2014 Digital Predictions

The Digital Marketing/Digital Advertising Field is constantly changing and evolving, especially lately. Earlier last year I decided to take a look at all 2014 trends that seemed to be emerging, as it's become apparent for certain industries that the marketing game is changing (if you hadn't already noticed) and everyone needs to shape up or ship out.

Social Media used to be quite the joke, and now it's finally emerged as a a revenue-generating channel, as well as one that's great at conversion assists. Content marketing has also become the latest revenue-generating fad over traditional online advertising, as it's much more helpful with conversions.

Mobile and tablets haven't come out of nowhere, but it seems that mobile and tablet conversions will skyrocket this year, as consumers have all felt comfortable enough to begin researching and purchasing on their devices, thanks to enhanced websites that are mobile-friendly, and reward programs such as Starbucks that allows them to pay through phones.

Take a look at the other predictions below, do you agree? 

The Importance of User Generated Content

User generated content is a growing trend that is currently undervalued in many industries and it’s always interesting to see what large brands are making the most of UGC and how.

User generated content can be absolutely free, and equally as effective in promoting your brand, identifying or creating brand ambassadors as well as a helpful tool for listening in the spaces where your customers currently reside.

Paid media can be effective when done right, but UGC seems like a unique opportunity to reach customers in a different way without having to do anything. If you’ve got a great company, people of all ages, especially millennials, will share and create content about you that can come across as much more genuine than your expensive online advertisements can.

It’s important to leverage this content any way you can. How do you track and promote user generated content that’s relevant to your company? 

Online Reputation Management - Why It Matters

In this new social media/tech savvy age where customers and clients are beginning to take back the reigns and let brands know what THEY want, online reputation management is something that's becoming more important each day. Not only do brands need to pay attention to what's being said about their customers on twitter and Facebook, but they need to tune in to major review sites as well, because they're not going anywhere anytime soon.

Sites such as Yelp and Tripadvisor have continued their momentum as popular sites, and continue to garner new users and more reviews each day and their usage will only increase, not decrease. Although there's both positive and negative aspects to these types of sites, including reports of fake reviews, disgruntled employees or customers "retaliating" with slews of poor reviews, the majority of reviews on these sites are genuine... and people are reading them. It's no longer an option to stand by and allow customers to post on sites without taking into account what they're saying and without acknowledging the customers who leave them.

Online reputation management is a necessity from all corners.. from social media to online reviews, brands need to know what's being said about their companies because people aren't going to stop talking about you just because you ignore it. The Online Reputation Manager will soon be a valid and necessary position in many companies. Social media has helped make customers feel important again and it's changing the way business is done, especially with the younger generations.

Whether or not you like it, sites like Yelp are here to stay, which means customers posting positive and negative things about your brand, store, etc, is also here to stay. You can't hide from this anymore, might as well tackle this new development head on.

The Bandwagon Has Broken

It seems most large and small companies have decided social media is WORTH IT – but don’t exactly know what that means

They’ve jumped on the bandwagon, because they’ve heard “they need it”, “everyone’s doing it” “tell your intern to do it”, without researching and learning about what social media can do. These people infuriate me.  People who assume that just because they started a page and a twitter account, follow zero people, stuck an intern on it to post articles about themselves – or worse – times their store is open or short and irrelevant posts, that all this means you “GET” social media and you’re “in the social space”. It does not. It means that you don’t understand what it can do for your business, nor do you actually care.

Social media is not a fad. It’s changing the way people do business, and it’s bringing power back to the consumers. Consumers are fed up with traditional advertising that is stuffed down their throats, even by brands they do adore.  Everyone has an opinion, so why not start listening to your customers’ opinions?  Social media has opened the floodgates to engagement opportunities, both positive and negative, and it will be detrimental in the long run if you choose to ignore this.  

Many companies have figured this out as well, some are doing a great job at monitoring social media, while others are slowly starting to figure this all out and cave to hiring social media managers, social media interns and such.  The problem is that now everyone’s on there, doing the same thing. They respond to the negative issues with generic tweets, they try to throw a “social media sweepstakes” and give away something small and unsubstantial thinking this will grow fans, and everyone is starting to blend in and act the same online.

I challenge those who care about social media to take it all a step further, because your competition is catching up to you. Start thinking further outside the box, stop watching what others do, look inside your brand and find your company’s core values and start using that to your advantage.

Now that everyone’s caught up to you, how will you continue innovating the social media space? 

Social Prospecting... and why it matters

Everyone around me is always searching for the ROI in social media and asking "How much are we making", " how much is that worth" and "what's the bottom line" while searching for answers online and in white papers. I've been searching for these answers as well, while developing my own perspective on social media ROI at the same time and haven't seen many come up with a good answer just yet.

My take on it is this - while there needs to be focus on the data and the metrics, companies like Facebook and Twitter need to be helping with that, or bigger companies can create some crazy amazing product that tracks everything for us... that's going to take time.

Until they figure that all out, everyone else needs to figure it out on their own, dig a little deeper into their own social media fans to discover who's a fan, who's a spammer, and who are you most loyal activities (who are most likely also spending the MOST money by far) and decide how you want to keep track of what this means to you.

Social prospecting is one of the best ways to do this. Keep track of your most loyal followers, those who scream your name from the rooftops and share every moment of their lives using your product or visiting your store with their followers, and go from there.

Social Prospecting from Katherine Gear

Social Media in the Workplace

There's always a lot of talk about social media in the workplace, and if it's a good thing, a bad thing or just a necessary evil. Can your coworkers tweet about you, especially during work hours? Can you tweet about something happening in your office? What if your boss finds out? These are questions more and more companies continue to struggle with. 

It's a slippery slope and companies in the US just can't threaten employees they'll be fired depending on what they tweet, or depending on if they hand over PASSWORDS, that just seems crazy to me. I wish I was more in tune with where social media policies and laws will go, because it seems like an ever-changing subject that more people need to be aware of. 

I think the best thing for now is to trust the employees you've hired that they will make their own decisions, because you never know when they'll be marketing for free for you because their friends turn out to be your perfect audience. People shouldn't feel like Big Brother is watching them, but they also shouldn't be posting inappropriate things in the first place that will damage their own personal brand. Common sense, people. 

What type of stance does your company take? 

The Necessity of the Social Media Strategist

It seems like in the past year or two, many various industries have decided they all NEED social media strategists, community managers and an actual social media strategy. Virtually no industry has gone untouched by the hands of social media and it has been very interesting to see how not only various industries are responding to the new challenge, but specific companies, both big and small are, as well. 

Every industry also has several shining stars, the incredible examples of a few companies who REALLY get it, and do more than just tweet or post on Facebook. They create campaigns that link throughout many different channels and encourages participation and loyalty to the brand, not just the initial likes. Then there are those who are either so late to the game they just hired the first person who was up for the job or they decided to take it on themselves without looking into it. 

For the industries that deal with consumers on a daily basis, the most successful small and large companies in the social spaces not only try new things, styles or new channels but they also CONNECT with their fans and people talking about them on a one-to-one basis. This is where the gold is for those social media strategists. This is why more than a college intern needs to handle your twitter account. 

No matter how large or small, I think it's been proven many times over the fact that simply responding to people talking about your brand, whether they're complaining or complimenting you can really solidify their bond with your company, create a lasting impression and even convert a hater into a lifetime customer. 

What do you think? Have you seen a rise in social media strategists now that many brands have realized it takes more than one hour a week to really make something happen?