a strategy on how to best utilize it for marketing. New social networking platforms continue to

appear and the existing ones, like Facebook and Twitter, continue to evolve to keep up

with the changing market. We have analyzed the current trends in social media and have

made some predictions for next year so that you can be ahead of the curve.

Investment in Social Media is a Necessity It's already been clear that your business

should have a presence on social media, but in the coming year it's absolutely necessary.

Integrating social media into your marketing plan is key for generating leads, referrals

and brand recognition which in turn leads to higher revenue. Brand awareness, word-of-mouth

advertising, improved search rankings, and direct customer interaction are just a few

of the key benefits from having engaging social media pages.

Google+ is on the Rise Google+ already has the second highest number

of monthly users behind Facebook, and that user base continues to rise. It's proving

itself to be more than just another social network, with the integration of higher SEO

rankings for Google+ pages, improved social signals and a more personalized search experience

for users. Also, with the new Google Authorship, You can link content you publish on a specific

domain to your Google+ profile. Businesses that are having trouble keeping up with multiple

social networks at once could turn to Google+ as their main outlet because of all the benefits

associated with content search optimization.

Image is Everything We cannot emphasize this enough, but image

centric content is key in generating engagement on social media platforms. Many studies show

that users are much more likely to click on posts with images or videos than just text-based

content. Coupling important information with eye-catching images or graphics is a great

way to stand out in the news feed, so do it.

The Rise of Micro-Video Vine and Instagram have revolutionized real-time

video sharing in social media. With a max of 15 seconds for Instagram and 6 seconds

for Vine, users can create short pieces on their smartphones to share instantly with

their fans. We've already talked about the many benefits of using these services for

small business marketing, so it's only fair that more and more companies will be jumping

on the video bandwagon.

LinkedIn Will Become a Major Player LinkedIn has always been the #1 social networking

site for business professionals, boasting nearly 240 million users, but now with the

launch of its Influencers program, it will become a source for content creation and curation.

This program allows for selected "thought leaders" to share original content directly

with LinkedIn users. Where LinkedIn was already a great source of information, now it will

provide insight from some of the best minds in business.

Looking ahead to the future is not easy, but if you keep these trends in mind going forward

with your social media plan, you should be ahead of the curve.