1. Investing in social media will become essential for businesses in 2014 as they recognize its importance for lead generation, referral traffic, and revenue. Businesses will need to hire social media professionals. 2. Google+ will grow in importance and challenge Facebook's leadership as the number two social network, with the potential to become a personalized web experience integrated with Google products like search. 3. Visual content like images and video will dominate social media strategies over text, with the rise of apps like Instagram, Vine and Tumblr that encourage short-form visual sharing.