Author: Vignesh Subramanyan

Dan Thornton - @badgergravling
“Social Media will continue to grow as a sales and customer service
tool, although the impact on marketing may become less as
established social networks make changes to encourage paid
promotion. At the same time, small businesses will need to be
quicker to experiment and embrace new platforms to make an
impact”
Managing Director
TheWayoftheWeb Ltd

Jon Smith - @jonalexander
“I think everyone is finally admit that social media has to be a part
of their marketing strategy but I think 2014 will bring a real focus
on ROI. There is still little evidence to suggest that social media
contributes to revenue and profit and I think 2014 will be about
fine tuning social media so you can measure the impact on the
bottom line.”
e-Marketing Specialist
Insight UK

Russell Davies - @RussellDavies71
“ Native Twitter & Facebook apps will struggle against combined
IM apps as users look for more integrated communication. Twitter
will look to dominate the second screen market with
more partnerships with popular shows.
Brands will combine their social media marketing with their print
and broadcast advertising and budgets for both will increase. Small
businesses who don’t ‘get’ social media will fall even further
behind those that do but will be able to catch up quickly if they
embrace it.”
Director
Lobster Digital Marketing

Talya Shoup - @onlyonetalya
“I predict that social media will be driven very strongly by mobile
in 2014 - brands will continue to shift from web-based promotions
and marketing to mobile. Also, customer service will continue to
expand across social media, with customer service requests being
made more and more via company Facebook pages, for example,
than corporate email accounts or contact forms on websites.”
Marketing Manager
glispa

Angela Hadl - @divemktg
“I believe that social media will become more intelligent, meaning
that there will be more integrative tools that will streamline the
posting and monitoring of social media for business. With these
tools, reports will be more comprehensive and easy to interpret.
This will help eliminate confusion regarding the messaging and
goals among the sales & marketing departments (which we know
are sworn enemies).”
Owner and Marketing Consultant
Dive Mktg

Vin Ferrer - @V1NBRO
“With 90% of businesses already utilizing content marketing
tactics, social media is only going to keep growing as it becomes
the most cost effective means of reaching consumers. Small
businesses will be less inclined to seek out bigger advertising
companies and opt to work with smaller content marketing
agencies that can better understand and interpret their brand in a
more personal way. The commerce of tomorrow is going to be
laden with the personal touch, now more than ever, as automated
responses & call centers slowly start to dwindle away. Social media
will be the key to getting the greatest ROI in the long-term, and
those companies who have already started in 2013 will start seeing
the fruits of their labors in 2014.”
Social Media Strategist
Graphic D-Signs, Inc.

Miki Segal - @msegal3
“I have one bold prediction for 2014 – At least one Superbowl
advertiser’s call to action (during their commercial) will be: Add us
as a friend on Snapchat. Snapchat is growing by leaps and bounds,
and many people have begun to recognize its enormous
advertising potential. On TV commercials, advertisers have been
asking viewers to “like” them on Facebook, follow them on twitter,
and join the conversation with a hashtag. But asking to be added
on Snapchat is a strategy that has yet to be embraced in TV
commercial format. But that will change…and soon.”
CMO
JMAC Supply

Kaysha Kalkofen and JoAnna Dettmann - @tsunela
“Facebook-from Content Creation to Content Consumption: In
2013, we saw an outstanding growth of users on social media.
From 2011, Twitter has grown from 200M users to 500M users,
Facebook from 600M to 800M and LinkedIn from 119M to 238M!
In 2014, we predict that Facebook will be used more as a resource
for information; its utility will increase for brands and decrease for
individuals. People will use Facebook to research organizations,
products, and services. As such, full optimization of your business’s
Facebook page description and inclusion of “Like” and “Share”
buttons on your business’s website will become even more
important.”
Co-founders
tSunela

Hillary Berman - @popcornicecream
“In 2014, businesses will have to pay for visibility on Facebook.
With the platform’s ever-changing algorithm and businesses’ focus
on creating content, showing up in newsfeeds is increasing
challenging. Businesses – particularly small businesses with smaller
followings – will need to pay for play for Facebook to deliver the
eyeballs and engagement they desire. Marketers need to truly
engage with customers and prospective buyers to cut through the
massive clutter in inboxes and newsfeeds.”
Small Business Fanatic and Founder
Popcorn & Ice Cream

Sarah Van Elzen - @sarahvanelzen
“Social media will continue to integrate into corporate culture and
will help drive collaboration between silos (marketing, sales,
customer service). Client/agency relationships will continue to
evolve and much emphasis will be put on driving business value.
Social media will always remain a channel for relationship
management, driving awareness and engagement but programs
that drive to purchase or absorb customer service costs will
prevail.”
Director of Social Media
Hanson Dodge Creative

Frank Riolo - @convoagency
“Expect more growth in visual social media. Platforms such as
Instagram, Snapchat and Vine only became more popular over the
past year. After all, many Facebook users are only on it to view
friend’s photos. Visual platforms also offer more privacy than
Facebook.”
Manager of Corporate Communications
Conversation

Seshu Madabushi - @mKonnekt
“Customers would be looking for more personalized news,
offerings based on their social profiles and activities and this is one
area, which we [at mKonnekt] think would expand (given the kind
of technological advances we are seeing). Another area would be
the explosion of video based social media channels like Vine and
others – we have seen the explosion of Instagram and Pinterest
from selfie pictures and we will be seeing the same explosion with
short burst videos.”
Founder & CEO
mKonnekt

Glenn Gow - @CrimsonCEO
“Getting results will dominate social marketing. This will mean
turning “engagement” into lead generation and an investment in
social selling. B2B companies will invest 80% of their effort on
blogging, LinkedIn and Twitter, and largely ignore Facebook, G+,
Pinterest and others. Why? Because that’s where they will see
results.”
CEO
Crimson Marketing

Dr. Evan D. Escobedo - @evanescobedo
“2014 will be all about using social media for competitive
advantage. Many organizations whether large or small have begun
to use social media to better market their brand and engage with
their customers. They are using tools to listen to relevant
conversations across the social wire. Now that organizations have
access to this wealth of data they will realize that social media
marketing is not just about monitoring and managing your social
media channels but also about analyzing all of this data and
converting it to actionable insight to drive their business forward.”
Practice Principal of Social Business
Zunesis, Inc.

Simon Tam - @SimonTheTam
“In 2014, you’re going to see auto-playing video ads on multiple
social media sites: probably Facebook mobile, maybe Vine. It’s
going to give businesses more options to create short, high-impact,
ads while giving social sites more revenue. Businesses will need to
think more creatively, in shorter bursts.”
Director of Marketing
The Slants

Jayme Pretzloff - @jpretz
“The social media landscape in the future will continue to evolve
into a segmented multi-platform world, making it continually
difficult for marketers to ensure they are reaching their target
audience in the right place. There will be an increased importance
on taking a faceted approach to social media marketing as a whole
by connecting all of these channels to have a consistent message.
Leveraging multiple platforms in the correct way will allow for a
significant boost in brand awareness, share of voice and even more
touch points with your potential brand advocates.”
Online Marketing Director
Wixon Jewelers

Jean L. Serio
“2014 will see companies having employees trained in providing
social networking content. Content is a top marketing strategy and
businesses will wisely enlist their most knowledgeable branders –
employees - to help present it. This will include formal training
in content creation, development and engagement;
posting, commenting, blogging, for example. Employees will also
be allowed to discover and build sharable company information.
Encouraging greater responsibility and personal involvement; a
more vested interest in the company.”
Social Media Marketing Growth
Strategist

Matt Porzio - @Intralinks
“Social media and online networks will become an increasingly
important platform for the deal-making process: that includes deal
sourcing, due diligence, negotiation and closing deals. In 2013,
more than half of all merger & acquisitions specialist surveyed said
that they used an online deal network to support deal sourcing.
That percentage will only go up as more M&A pros see the
benefits. Using social media and online networks accelerates the
dealmaking process and helps sellers and buyers come together –
in many cases, these sellers and buyers would never have known
about each other if not for social media.”
VP of Product Marketing
IntraLinks

Jen Dorman - @jendormanboston
“In 2014 I predict that inclusion of images in social media posts will
become essential. With stats showing that tweets including a
visual have increased engagement plus Facebook’s recent move to
allow use of images as comments replying to posts coupled with 3
rising visual social media platforms – Instagram’s success,
Snapchat’s valuation and Pinterest’s popularity – all signs
underlying the importance of visuals.”
Social Media & Online Marketing Associate
BeFrugal.com

Lisa Parkin - @LisaMParkin
“According to HubSpot data, “50% of consumers expect to get a
response in under two hours.” This is changing the face of
customer and company interactions. I believe 2014 will be the year
that even the most social media resistant businesses will have to
acknowledge the need to address customer complaints on social
media.
I would advise businesses to not only handle concerns from clients
who tag them on social media but to actively look for complaints
and take the initiative to correct them.”
President
Social Climber

Michelle Garrett - @PRisUs
“Social media will continue to play a bigger role in public relations
as PR practitioners seek more creative ways to reach journalists
and reporters seek sources for stories “on the fly.” PR pros must
work social media into their strategy for media outreach and also
for pushing out content. In turn, content creation will also continue
to become a bigger part of PR, due to social media.”
Owner
Garrett Public Relations

Richard Storm - @nyphotony
“As a small business owner I use social media for a lot of selfpromotion and interaction. I think with the advent of new apps
and technology social media will reach an extreme level of almost
direct interaction where a companies actions or individuals actions
will pretty much be put in a glass house. I don’t see sales going up
necessarily BUT I do see businesses being held more accountable
for their actions!”
Owner
NYPhotoNY

Brett Circe - @bcirce
“2014 will mark the true convergence of social-mobile-cloud, and a
competitive advantage for companies that use this data to
accelerate business processes and time to action. Advertisers will
use big data and social intelligence to understand and predict
correctly what consumers want. Consumers, remaining connected
at all times, expect a seamless user experience in everything they
do. Look for personalized cloud support infrastructures and
personalized branded messaging in consumer’s social stream to
drive decisions in real time.”
Chief Interactive Officer
Starmark

Chris Dancy - @servicesphere
“The use of and sharing of measurable metrics in the informational
tech field— using devices/sensors/software to track, analyze, and
optimize people’s daily lives, and using social media to share the
insights and progress. Use of wearables in general — things like
kapture and narrative will gather more of the juicy bits of life and
these will be shared.”
Director in office of CTO
BMC Software

Jeff Davis - @davisjdd
“Brands will include YouTube in their social strategy alongside
mainstays such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The second
most popular search engine after Google isn’t Bing or Yahoo – it’s
YouTube. For small businesses, online video is an effective
marketing tool because it doesn’t break the bank – videos can be
shot on the cheap and promoted on YouTube for peanuts
compared to other traditional or digital media channels.”
President and CEO
Orabrush

Dallas McLaughlin - @BossDJay
“2014 will be the year of the new, smaller mobile apps and
platforms. We’re already seeing a mass of small teams adapting
and becoming more responsive to the world around us. Because of
their size, and the continued removal of (cost) barriers between an
idea and a finished product, creative and forward thinking ideas
will rule. Look at Context, the new social texting app.”
Social Media Manager & Small
Business Consultant

Valerie Jennings - @valeriejennings
“In 2014 we can expect to see more emphasis on Twitter since its
IPO and the company’s new and improved advertising products. To
date Twitter has launched a more aggressive educational email
marketing campaign, targeting users with advertising case studies,
new and improved ads targeting and new products. Twitter
continues to be a melting pot for B2B and B2C companies to find
relevant content, targeted customers or clients, influencers and
new and improved ways to refer website traffic.”
CEO
Jennings Social Media Marketing

Joe Recomendes - @JRecomendes
“2014 will undoubtedly be the year of paid social – with all of the
big-hitters releasing IPOs, they now have an obligation to their
shareholders to show recurring, scaleable revenue. Already, we
have seen Facebook downplay the organic reach of posts while
simultaneously enhancing their advertising platform. LinkedIn and
Twitter certainly aren’t far behind, and marketers would be keen to
marry their honed organic content skills with the advertising
techniques that achieve their business goals.”
Chief Operating Officer
Command Partners

Jessica Chesney - @JessJANEica
“We’re going to see more native advertising on social in 2014, as
we’re already seeing Facebook’s right column ads slowly die. Social
is merging with all aspects of our lives and real-time marketing will
become expected of companies as they incorporate it into live
television, events and more. Consumers no longer come to you;
you need to go where they are, so we’re witnessing how social
media and customer service can work hand in hand.
Digital Marketing Coordinator
Command Partners

Ali Phalen - @AliPhalen
“Social Media is a channel that still isn’t used to its full potential.
2013 gave us memorable moments like Oreo’s Super Bowl Tweet
and the WestJet Airlines Christmas Miracle. In 2014, there will be
a rise in social strategy, but more brands will start using social in
real time through utilizing tweet chats or using current events to
plan social content, creativity and impromptu content. That will
separate the engaging and boring brands in 2014.”
Content Marketing Specialist
Command Partners

Ricardo Velez - @CommandPartners
“I predict the continued rise of SnapChat. New SnapChat Stories
allow short clips to live for 24 hours, and we’ll see this become a
unique way for companies to market themselves while generating
revenue for SnapChat. This could lead to a push from Facebook to
occupy the same space, which offered $3 Billion to buy SnapChat
earlier this year, especially since a study noted that teens 13-17 are
favoring SnapChat and Twitter over Facebook.”
Client Success Manager
Command Partners

Erin Cushing - @eccushing
“Small businesses will see their reach and effectiveness on
Facebook greatly decrease in 2014. Facebook’s Newsfeed
algorithm change minimizes brands’ appearances in newsfeeds,
which means that in order to stay in-feed, brands must pay to
boost posts. This is an expensive process, which will quickly
become too costly for many SMBs. Small businesses will post
content more often on other platforms, such as Twitter, Google+,
and Pinterest as opposed to Facebook.”
Social Media Manager
inSegment, Inc.

John Lincoln - @ignitev
“In 2014 all marketing channels will increase their synergy with
social media. With advances in analytical tools, and simply a better
understanding of the medium and it’s cross channel integration, all
business will be involved and the more savvy the marketer, the
better they will be able to use data and integration to their
advantage. Tapping into social in the correct way and generating
shares and likes leads to development of market mavens and a
connection, which is truly at the essence of marketing. Marketing
is perhaps more true to itself than it has ever been before with the
introduction of social media. In 2014 this will become more
important and more widely adopted and recognized.”
CEO
Ignite Visibility

Devan Brown - @devan_brown2
“Any website that isn’t posting content on Google+ will die a slow
death: Google+ has been growing in SEO importance since day
one, and to many digital marketers dismay, some brands still
haven’t jumped on board. For a year we’ve been saying “Get
ahead, use Google+.” In 2014 we’ll be saying “No Google+?
Sayonara.”
Content Specialist
Anvil Media

Heather Taylor - @MyCorporation
“Content will still be king, but visuals will be queen – for brands
creating or enhancing a social media presence in 2014, there will
need to be more photos than ever before to go alongside written
content and more unique and aesthetically pleasing you can make
them, the better. Choose your Instagram filter options with care!”
Social Media Manager
MyCorporation

Don Power - @don power
“Mass adoption of Twitter from a much wider audience due to the
following two developments:
• Recent admission by Facebook that you’ll have to pay in order
for your content to be seen by your target audience.
• Twitter will advertise on TV to attract more mainstream users
who aren’t already on the platform (much like TV ads we’ve
seen for Google and Bing).”
Social Media Consultant
and Author

Anthony Novotna - @exploration
“I predict Google+ will continue to see active user growth each
month. The new YouTube integration, Google authorship, and
social signals, which seem to have an integral part in page
rankings, will drive growth for Google+ in 2014. I believe that since
there is a push for more integration that Google+ will become
more popular for businesses marketing to consumers and for
personal use.”
Exploration Social

Katie Knoll - @exploration
“I predict that there will be a huge drop off of businesses using
Facebook as a marketing & sales medium in 2014 due to the huge
drop in organic reach & Facebook¹s huge push towards advertising.
Small businesses just cannot compete and teens are fleeing the
social network with only more demographics to follow. I think the
next big winner will be Pinterest.”
Exploration Social

Raheem Gill - @exploration
“Klout improves its algorithms and becomes more mainstream for
customer service. For example, companies will reach out to high
influencers to help spread their message.”
Exploration Social

Andrew Caravels - @andrewcaravella
“This prediction is based on findings from the just-released Sprout
Social Engagement Index, which determined that the staggering
growth rate of incoming messages that brands are receiving on
social—nine times as fast as the networks themselves—reflects a
measured shift in the social business paradigm.
We will see an increase in all platforms strengthening features and
functionality that enable customer care and service-related
conversations on a variety of channels, especially social.”
VP of Marketing
Sprout Social

Ali Din - @EnPointeTech
“Finding skilled talent to manage social media will become more
competitive. As more companies embrace social media and find
ways to integrate it into their business model, social media will
become more of a core function than a side project. Marketers will
use analytics to more precisely target their messages. Social media
will continue to break into the organization’s walls with services
such as Chatter and Yammer, thereby reducing email traffic.”
Marketing Consultant
En Pointe Technologies

Angela Shugarts - @angelashugarts
“Photos and videos will be the primary modes of content shared
across all platforms. Experts believe Pinterest will be a popular
platform as more businesses turn to the source for creative,
engaging forms of content. Marketing, sales and customer service
will be impacted because it will prompt these departments to shift
production from text-based to visual-based communication where
images will be the factor in a consumer’s decision to buy.”
PR Strategist
Frankly Communications

Aly MacGregor - @ReicuraTO
“Mainstream marketing via social media will surely increase in
2014. The integration between social media and television will
become even stronger and more structured; things along the lines
of live tweeting influencing live television, TV ads featuring more
and more social content (and vice-versa), and things of that nature.
The immediacy of social media converging with the mainstream
reach of television means it’s inevitable that the two become more
fused and clever marketers will take advantage of that.”
President
Reicura

AJ Vernet - @AJVernet37
“Social Sales & Marketing efforts are going to get more automated
like never before: Whatever you interact with socially, on
websites, or mobile phones is going to determine what you see on
all devices, TV and mobile applications. As companies like FB,
twitter, and Google stalk you for login access and with pixels. Your
news feed is slowly going to fill up with products and opportunities
instead of friends.”
CEO
Republic Project

Jenn Deering Davis - @jdeeringdavis
“For brands and marketers, cross-platform engagement – and
analytics – will become even more important as consumers turn to
multiple channels to meet a myriad of communication needs. And
we’ll see increased sophistication in advertising campaigns from
those brands across all social media channels, as platforms
continue to evolve their ad offerings. Finally, visual communication
will play an even larger role in the social media landscape in 2014,
as channels like Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr grow.”
Co-founder and Chief Customer Officer
Union Metrics

James Buckley - @pbsoftwareAmer
“A huge area for social media growth and development in 2014 will
be location-based. People handle more and more of their daily
lives on mobile, including restaurant check-ins and social sharing in
real-time. The more accurate the location data, the more certain
marketers are when sending hyper-targeted messages to
consumers based on their location sharing.”
Senior Vice President and General Manager
of Customer Data and Location Intelligence
Pitney Bowes Software

Scott Hebner - @SLHebner
“For most companies social has been a marketing machine,
providing the ability to build armies of brand advocates. In 2014, it
will be less about how many likes you get, and more focused on
the quality of those likes. Social, driven by behavioral data, will
allow marketers to individualize consumers and deliver
personalized experiences customized to individual or community
needs. Social will transform marketing from a function to a service
and consumers will reap the benefits.”
VP of Social Business Solutions
IBM

Will Campbell - @Quantasy
“While brands will continue to use social media in 2014 for
executing experiential creative campaigns, we will also see a
significant increase in two other marketing approaches. First, social
media will no longer just be a real-time path to audiences by proxy,
but rather a community where brands interact directly with
consumers and proactively participate in culture on a regular basis.
Second, more brands will use social media platforms for lead
generation and CRM.”
CEO
Quantasy

Carisa Miklusak - @carisamiklusak
“We’ll see the majority of platforms become more image centric,
including Facebook (photo’s and micro-videos), Twitter (vine), etc.
The visual search trend will reach a new height in 2014. This will
require marketers to think about how they are sharing messages
and encouraging engagement for their target audiences.”
CEO
tMedia

Aram Panasenco - @panasenco
“Social media for many companies has been about top-down
passing of content to subscribers/followers, until now. Social media
in 2014 will be very heavily skewed toward customers sharing their
experience with a company with other customers. Facebook and
Google+ are encouraging that by integrating review systems in
their local business pages. That means that businesses will have to
focus on their customer service rather than content creation.”
Director
LA Small Business Center

Kylie Flett - @KylieLee83
“In 2014 I predict that we will be able to make valid, repeatable
estimates of ROI on social media. This will allow clients to see
where each of their social media marketing dollars are being spent.
Clients are looking to monetize their return on investment in
marketing.”
PR & Social Media Director
Neff Associates

Corey Post - @coreypost
“Businesses will develop detailed content strategies that focus on
solving customers’ unique pain points. Social media will become a
major delivery channel of this strategy, with content created
specifically for each social platform’s audience.
Essentially, implementation of a well-planned content strategy will
allow companies to share their brands’ story through social media,
fostering deeper connections with consumers.
The results of a well-executed content strategy through social
include increased brand loyalty and higher lifetime values.”
Founder
AgileLeverage.com

Sonja Hegman - @ChiefWordsmith
“The importance of content marketing will become increasingly
important. While social media as a tool is awesome, brands are
becoming aware that they need their own original content to
disseminate on their social media channels. This will help
marketing and sales to become less about shouting what their
brands are selling and more about telling consumers stories about
what their products can do for them.”
Chief Wordsmith
Writer’s Chat Stew

Shaina Epstein - @shainaepstein
“Social media in 2014 will be focused on scalability. As customer
service on social media becomes more commonplace, consumers
expect faster and custom responses. Marketers will begin targeting
digital followings where they hang out IRL (in real life). The
following four topics will be points of focus in the coming year:
1. The rise of visual social and Pinterest as a Google for images
2. Targeting via SOLOMO (Social, local, mobile)
3. Downstream analytics and monetary tracking for better
targeting
4. Integrating online and offline experience”
Social Media Associate
Eastwick

Mark Pinsent - @markpinsent
“Shopping will remain a primary activity people participate in
when referring to their social networks on mobile for
recommendations. Retailers have the opportunity to place
products in front of shoppers at the right time, in the right place.
Monitoring Twitter for timely product or category mentions, and
targeting content can trigger sales. Understand a shopper’s
location. Do you have a retail outlet nearby or an online offer to
take the pain out of shopping?”
Social and Content Lead
Metia

Eldad Farkash - @eldadfarkash
“Small and medium size businesses will begin leveraging the
treasure trove of social media big data. Global enterprises are
already gaining actionable insights from their social media data
and using it to create impactful marketing campaigns. Now that
easy-to-use software solutions are available, an increasing number
of SMBs will be able to tap into big data from social media to
create campaigns based on science, rather than simply intuition.”
CTO
SiSense

Avi Greenfield - @AviGreenfield
“Social media will trigger better customer engagement in 2014 –
from mitigating long wait times to overcoming the automation of
call center queues – and if companies don’t tune-in, consumers
will switch to another provider. It’s imperative companies put
social media in the same regard as other channels. Not answering
a tweet is synonymous with ignoring a customer in person.. Social
media engagement is the opportunity to understand consumers’
needs and offer assistance to improve the experience.”
Portfolio Innovation Manager
HP Exstream

Chuck D. Brooks - @ChuckDBrooks
“Government agencies have a reputation for being “behind the
times” when it comes to technology. However, many government
agencies are embracing and using social media and digital
communications to enhance customer service. These days, citizens
can communicate with government contact centers through a
variety of channels including, mobile, web and social media. Social
media is shaping government customer service and agencies are
utilizing technology to connect with different generations on many
different platforms.”
VP and Client Executive for the
Department of Homeland Security
Xerox

Taline Felix - @SprocketMedia1
“Watch out Google, Facebook ranked second to Google for
advertising ROI in the September 2013 survey featured in
Advertising Age. Beginning 2014 savvy brands will leverage
features such as social retargeting, geolocation and real time
external data such as the weather to deliver targeted custom
advertising.”
B2B Social Media Director
and Strategist
Sprocket Media

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