These social media trends are coming. Will you be ready?

These social media trends have been coming and, by the end of this year, will be firmly entrenched. Many savvy small business owners have already been having their teams and their professional firms working on all of these trends but many others risk falling behind. Your social media marketing is one of the best weapons and opportunities you have to extend your brand awareness and attract new customers. So, what do you need to be working on between now and the end of the year?

• The biggest trend has been working its way over the horizon for a while now but will soon be entrenched within all of social media quite soon. This innovation is chatbots and you need to get up to speed on the as fast as you can. The instant gratification drug continues to rear its powerful head as more and more consumers are heading out to the social media platforms to get what they want when they want it. Chatbots will allow your social media presence to immediately engage and interact with your followers. You can get to them quickly which will get you a leg up on your rivals.
• Social media platforms have quickly migrated to mobile use, especially on phones, and they don’t look to go back. Fewer and fewer people are accessing social media on their desktops and laptops and Facebook recently declared that nearly 85% of their advertising revenue is coming from mobile users. Creating triggers and calls to action while potential customers are on their phones, and poised to buy, is an enormous opportunity that no small business can allow to go by.
• As you continue to work with your social media and SEO firm to formulate future strategies, remember that, despite looking similar sometimes, the platforms remain different. Know who your customers are and where your customers are. All of the platforms are stealing from one another with regard to technology and innovation. That doesn’t make them the same, however. Know where you want to be and craft your content and campaign accordingly.
• Finally, you simply can’t ignore video anymore. While video has been around and has been integrated all over the web and social media for some time now, it is going to become more prominent to the point where it will be a favored type of content. Marketing data continues to show that video is, perhaps, the most effective marketing weapon you have with regard to branding and driving traffic as well as making conversions.

-Written by Kevin Sawyer