Four experts in the field weigh in on ways to make your brand stand out on Social Media this year. With emerging trends and technology in social media moving faster than your busy Twitter feed, it’s hard to know what to pay attention to and what to discard. We turned to the experts to see what to watch for as 2014 unfolds. Massive change is no longer on the horizon–it’s here. It’s worth investigating these opportunities to boost your social impact and improve your marketing results. The social Web will have more impact than search-engine ranking. In 2014, the way that consumers interact with your product online (whether through an Amazon review, Yelp rating, or simply a Facebook like) is much more critical. With the release of Google’s new Hummingbird algorithm, more weight will be placed on how your business, product, or service is being talked about on the social Web. We will see it directly impact your search-engine ranking in 2014 more than ever. As Instagram, Pinterest, and other newer social networks continue to gain the attention of consumers, you will need to continue to use a combination of various analytic programs (because there still doesn’t seem to be one that can give you all the information you need to truly measure the impact of your social-media strategies) to determine the best use of your time and budget on specific social sites. –Holly Berkley, author, The Social Media Advantage: An Essential Handbook for Small Business Simplicity will become critical. The triumph of simple will continue in social networks. Communities that achieve a truly fundamental simplicity and utility will gain traction over those that are complex. Keek, Pinterest, Twitter, and Snapchat will thrive. Disaffection with complex platforms like Facebook will accelerate. Simple will win for three reasons: It speeds adoption. Because attention spans are shorter than ever, immediate gratification and easy learning drive growth. Simple translates better to mobile. Small screens need to be simple. Simple means you won’t make mistakes. Interestingly, Facebook will play a key role in helping these canonically simple platforms to grow. They can all import your Facebook friends list, eliminating a key sticking point in spreading your social identity across sites. Facebook becomes your contact list, but you don’t hang out in your contact list. Businesses seeking to take advantage of this trend will need to achieve a new level of simple, concise messaging and engagement models. How can you productively interact with your customers in short bursts? What can you say in a 35-second video that will have impact? How about a six-second video? Find the core of your value and explore ways to deliver it in minimal, targeted bursts. –David Ritter, director, Boston Consulting Group Social customer service is on the rise. In 2014, social media will be used more and more by consumers to force companies into rapid response. With more than one billion smartphones at work in the world, the masses will increasingly begin using social media via mobile devices to express issues and complaints instead of dialing the traditional customer support line. Call centers will become obsolete or at least change the way they work, resulting in the rise of mobile customer service apps. Because of the changes in how customers are communicating with the brands they follow, companies will begin developing strategic customer support teams. This dedicated team, consisting of customer service, sales and marketing, and public relations professionals, will focus on delivering a positive social experience for each and every one of its users. This rise in customer social service will also cause an influx in the adoption of social engagement by new industries. Until now, B2C companies have predominantly owned this space, taking advantage of community building and competitor tracking, but lead generation is huge for any business, and B2B companies are beginning to realize how many potential customers will emerge by utilizing social customer service. –Folke Lemaitre, CEO and founder, Engagor Small businesses can–and will–become big players. In 2014, marketing/social-media management software will become more affordable, allowing small businesses to better manage their digital marketing and social-media campaigns. We will also see many of these tools fuse search and social marketing. Search will be a particularly important component for small businesses to monitor. Only 22 percent of Americans use social networks daily, meaning the 78 percent of word-of-mouth advertising is being discovered through search. Small businesses need to have touch points with all of their customers, not just those on social media, to truly understand the sentiments and tastes of their audience. Also, short-form video will become vital for small businesses as an affordable, and often free, form of creative content. YouTube, as part of the Google universe, is undoubtedly the best place to be, but short-form engaging video content/storytelling on Vine and Instagram will become more important. Lastly, the days of free social media are ending. With so many players looking to be heard on these networks, paid advertising and sponsored content is becoming necessary to be seen. But there is strength in numbers and in strong, engaging content. By combining the two, small business can compete for a share of voice in the social sphere. –Patrice Francois, co-founder and associate director, Digimind Original Source – Marla Tabaka – Inc. Magazine

With the possibility of achieving several goals at once your company can benefit from sponsorship in many ways, including: Enhancing Your Image/Shaping Consumer Attitudes.  Sponsorships improve how your target audience perceives your business. Sponsoring events that appeal to your market are very likely to shape buying attitudes and generate a positive reaction.  Supporting the right events can influence consumer opinions about your product or business. Driving Sales.  Sponsorship geared to driving sales can be an extremely potent promotional tool. This objective allows sponsors to showcase their product attributes. On-site selling and sampling opportunities puts your product directly into a consumers hands while they’re enjoying time with family and friends at an event.  Food and beverage companies often use sponsorship to encourage samplings and sales. Often the result is a significant rise in sales volume. Creating positive publicity/heightening visibility  Every sponsor is seeking wide exposure in both electronic and print media. Positive publicity helps create heightened visibility of products/services. Coverage of the event may include sponsors names and/or photos. In addition, the kind of media coverage a sponsor may get is often unaffordable if the company were to think of purchasing it, and if it were available. To maximize this objective, it is important for the sponsoring company to have a comprehensive media campaign to augment the regular media coverage promoted by the organizers. Sponsorship can often generate media coverage that might otherwise not have been available. Differentiating from competitors  The mere act of sponsoring an event, especially an exclusive sponsorship, is a significant way to create competitor differentiation. Your company name has the opportunity to stand out head and shoulders above the competition. This is particularly helpful if your company wants to combat a competitor with a larger ad budget. Sponsorship allows smaller companies to compete with their industry giants. Target audiences often perceive sponsorship in a positive way. They see you as making a greater effort to support the event, often allowing more or better activities to take place as a result of your sponsorship. Being a “good neighbor.”  Your company will be seen supporting the community and contributing to its economic development. That is extremely powerful and creates enormous goodwill. Enhancing business, consumer and VIP relations.  Sponsorship can offer perks such as special exclusive networking settings such as VIP receptions or event tickets – opportunities to meet key customers and solidify business relationships. It is important to evaluate each opportunity and look for ways it could tie into your marketing objectives.  Given the propensity of consumers to associate sponsors with the event they promote, it is important for companies to select events that are appropriate with their product or corporate image.  We at the Spot On Media Group have years of experience placing the right sponsor with the proper event.  Let us show you how we can do the same for you.