The writing was all over the wall and it was inevitable that social would truly turn into a marketing machine. I remember the days when I had my own social network for motorcycle enthusiasts, motorsport companies desired to be there because it was their target market all in one place. So why wouldn’t they want to pay to be there to advertise their products? But, today social networks aren’t that niche specific anymore because it’s just easier to be where the majority of your “friends” are and to just just create groups or hashtags of shared interest.

With social networks having member numbers the size of countries this obviously is the targeted area for brands and small companies. But, this also forces them to have to be more creative and truly think outside the box in regards to strategy. Below I took some snippets from Online Social media that really provided some great imagery breakdown of trends to look for in 2014.  Like I said the writing was on the wall with Social Business, all that hard work of building your Facebook fans, especially your going to have to pay to play. According to the data below 82% of people don’t believe Facebook ads to be true, so it’s going to come down to what you’re trying to accomplish and being really creative and setting defined KPI’s. This will also force business to take a hard look at all their other social networks such as, Instagram, Twitter, Google +, and Pinterest for new exciting ways to engage their audiences. Bottom line is that this year it’s time to really use your Social CRM!

By,

Tanesha White

AKA~Digital Diva