Social media grows bigger and bigger each day, and as it does so, fans and followers seem to become more demanding with the brands they follow, requesting more interaction, better content, and quicker responses in return for their loyalty. The following are ten social media marketing trends that can help you grow your social media audience.

1. 10 Social Media
Marketing Trends

2. Social media grows bigger and bigger each day, and as it does so, fans and
followers seem to become more demanding with the brands they follow,
requesting more interaction, better content, and quicker responses in return
for their loyalty. The following are ten social media marketing trends that can
help you grow your social media audience.

3. Making your brand look more personal. Brands are
dropping the formal tone across social media sites and
focusing instead on establishing a personal relationship
with their fans and followers by trying to become a part of
their daily lives.

4. Pushing charismatic employees into the social
spotlight. Connections on social sites are personal, even
when they are between a brand and a customer, and fans
and followers are more likely to react to a likeable company
employee’s message than to an anonymous poster bearing
the company logo.

5. Focusing on quality rather than quantity. Just because marketers
can post as many Facebook updates and as many tweets a day as they
like, it doesn’t mean that they should spam their fans and followers—
although social sites are all about freshness, quality attracts more likes
and shares than quantity, and marketers who wish to be successful
online will keep this in mind.

6. Hosting contests that offer popular brand products as
rewards. Contests are a great way to attract new fans and
followers, consolidate your relation with existing customers,
and promote your best products.

7. Creating and scheduling content in advance so that it
goes live when your customers are most active. Facebook
business pages seem to get most activity between 11:00 AM
and 5:00 PM.

8. Interacting with customers on your social media pages, but
also on theirs. If you engage with your fans and followers, you
establish stronger ties with them and you take up more space in
their “social media memory.” They will then be more likely to return
to your profile, click Like and Share and Tweet, visit your website,
and buy your products or services. 80% of customers prefer to
connect with brands on Facebook.

9. Providing customer support directly through your social
media profile. More and more customers ask questions about
products and services on the seller’s or provider’s social pages
hoping to get more exposure and a faster response, and brands
that respect their customers answer those questions as fast and
as best as they can. Studies have shown that as little as seven
negative comments on your social page will make a customer
form an unfavorable opinion of your brand. 47% of social media
users seek customer service through companies’ social pages.

10. Being transparent, especially when it comes to
acknowledging your mistakes. More brands apologized for
their mistakes through their social media profiles in 2012 than in
any year before, and because of the speed and reach that
social media sites have, they keep using it for this purpose.

11. Going mobile. More people log in to social sites through
smartphones and tablets than personal computers; therefore,
marketers who optimize their profiles for mobile devices, create
mobile ads, and offer mobile-only offers, discounts, and
contests have only to gain. Facebook has hundreds of millions
of active mobile users every month.

12. Giving away insider’s information that your competitors
sell. Loading your fans and followers with valuable tips and
advice before directly marketing anything to them boosts your
reputation and builds trust, and ultimately makes your future
marketing campaigns more effective.

13. Social media is going to keep growing, and as social sites grow, fans and
followers will demand more and more social interaction from the brands they
follow. Marketers who will be wise enough to give their audience what it wants will
get great rewards in return ... likes, shares, follows, traffic, and purchases.

14. Thank You
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