Investing in social media is on continuous growth in the past months. This fast growing and developing sector changes constantly requiring companies to alter their strategies and approaches. Find out what are the new online marketing tendencies for this year.

1. Online Marketing Tendencies
Making sense of the puzzle

2. #1. ROI Metrics
Devoting financial resources to content production implies
that there is a growing need to measure success.
This need has given rise to numerous social
media analytics applications, divided into 2
general groups:
•Measure your engagement across popular
social networking sites. (ex: PostRank
Analytics)
•Assign a measurement of your overall online
influence (Klout).
These application and their popularity ties in
neatly with the need of control over social
media that many have, including social
networks themselves
Mathew, SEO Expert

3. #2. Know WHO matters
Companies must pinpoint the top influencers for their brands and
motivate them to continue being brand ambassadors through different
promotions and offers while extensively monitoring their activities to
“to try influencing the word of mouth.”
Maciej, Sales Manager

4. #3. Multitask
Social media tools are developing on a daily basis. Companies
need to learn how to manage and monitor a wide variety of
tools.
Many companies remain reluctant to
join the social media craze as they fear
that they would lose too much control
over the message and the overall brand
perception. Online marketing
professionals still feel more confident in
their ability to control a traditional
marketing campaign “(design of
banners, logo, brand, target audience,
timing etc.)” causing them to ignore
social media for the time being.
Maciej, Sales Manager

5. #4. Trust is key!
Referrals by friends and family members are becoming
more and more important because of overwhelm.
Companies would have to be “crystal clear about who
their ideal clients are and try as much as is ethically
possible to gain access to the conversations going on in
their heads when they're seeking out a particular
solution or product.”
“Content is king”. Corporations should “stay consistent
about creating quality educational content in the
formats most consumed by their target market.
Educating your target market isn't going to be enough
in and of itself. Companies are going to have to
practice shaping the context within the education they
provide. The goal being to influence the actual
evaluation taking place in the prospects minds to a
standard that only that company can meet. Positioning
is probably THE most important thing for businesses to
focus on.”
Colin, Internet marketing consultant and author

6. #5. Give your company personality!
Don’t bombard your audience with the “Like”
button.
Some people and companies
are just forcing promos, while I
think true success is in
relationships and providing
content. I will click on links and
peoples sites when they
appear to have a personality,
smarts and connect in a
friendly way. My view of the
major trend: relationships.

7. #6. Invest in Mobile
Make sure your content and web presence are
mobile friendly.
In terms of social media usage,
mobile will be the defacto method
of engagement. Being able to
interact via the net from absolutely
anywhere at any time on a small
device that starts up instantly - that
will drive activity.

8. #7. Incorporate Online Media into the
Overall Marketing Mix
Do not let Social Media stay on its own. Align the
goals with your overall marketing goals and make
sure that more people participate to reach it.
Rather than [seeing it as] the bright shiny
object that sucks in all of their attention.”
In his opinion that would imply that social
media is better understood and
“leveraged in more valuable ways (which
should have the nice added benefit of
increasing longer-term adoption and
usage).

9. #8. Online Retail goes strong
People are more likely to spend considerately
more money online.
Social shopping will continue to
expand its influence due to its
ability to target and reach
consumers early in the decision
phase. Also, group buying via
Groupon and its competitors will
continue to be a growing trend as
long as marketers can make money
from these promotions.
Heidi, Online Specialist

10. #9. SEO becomes a real challenge
The big search engines would constantly update
their algorithms to make sure that they bring
the best service to their clients.
If social media experts want to stay on
top of the game they would have to
put extra effort into any positioning
efforts. Offline partnerships which can
be translated into online trust have
never been so important.
Flavio, Explicata SEO specialist

11. Lessons left to learn
Social Media is not for sale!
Large businesses have made no real progress
in integrating Social Media beyond blatant
marketing and promotion.
“A perfect example of this is both Apple and
Microsoft's equally, yet different, selfish use of the
Tohoku Earthquake for promotional purposes.
(Microsoft said they'd donate when they were
retweeted, Apple said they'd coordinate donations
through the iTunes store.) Both of these methods
were largely self-serving and neither were a
straightforward donating in good faith.) ”
Erica, Social Media Optimizer

12. Get in touch with us
Call in Email Social Networks
+ 34 626 946 339 maria@explicata.com www.explicata.com