... plan + produce + publish + promote.

2. Marketing strategies will focus more on Social Media content

Many brands are using social networks like Google+, Facebook & Twitter to market their business, so paid advertising will need to be a critical part of your social strategy if you want your content to be seen by more people.  Promotion budgets focused on social media markets will need to be increased ahead of conventional advertising.  Brands having to perform as publishers will become more of a survival tactic in 2014 and quality content will need to be posted regularly.  Brands will have to start to play a new game & learn how to use Google+ to appear in the SERPs.  By using social media channels to seed its onsite content, that content is pushed out to an audience that is already interested in what it has to say.  Video will become more prominent on all social networks.

3. Google+ will become a major player

Between YouTube (over 1 billion users) & Google+ (over 300 million users), Google are leading the field in the social media game, closely followed by Facebook (over 1.19 billion users).  Google+ was never ‘just’ another social network. It has increasingly proven itself to be an integral part of Google’s grand scheme in terms of SEO and providing a more personalized search experience. Google will also likely open up its API to enable more scheduling options and data capture by social monitoring tools. It will enhance or replace current help desks, support services and customer relations with their 3 major players, YouTube, Hangouts & it's recent addition Helpouts.

YouTube

As mention before YouTube has over 1 billion users. It often features predominantly on searches, has made people famous & infamous, can send videos viral, and is featured in movies and TV programs.  It's become somewhat of a cult phenomena.  However, it's over thought of in regards of entertainment, but when was the last time that you searched YouTube trying to find how to do something?  Now extend that a little further & you have Hangout on Air which is live streaming of schedule broadcasts that go live in HD on Google+, YouTube and your website.  They are recorded and automatically saved on your YouTube channel. You can take questions in advance from the community and answer the most popular ones live, and control when your participants are visible.

Hangouts

The Hangouts feature is by far one of the best, and most unique features the Google+ platform offers. Hangouts brings conversations to life using all kinds of media. You can connect with friends across computers, including Android and Apple devices. You can turn any Hangout into a live video call with up to 10 friends

Helpouts

The new Helpouts feature is an extension of Google+’s unique Hangouts feature, and is an easy and convenient way to get live help over video. It doesn't matter where you are, or what time it is, you can talk to someone who can help you. Helpouts can also give you an opportunity to use your knowledge to teach others. Brands and individuals can offer one-to-one tutorials and consultations over live video on Google+ and charge users for their time. It's easy to use, works on desktop and mobile devices and incorporates live video, scheduling and payments. Hosts can either offer free Helpouts sessions, or they can charge a fee. If they choose to charge a fee, then payments are handled through Google Wallet.  Helpouts are divided into categories, including Music, Cooking, Gardening, Fashion, Beauty and other professional services and users can choose who they get help from based on the host’s qualifications, availability, fees, ratings and reviews.  Currently, if you want to host a Helpout, you need to sign up to request an invite.

4. It's not just Pay-Per-Click, it's now Social PPC

Social PPC is set to take off in 2014 with new advertising offerings from Twitter’s Promoted Tweets, Pinterest’s Promoted Pins, Instagram’s promoted photos/videos and Foursquare Ads. These join the already popular Facebook & Google PPC offerings. Social advertising will prove to be the secret weapon in your marketing arsenal as people continue to power results. Like previous PPC, social PPC are ads placed on a social platform for CPC or CPM, where clicks/visits are counted individually with a price assigned on a per-click basis. Social PPC also has the ability to engage users on more than one front, such as a sale or lead conversion, but also be a Like, Follow, re-Tweet, Check-In, Re-Pin, someone sharing on their own personal profile to all of their friends, a comment left on your company page, etc. Social PPC can be branding too. Every click that doesn't convert into a sale or sign up isn't lost, because there are now a few more people out there now who know what it is you do. Positions such as Social PPC Strategist will become part of the digital marketing recruitment vocabulary.

5. Employment positions in social media will increase

Social media customer service is now becoming a profession in it's own right. Businesses will be looking for candidates that have previous social media experience who will need to have a unique skills such as digital production, content creation, social media knowledge & an understanding of SEO. Call centres will start to disappear in favour of Social Media Customer Service Specialists. 'Author Rank' will cause genuine content creators to increase in value. SEO isn't dead, it has just been redefined. Businesses will be hiring social media strategists or full-time social media managers instead of assigning social media tasks to existing employees.