From Geocities to MySpace to Facebook to Pheed, social media has come a long way in our society. All but gone are the days of initiating a three-way phone call from your landline or making plans with friends through an online instant messenger. And as the years go on, social media is evolving into a state where it’s not just “social.” Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, to name a few, are sites that are continuing to become vital business tools to companies all over the world.
As 2014 approaches, some social media trends are becoming more noticeable while others seem to be sneaking up on us. You probably knew that more and more teens are gravitating away from Facebook and more towards Twitter and Tumblr, but did you know that Google+ now has the second highest number of monthly users among social media sites with over 540 million active users per month? (Facebook is number one with 1.2 billion users.) Google+ continues to gain popularity because of its versatility; Functions like “Google Hangout” help to make it unique from a social standpoint while its effect on Google’s ranking of your business as opposed to companies using other social media sites makes it a great asset for businesses to utilize.
Also continuing to rise in popularity are social media sites that are centered around pictures and videos. Instagram nearly doubled its monthly users since last year, going from 80 million active monthly users in 2012 to over 150 million in 2013. Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers predicts Instagram and other image-based social media sites will keep growing next year.
“Sites like Slideshare, Tumblr, Path, and Mobli will continue to grow and businesses will need to become more mindful about the ‘sharability’ factor of photos on their websites and blogs in order to derive significant benefit from their social media content marketing efforts,” DeMers said.
There’s no doubt that social media is here to stay as it continues to blur the lines between interacting socially and doing business all over the world. You probably weren’t aware Tout existed at this time last year, or Instagram two years ago. The question now is, which social media site will be a part of your daily life a year from now that you’ve never even heard of?
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