Do you have a business? Have you ever wondered what’s going to happen or what are the changes in the coming years? Often, people have their own predictions when it comes to business but major trends in social media strategies affect in businesses this year.
There are companies who had already started to adopt these social media tactics but this year expect to see mass adoption of these phenomenal strategies by small, medium or large businesses.
Social Listening for Marketing Intelligence
In the previous years, we have seen many new technology platforms that combine social media which is commonly used by businesses that filter opinions to drive marketing campaigns. In 2012, businesses will be more aggressive to take huge steps in order for them to surpass their competitors. They will come up with a much better way on how to form a marketing intelligence that can be used in marketing campaigns. Today, there are tools that are doing this already but anticipate seeing more. Based on social listening, platforms will encourage marketers to come up with intelligent marketing solutions. Platforms will enable the marketers to come up with smarter marketing decisions based on social listening.
Facebook – Advertisers and Brands will Focus More on Profitability
Businesses often use Facebook to acquire more fans on their set up page, but are they real fans or just paid fans? Playtime is over; they should focus more on fans who are qualified and not waste time on fans who are not really interested. This year it would be different for businesses will be focusing more on return on investments and profitability. Focusing on the number of fans won’t be out of the picture but since this is business, they will target fans who are interested to acquire what they offer.
This year, businesses will be serious when they say they want offline traffic. This is where the competition is and online traffic is nothing if they won’t patronize the product you are trying to sell. So what they do is set up a Facebook-only promos to drive offline traffic, retails stores have practiced this strategy and it worked! Aside from large retailers, expect to see businesses in different sizes apply this tactic.
Advertisers are serious this time to measure their Facebook Ads campaigns based on the profits that they will generate from it.
Google+ – Pedal to the Metal
Google+ launched new features that are beneficial for those who have businesses. The Google+ pages are designed to be more business-friendly allowing users to maximize their services. Google is an advantageous tool for business because of its integration with other Google properties such as Google Reader, in paid search ads, YouTube, search engine results pages and a lot more.
Google reconstructed its employee bonus based on its success on social to make sure that those who are in the Googleplex think of social always. This step could make 2012 a year of Google+ because of the internal focus and the external push to consumers.
Quality Content
Every time we go online, we seek for quality content; it must be informative, relevant, engaging and not the usual content. During the previous years, businesses allotted a big budget to come up with abundant content for SEO purposes. But what happened, most of the time the information is lacking and it mislead a lot of people – a waste of time for those who are after for content with sense. Google Panda update came just right on time, a timely update from Google that affected the search engine results. This year, content creators are encouraged to write business content with high engagement levels whether it’s a blog, video, how- to articles or any other types of content.
Community Building
Businesses must awaken and energize their communities by showering them with irresistible offers, product development, market research or activities that will keep them interested. Community managers must keep their members engaged and updated all the time. Businesses must exert extra effort in paying attention to their community members. This strategy will be greatly used this year by businesses in different sizes.
Social, Local, Mobile (SoLoMo)
In this modern world, focusing in one method won’t be enough. Businesses must push themselves and use whatever the available resource is to keep up with the tough business competition. They’ll need not just one but three effective tools which include the social, local and mobile known as SoLoMo. The triumvirate will get a strong hold this year, combining these three, expect positive changes in sales not only that, it boosts brand loyalty which targets on-the-go shoppers. Some of the successful examples are LivingSocial and Groupon, these top daily deal sites provide great deals to increase sales. This year, it is anticipated that a growing number of merchants will sign up with Foursquare which is positioned for this SoLoMo tactic.
Social Media Drives SEO
While the traditional on-page SEO still is a very much effective way to enhance a website’s visibility, we’ll see more of social media being used to drive SEO results. The previous year showed how Google’s Search Plus Your World update integrated results and so is the partnership of Facebook and Bing. This year, more businesses will collaborate with social teams for SEO purposes which are relatively measurable.
Summary
The rapid evolution of social media and search landscape can be overwhelming. Being involved in social media and using it for SEO purposes if done well can drive in profits. The above mentioned tactics are related to each other and pushing a few of it will have an impact on other tactics.