What are the Biggest Social Media Trends for 2016

What are the Biggest Social Media Trends for 2016

Now that we’re officially settled into 2016, it’s possible to move beyond predictions and look at the actual trends that are most likely to define the social media landscape over the course of the next year. If you’re a business owner who’s wondering where you should invest your time and resources in regards to social media, here are the trends that simply can’t be ignored this year: Video Thanks to increasing speeds for both standard and mobile bandwidth, the Internet is rapidly shifting to video content. While YouTube is an obvious presence in this space, Facebook is actually the social network that has really doubled down on video.

Businesses who don’t start experimenting with creating and sharing videos through Facebook are likely to be left behind. Additionally, Facebook video ads currently present a great opportunity to get a significant amount of reach with even a relatively small budget.

Social Buying

The idea of social buying or commerce isn’t new. However, it’s something that’s yet to really take hold on any social networks. But that doesn’t mean social platforms have moved on from this idea. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are all working hard to make social commerce something that’s truly seamless and useful for consumers. With the rise of things like Apple Pay, it’s likely that at least one of the big social networks will have made significant strides in this space by the time December arrives. Sites like My Fashion Guru are setting the tone for new innovative ways into social commerce.

More Measurement When the Internet first shifted to being a more social platform, businesses of all sizes were skeptical about social media marketing. One of the reasons for that skepticism was the difficulty of measuring marketing spend and efforts on social platforms. Over the years, platforms and third-parties have developed a variety of tools to help businesses measure more of their social marketing efforts. One tool I recommend you look into for analyzing your results is Send Social Media. While there’s still a lot of room for improvement, all signs point towards 2016 being a year when metrics take a central position and get the attention they deserve.

Live Streaming Out of all the trends we’ve covered, live streaming is the biggest wildcard. Most experts agree that there are a lot of unanswered questions about the long-term outlook and value of live streaming. With that being said, the fact that this channel is kind of like the Wild West of social media means it can present very significant opportunities for businesses that are savvy enough to find creative ways to make it work for them. One the most popular game changers in this space being Periscope. However, Facebook recently started offering a similar live streaming service.

Published by: Web Strategy Plus