Each year the importance of social media to a well-rounded online marketing plan keeps getting undeniable. You have to invest in your social media strategies to get the maximum ROI on your website online marketing. You also have to consider that each year the number of social media platforms also keep increasing so you have the chance of attaining maximum exposure with this particular aspect of your marketing plan. However, every New Year shows a pathway of successful social media trends. In fact, sticking to outdated trends might actually harm your credibility in the niche and not get you enough returns on the time and money you invest in them. Here is a list of the most up to date trends in the field of Social media marketing to get your startup website going in the head to head in the game with the big leagues of your niche.

Building up rapport with your target audiences

The biggest trend that has compounded over the years is to build rapport with your target audiences. You can do it in several mall ways. The biggest draw however, is to make your online presence most resourceful for your customers. How you can extend this strategy to your social media platform depends on your own creativity. Some brands take social media platforms as their main customer support bases. You can post in queries or reviews on their social media pages and they would directly get back to you on these. However, beware of restraint on the strategy, it can get negative pretty fast if you do not keep it in check.

Get in step with the shift in technology

Shifting technology will always affect your overall online marketing and social media strategies. If your audience is moving towards a platform other than their desktops, you need to be moving your strategy to suit that choice. For instance, the emergence of tablets and Smartphone mean that most of social media marketing changed gears for mobile platforms. As such, social sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr will be your most valid platform choices to connect with your audiences. You should also redesign your company blog to be responsive to every platform through which your audiences access it.

Analytics Vs. predictive tools

Tracking your moves during your social media strategy implementation has been the most important aspect for improvements in this regard. However, while earlier simple analysis tools remained your best bet to getting trackback information on your strategy, now you have a whole array of predictive tools at your disposal to get details that are more concurrent. These tools use data mining techniques, modeling and diverse statistics to give you abject information about your social media strategy.

Video marketing strategies

Single dimensional marketing will no longer fly for social media. You need to be up-to-date with what your target audience needs from you. Research has shown that most niche audiences tend to absorb more from short videos on popular video networking sites or on company websites than any other form of information distribu8tion. Having your own YouTube channel or Vimeo account is absolutely necessary but more important is to lock down on interesting content to share with your niche audiences via video marketing techniques.

Mobile applications for mobile platform marketing

Every survey conducted in the field of web accessibility has shown in multiple counts of results that prove that most websites are now being accessed over some kind of mobile platform – Smartphone, tablet or mobile gadgets. It is therefore, excessively important that your website be ready to face the challenge. In fact all your marketing solutions need to be designed to be mobile responsive and adaptive over a vast variety of technologies. This includes the interface design, so you have to keep your information fluid to make the most impact.

Engagement and interactive online presence

If you are just starting with your online branding strategies, you have to stay committed to the project for quite a while before you start seeing positive results. The idea is to create an engaging online presence. Your company should be the go-to resource when people start looking for interesting news and discussions pertaining to important topics in the niche. You have to be as up-to-date as possible and always make it a point to answer your readers and engage in actual conversations.

Your best resourceful tools for Social media marketing this year

1.) Facebook Advertisements – Advertising is very important and most social media platforms now give you the ideal platform to present your products on a platform which already as interested audiences flocking in. Facebook ads rose up like a shining beacon but they had started to lose traction during the last quarter of previous year. This year the platform has reinvented their platform with video advertisements, which give the companies a chance to humanize their messages making bigger impact on people.

2.) Google+ Ads – Google has just started testing out +post ads. Since this is one of the most powerful social media platforms considering direct association with Google, you should definitely be ready to roll out advertisements on this platform as soon as it rolls out the advantage.

3.) Twitter ads – Twitter launched TV ad targeting and many other re-branding overtures to create a renewed hype around the platform. The rebranding also included new ad interface design, which is rigged to attract a lot more attention on various social media as well as search engine platforms. It is safe to say that while the other platforms are still growing with their strategies, you can never take Twitter for granted. The platform should always be a part of your social media and advertisement strategy.