Social Media can be a great way to get your name and brand out to the community. But it can also be a quick way to kill your social career before it's even started. Using your social media account as a "sounding board" to complain about every aspect of your life will probably do nothing but cause you stress (and gain a few enemies).
In today's post, I'll be listing the top 3 most popular trends in Social Media, and why these trends are rising.
Videos are becoming the new way to explain information, share your opinion, and get your point across in a fast and easy way. It's become popular to put video "introductions" on your homepage to explain the way your site works, and some websites use videos as their entire background image, allowing the user to view different clips depending on the page.
Facebook noticed how popular videos had gotten, and now implements "autoplay" on videos you scroll across on your timeline. In fact, in July of 2014, Facebook surpassed Youtube in the amount of views on a desktop for the month. Because Facebook allows sharing from several video-mediums, they are quickly becoming a great place to post content from out-side sources.
Blogging/VloggingI'm sure most of us remember the early blogging days, with sites like OpenDiary and Livejournal allowing us to share our opinions, feelings, and thoughts to the world. It's surprising how opinion blogs have shot off in popularity these past few years!
Blogs allow you to share general updates about your product, give opinions on similar products (or products that work with your own), and basically give a sense of personality and humanism to a company. People are more willing to trust a company that constantly updates them with pertinent information.
As I mentioned in my post about blogging for business, having a blog that you update regularly is shown to acquire more customers, generate more customer feedback, and start more of a dialog between customer and company. Many websites have their own private blog separate from their site, and allow comments, suggestions, and general feedback.
Vlogging (Video Blogs) has also become a great way to share information with customers and potential clients. The ability to see how a product works first-hand, see the companies "face", and share information in an easy-to-understand format makes it easier for customers to understand the company and identify more closely with it's employees.
Online Wallets
Given how popular internet purchases have become, it's really no surprise that social media networks have began to create their own "bank accounts" for buying/gifting contents from their site. Sites like iTunes and Spotify offer the option of adding money to your own account for future song/album purchases, and Steam allows you to add your credit card information to instantly buy video games at the click of a button.
But now, with the implementation of the Google Wallet app as an online purchasing option, other social media sites are looking into adding their own purchasing options. Rumors are surfacing that Facebook is looking into their own payment/transfer program, and it wouldn't be surprising if Twitter followed closely behind.
I don't believe I would ever trust Facebook or Instagram to control my bank account, but this is definitely a huge development in social media progress, nonetheless.
Social Media runs our world. It's a great way to stay in contact with long-lost friends, create new job networks, and can make or break a company. It's important for us to keep an eye out for what is trending in social media, tech, and design overall.
For more information on Social Media Trends, visit the links below:
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/7-social-media-trends-2015
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/12/24/the-7-top-social-media-trends-that-will-impact-your-marketing-in-2015/
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