Trends in Social Media

Like. Share. Retweet. Favorite. Sound familiar? You’re always checking the latest trends and info on your phones and businesses have taken note of that.

If you haven’t already noticed, video content has become HUGE in the last year. Video content is fast and straight to the point. Facebook has noticed this trend and introduced auto plays and video views on your timeline. According to MarketingLand, Facebook surpassed YouTube in the amount of video views on desktop; watch out YouTube, Facebook’s coming for you!

Another emerging trend in social media today is “Social Commerce.” It is the evolution and maturation of social media meets shopping. According to Emarsys.com, “half of social media driven purchasing happens within one week of sharing, tweeting, liking or favoriting the product” and “70% of marketers have successfully gained new customers via social networks.” Real time Social Marketing is also on the rise; responding to the latest news and trends on social media relevant to their target markets give brands visibility in huge social media landscape. Social Listening. Customer service digitally. This will be just as important for brands on social media to keep their customers happy.

What we are also beginning to see more of is more brands on Instagram accounts. According to TechCrunch.com, Instagram has surpassed Twitter on the amount of daily users. On Instagram, brands are able to build their branding image as well as engage with their consumers. 

Businesses are finding ways to better connect with their consumers through social media. It's more than likes and shares. It's about creating connections with customers and that top-of-mind awareness. 

Adweek Media Plans of the Year

Every year Adweek selects the best media plans in the country, their “creativity, innovation and risk-taking sets them apart from the rest.” Creativity, innovation and risk-taking aren't the only thing involved, but so is money. These ad agencies use what they have to create ground-breaking and fresh campaign executions for their clients. 

1.

Google used its YouTube video stars Michelle Phan, Bethany Mota, and Rosanna Pansino in their campaign. PHD, their ad agency decide to air these commercials during Mad Men, The Voice, and Modern Family. They also did some transit advertising in NYC subways and in magazines. It was definitely more traditional advertising in nature. 

Not many people knew who these girls were, but after the campaign their "viewership of their channels shot up 72 percent with social followers jumping 171 percent" talk about impressions! 

I decided to talk about this one because YouTube is one of my favorite mediums. There's nothing realer than these girls who have come for nothing and now they are basically house hold names. 

2.

Now this one's cool! Pennzoil partnered with Mario Kart during SXSW to promote their new game, Mario Kart 8. SXSW attendees strapped into motorized go-karts and raced around a quarter-mile track. On the track were stickers that interacted with the motorized go-karts to speed up or slow down the carts. A sticker labeled Pennzoil Power-Ups gave the carts a boost. 

No one expected Pennzoil to be the talk of the town during a MUSIC festival. Here we have it again friends, consumer INTERACTION. Interaction and execution equates to consumer gold and appreciation. 

3. 

Finally, to end my top three Adweek picks, we have Netflix's campaign with the fashion commerce site, Gilt. Their agency, MEC decided to take the native advertising route. Native advertising is advertising that seems like integrated content but is actually "sponsored" content. (So basically, Netflix paid Gilt to promote Orange is the New Black). 

MEC and Gilt partnered to create a custom Flash Sale with donations to Dress for Success based on consumer purchases. There were video clips from the series and talent interviews on the site—and the program snagged upwards of 30 million impressions.

Print Media Today

According to CNN, “40% of tablet owners read digital newspapers or magazines…and over 10% are doing so daily.”

Everything we know about physical newspapers and magazines are changing more and more everyday. Soon there will no longer be that physical touch with print and it may seem a bit strange to think about print having this “user experience.”

Traditionally when it comes to magazines we are reading more, longer and subscribe more often to print than digital. Although we see a shift from print to digital, people are still reading magazines.  FreePortPress.com conducted a survey and found that “25% of respondents had read five or more print magazines in the past month. Only 1.8% of those same people said they read that many digital magazines.” Some other key findings were that readers were more engaged with print (physical) publications.

So where do you stand? Me personally, I still subscribe to magazines! I look forward to getting one every month! I just look the feel and being able to rip pages out for inspiration. One of my favorites is Nylon magazine. Holy coolness! If you're into good music and discovering new music, it's a great publication. Each magazine has a the name of a song or the theme of the month on the spine and it’s almost become a collectors item for me. 

I can't imagine ditching my physical magazines for a digital magazines. I believe the reason people aren't reading as many magazines doesn't necessarily stem from the fact that we all have tablets. These magazine publications are still figuring out how to reach the consumers. 

The Internet Stole Traditional Broadcasting?

It’s 8 PM on a Sunday night and you’re getting ready for the newest episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashian’s. But is the rest of the U.S.? According to NYPost.com,  “traditional TV usage has been falling among viewers ages 18 to 34 around… [and in] 2011, 21.7 million young adults tuned in to their TV sets. By the end of last month (January 2015) the figure had fallen to 17.8 million.” In the era of iPhones and Netflix, it’s really no surprise traditional TV is losing its popularity for younger viewers. TV is on demand and the consumers have more control than ever before. 

The ease of online streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube poses a threat to the cable industry’s traditional model of television programming. Google’s video giant, and my personal favorite, YouTube is not just for cat videos anymore. YouTube is a place for super niche demographics and interests. And more and more people are turning to Netflix in Hulu in refuge of lengthy advertisements and on-demand viewing.

We are beginning to see the same thing happen in traditional radio listening. According to PCMag.com, “about 50 percent of the U.S. Internet population aged 13 and older listened to an Internet radio or on-demand music service in the past three months.” The popularity and ease of Internet radio appears to be cutting into traditional music listening.

Slowly, but surely, “Internet broadcasting” of video and radio will eventually rise as the new media STAR. Which will be the new challenge for media industries.

The Great Outdoors!

Interactive. It’s a word that has revolutionized the way we think about media. To be successful, to be engaging, to be relevant, advertisers need to be interactive to truly get their message across.

According to Strategic Media Decisions, outdoor advertising or Out-of-Home advertising dates back to the ancient Babylonians. Think of out-of-home media as any opportunity to reach consumers out of the home. Its purpose is still true to its beginnings it’s just a little more elaborate. Advertisers have found boundless ways to creatively execute their message outdoors. 

Advertisers are also seeing a growth in OOH, MediaLifeMagazine.com states that people are more mobile and that “70 percent of waking hours are spent outside of the home.” They have also found a way to create what we now know as Digital Out-of-Home advertising. Digital is more interactive and is put on a digital screen, so production cost is cut tremendously. According to ScreenMediaDaily.com, the US is the world’s largest DOOH market by revenues.

Adidas truly out did themselves here. How cool is this advertisement. Messi was a good pick, too!

Real time billboards. I like it!