OPUS Believe that change is constant in digital marketing. However, many social media managers feel changes are so rapid that the need to stay in the knowledge can be overwhelming, and playing catch-up to all the trends is impossible. Don’t worry; Team OPUS is here to help! Opus communication has identified the trends you need to watch, so you can stay ahead of the pack in 2015.
Google will rely heavily on social media signals for SEO
With the organic online marketing ecosystem growing, it’s no surprise that Google is relying more on social media signals to inform its search engine rankings. For many teams, the duties of people who work on SEO and those who work on social media are separate; however, this is all about to change. The two may still officially belong to separate teams, but social media marketers will need to be more informed on the SEO strategist’s agenda, so that the SEO strategy can assist with content promotion. The SEO strategist will then need to know how to work with social media marketers in order to receive the social signals it needs to make sure their company ranks on top in Google’s SERPs.
Content marketing will be the solution to Facebook’s algorithm change
While there’s no problem in using social media to promote your business, it’s important to know how much promotion is too much. Facebook’s new algorithm for its News Feed calls for timely posts about information that provides value to your social media audience. In other words, sophisticated content marketing is now the way to get engagement on Facebook. The businesses that already have a solid content marketing strategy have an advantage on the shift in Facebook’s new algorithm—they can select content from their blog to feature on the business Page. However, if your business doesn’t have a content marketing strategy or a blog, but wants to maintain a strong Facebook presence, it may be time to create a content marketing strategy for Facebook.
Websites need to be more mobile-friendly
You’ve probably heard, but everyone needs to make sure their websites are optimized for mobile. According to statista, mobile phone internet user penetration worldwide will be 52.4% in 2015. This means this year optimizing your website for mobile should be at the top of your 2015 digital marketing to-do list. Social media managers need to be aware of this to ensure the format of any promotions they do (especially those that include driving people to their company websites) are optimized for mobile. On top of that, any images used on social media should also be viewable on mobile for optimized user experience.
The new Twitter search engine will push for Tweets to be more optimized
Twitter recently released one of its long-standing goals, the new and more powerful Twitter search engine. This new search engine will allow people to search through every Tweet ever published, which means the way you structure your Tweets is more important now than ever in the history of the micro blogging social network. Including hash tags, images, and links in your Tweets will make sure that your Tweets show up higher in Twitter’s search engine results. Think of this new search engine as Google: including the right keywords in your Tweets will allow you to be more visible in search queries.
Social media data will inform marketing decisions
You’ve heard plenty of good reasons to use more social media data in your marketing. But social media data is pretty complex and hard to put into action. A recent survey conducted by Hoot suite found that 60% of global organizations struggle to turn social data into actionable tactics. However, this year is the year that social media marketers shift gears and adds another hat to their collection: the social media analyst hat. With this hat on, you can use the social media data collected through your social media tools, and analyze this information to inform marketing and business decisions. For example, social media data can help you create customer personas to boost the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, as well as the kind of language prospects use around your product.
A testing culture will be implemented in all digital marketing teams
Do you have a team that works on testing landing pages, website layout, online ads and emails every day? If yes, that’s great! If no, then keep reading. Testing new landing pages, different website layouts, online ads, and email copy, allow you to make more out of your existing traffic, increase conversions and improve the user experience. You can conduct A/B tests that compare two versions of a web page to see which performs better. The one that performs the best will be the one implemented. For example, you can do this for social media ads by testing several versions of the call to action used in the ad. Investing in A/B testing can have a massive impact on lead generation, traffic, and revenue.
The online experience will shift to a more “Human Experience”
Google and Facebook have made changes to their platforms to push businesses to focus more on the “human experience.” This shift will drive digital marketers to think more about the user experience, their target audience, and the way they market their products and business. For social media marketers, your social media posts will need to be more relevant provide more value to your audience, and the engagement needs to be more “human.”
This year is going to see a lot of change in how people consume marketing online. The trends listed above are just a handful of the trends that social media marketers need to know. The need to stay on top of growing digital marketing trends will allow social media marketers to make sure their efforts on social media will provide the ROI that supports all of the digital marketing efforts for their business. And if you feel like you’re missing out, don’t worry—we’ll be right here to help you catch up on the latest trends in social media. For many teams, the duties of people who works on SEO and those who work on social media are separate; however, this is all about to change. The two may still officially belong to separate teams, but social media marketers will need to be more informed on the SEO strategist’s agenda, so that the SEO strategy can assist with content promotion.
The SEO strategist will then need to know how to work with social media marketers in order to receive the social signals it needs to make sure their company ranks on top in Change is constant in digital marketing. However, many social media managers feel changes are so rapid that the need to stay in the know can be overwhelming, and playing catch-up to all the trends is impossible. Don’t worry, we’re here to help! We’ve identified the trends you need to watch, so you can stay ahead of the pack in 2015.