Social media has consistently grown year on year, with niche social media networks such as

Instagram and Pinterest going from strength to strength. So what does 2015 hold for the social

media marketer? We’ve put together seven social media trends we think will be popular for

2015.

1) Video Content

If you haven’t already noticed, video content has been massive in the late stages of 2014. What

you can communicate in a blog post can be communicated much quicker in a short video.

Facebook have recognised this trend, and have now introduced auto plays and video views in

your timeline. In the latter part of 2014, Facebook surpassed YouTube for the amount of video

views on desktop, watch out YouTube, Facebook’s coming for you!

2) Blogging

Not only does blogging directly increase your SEO and Google ranking (Google’s algorithm

loves fresh, new content being published on your website regularly) but a study by Hubspot,

found that 60% of businesses who blog acquire more customers. The growing importance of

blogging for your business will continue to grow in 2015, and if your business isn’t blogging

regularly, prepare to be left behind.

3) Real Time Social Media Marketing

2014 saw the big brands taking social media marketing to a new level. How did they do

this? Real time social media marketing. Responding to the latest news and trends on social

media, relevant to their target audience, gave brands great visibility amongst the social media

galaxy. However, only the large brands have teams big enough to incorporate real time social

media marketing, but expect this to be a tactic incorporated for smaller brands looking to

distance themselves from competitors.

4) Limited Visibility for Brands on Facebook

Yes they’ve done it again. Facebook are limiting brands visibility when posting on the mass

market social network site once again, in an attempt to encourage brands to spend more on

Facebook advertising. With nearly a $1 billion increase in their revenuefrom Q4 2013 to Q4

2014 as a result of previously limiting brand posts impressions, expect to put your hand in our

pocket for greater visibility for your posts through Facebook ads.

5) More Marketing Emphasis on Twitter

Twitter have introduced more ads to meet the needs and demands of social media marketers

around the world, putting a growing emphasis on marketers devoting more time to their

Twitter marketing strategy compared to Facebook. Twitter’s organic timeline and real-time

trends give brands far greater visibility when it comes down to being creative and tweeting

regularly. With Facebook also limiting brands visibility in their algorithm tailored timeline, we

will see more and more brands prioritising an importance on Twitter over Facebook.

6) More Brands Utilising Instagram

Instagram has surpassed Twitter for the amount of daily active users rising to 300 million, with

Twitters co-founders response, "I frankly don't give a shit!" Instagram have also tested

sponsored posts within user’s timelines, giving brands even more of a reason to establish a

presence on their photo sharing social media platform.

7) Social Listening

Social listening will be just as important for brands on social media as it is responding to direct

customer service enquiries. More importantly through Twitter, brands will have to set

up tools that will directly monitor keywords relevant to your brand name where users haven’t

directly mentioned you via ‘@’.