Trends and Tribulations: Social Media Marketing in 2016

8 February 2016

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Love them or hate them, emojis are here to stay. As a quick and easy way to express the way we feel, emojis have become key communication tools in the online world. Especially when it comes to social media marketing in 2016. As we continue to delve deeper and deeper into the realm of user optimisation, it’s not surprising that phones and online communication platforms are now equipped with an ever growing array of emoticons for just about every occasion.

From Facebook’s Reactions and Twitter’s Emoji Toolset, to WhatsApp’s Emojipedia and Skype’s GIF emoticons, users can express how they feel, what they’re doing and react to situations without saying anything at all. Which means for those of us in the social media game, it’s up to us to figure out how emojis can be used to better understand our audience and deliver results? While you might not care about the latest emojis, your audience sure does. And certain emojis may just lead to higher click-throughs, shares and conversions.

Engagement wins the day

When it comes to putting together a kick-ass social media campaign, more often than not, we all have one objective in mind – going viral. Who wouldn’t want to reach millions of people around the world through “word of mouse” marketing? A viral social media campaign is marketing gold. But planning on content going viral is the same as planning on winning the lottery. Near impossible to get right. There are so many other social elements at play, it’s virtually impossible to predict viral success.

Sure, we can mimic viral campaigns to create shareable content. But when it comes to social media marketing in 2016, focusing on creating engaging content that resonates with your audience is far more valuable to your business.

Marketing in the palm of your hand

It’s official. There are now more mobile devices than people on the planet. So when it comes to social media marketing in 2016, if your social content isn’t mobile friendly, you simply don’t stand a chance. Of the 1.59 billion Facebook users in December, 1.44 billion accessed the social platform from their mobile device. Mobile usage has overtaken desktop usage with social media leading the mobile way. Ignore the shift to mobile, and you’re ignoring the needs of your online audience. Bottom line, your business is going to pay.