5 New Apps That Reveal A Shift In Social Media Trends

Social media has gone a bit crazy. You see Instagram posts in your Facebook newsfeed, Foursquare check-ins on Twitter, and on the new app Path, you’re asked to import everything into one place. Sometimes it seems that when I log into one site or app, I’ve already seen a friend’s updates in another. Yes, your cat is cute but I don’t need to see her face on each of my feeds! When did everything start to overlap so much?

Despite this social over-sharing, I’ve noticed something lately. There are a handful of new apps and websites that serve a single, simple purpose. It’s as if these apps want to help us separate and de-clutter our lives. By focusing on one thing, and one thing only, new social sites and apps help us get rid of our social ADD.

Bondsy

While the first version was originally released in February, Bondsy just launched a new version. Think of this app as a Craigslist that’s only available to your circle of friends. It’s like an eBay that operates around your inner circle of trust. Bondsy’s developers market the app on their website by highlighting that they utilize “freeform pricetags,” which means that instead of offering say, $10 for a pair of headphones, you can offer lunch or a juicy secret to cover the cost.

The pros? Simply, Bondsy offers a more secure buying and trading marketplace by helping you circumvent shady Internet buyers. Also, Bondsy’s UI is clean, simple, and efficient. After trying it out I was trading books for a latte in no time!

The cons? The obvious issue here is that unlike Craigslist or eBay where the depths of the internet is your oyster, this puts you in a much smaller buyer/seller range, making it a little harder to make sales or trades. That is of course, unless your friends are dedicated to using Bondsy and you get a little market going between your group. On that note I’m not sure how efficient the app is in terms of making money, but it certainly can be a fun pastime to pick up with your friends.

Potluck

Although it’s only available online for now (an iOS app is in the works), Potluck is a very cool social site to get acquainted with. It’s a simple, copy/paste driven site, in which all users do is simply find links they’re interested in, then share them with their friends. It’s very laid back and stress free social networking because the upkeep is so minimal for the user. All you have to do is be interested in something and know how to maneuver the copy paste duo. What’s even cooler is that they don’t publish who shared the link: rather, they just show the link and how many friends left a comment.

The pros? It’s pretty revolutionary, and has an extra “cool” factor because it hasn’t really been done before. It’s also very user friendly, and it’s perfect for those social media fans who like to just sit back, click through, and soak up some information.

The cons? It’ll be interesting to see how they choose to design the iOS version and to see its functionality. I think for the site to really catch on and grow a cult following it’s going to need an excellent app debut, which is rumored to be soon. It’s also frustrating because the site doesn’t really become fun until you have friends on it (the more the merrier!). No one wants to be a sitting social media duck.

Poutsch

The Wall Street Journal describedPoutsch as “Twitter meets Survey Monkey.” Add in a dash of Yahoo! Answers, and that just about sums up the essence of Poutsch. Basically, you can ask questions, answer questions, vote in polls, voice your opinion in debates, and subsequently read other users opinions. They’re trying to highlight their “trending topics,” which while admirable, seems to me to be a bit too reminiscent of Twitter.

The pros? It’s a cool way to see what other people are thinking instead of having to troll the comments sections of various news websites. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of changes the app makes in it’s next version update, and even more interesting to see if it can gain a solid fan following.

The cons? I understand what Poutsch is trying to do, but it’s really a matter of opinion: you might find it unnecessary. I’m curious to see how long this app will survive.

Medium

Medium is an invitation-only (for now) social network that aims to have users share content that has a deeper value than what everyday pop culture has to offer. Instead of updates about the likes of whether Justin and Selena are still dating, Medium offers longer and more significantly crafted content that users can actually take something away from.

The pros? Not only is Medium informative, but it’s inviting in its purpose of sharing user-written content. It’s everything you could want to read from blog posts across the web, boiled down into carefully selected content. It’s great for inquisitive minds, and it’s also just neat to see the direction that the Medium staff is trying to take social media. Not to mention, the website is beautiful and eye-catching as well!

The cons? At its content-sharing core, Medium is not super interactive. However, if you’re more interested in reading and occasionally sharing a comment or two, this site is waiting for you.

Flayvr

Technically, Flayvr isn’t an actual social network, but a tool to help photo junkies prep their work to share across multiple, preexisting social platforms. This app organizes your photos based on events and helps reduce the chances that your photos get lost in the black hole of the cellular camera roll. All your beach pictures will be organized, your friend’s wedding pictures will be organized, and you’ll feel a lot more at ease knowing that you can easily locate your photos by event.

The pros? Gone are the days when you’ll have to spend unnecessary time scrolling through your photos to find what you’re looking for. Flayvr is your photo cleaning lady, organizing your photos so everything is easier to find. Plus, you can share your albums either by email or over your social network of choice. Easy-peezy.

The cons? Flayvr thinks it knows more than you do, so you run the chance of being occasionally annoyed when it wants to include photos you don’t want in an album, or likewise when it leaves out photos you think should have been included. It’s a little tricky to manually override what Flayvr selects, but it can be done.

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7 Social Media Trends for Marketers: New Research

Are you wondering what the latest social media trends are for marketers?

Want to make sure you don’t miss out on the next trend in social media?

Fresh from the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report (which surveyed 2,800+ marketers), this article will highlight some of the newest social media trends faced by marketers.

Here’s what you need to know from the latest social media research.

Latest Research Reveals Social Media Trends

Not surprisingly, the use of visual content (infographics and memes) is set to increase over the next year—70% of marketers plan on increasing their use of these content forms.

Speaking of infographics, here’s one that illustrates some key findings from the survey:

Social media marketing trends for 2014.

Here is emebed code for this infographic:
<a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-trends/" target="_blank"><img alt="social media examiner marketing trends infographic" src="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/pr-sme-infographic-2014-480px.jpg" width="480" height="2800" /></a> Social media marketing trends for 2014 from <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-trends/" target="_blank">Social Media Examiner.</a>

Let’s take a deeper look at some key findings from the survey.

#1: The Written Word Rules

Over half of the marketers (58%) surveyed chose original written content as their most important form of social media content, followed at a distance by original visual assets (19%) and original videos (12%).

Marketers were asked to select the most important form of content for their business.

Key Considerations:

For marketers who have something valuable to share—like industry insight or compelling information (e.g., the Social Media Marketing Industry Report)—written content works brilliantly and provides an opportunity for true thought leadership.

LinkedIn understands the power of the written word and that’s why they opened up their publishing platform to all members in February of this year.

As a content marketer, that should make you jump for joy. Now you can really leverage LinkedIn’s core strengths: lead generation opportunities and direct access to decision makers.

But access to this new platform doesn’t mean you should migrate from your blog to LinkedIn. Instead, use LinkedIn to complement your brand’s message.

On LinkedIn, you blog as an individual rather than as the “company voice.” That means you can tailor your message to be more opinionated and insightful, and less corporate. In fact, it’s a bad idea to copy and paste articles from your company blog to LinkedIn.

#2: Blogging Biggest Area for Increase

Blogging has become increasingly important to social media marketers—68% of marketers plan to increase their future use of blogging. In fact, over the last two years, the importance of blogging has incrementally climbed from the number-four spot in 2012 to number three in 2013 to number one in 2014.

Marketers were asked how they planned to change their future blogging activities.

Key Considerations:

As you think about your future blogging activities, consider the biggest challenge of blogging: There’s too much content out there that’s not being read.

Earlier this year, Mark Schaefer stoked the fire of the old “information overload” debate in his highly controversial post, Content Shock. The gist of the article is that just because you have a blog doesn’t mean people will read it.

I believe Marcus Sheridan has the best answer to this problem: Be more opinionated.

“Too many businesses are stuck in this ‘grey area’ where they’re so afraid of having any opinion at all because they want to please everyone. As a result their blogs stink and they don’t get any traction.”—Epic Content Marketing, (p. 62).

If you’re not causing people to raise their eyebrows, you’re not going to make it big in blogging.

#3: Google+ Tops Marketers’ Interest Lists

When asked what social media platform they wanted to master, 65% of marketers said Google+, displacing blogging, which took the top spot in 2013. The first runner-up this year was LinkedIn with 57% of marketers.

Google+ takes first place as the social media platform marketers want most to learn about.

Key Considerations:

Many people say Google+ is a waste of time and nobody uses it, but there are a few reasons marketers should think differently about Google+.

According to a new Forrester report (The Case for Google Plus), Google+ has more monthly active users than you think (about 540 million). With those numbers, you canbuild a really solid follower base on Google+. In fact, some top brands have 90% as many fans on Google+ as they do on Twitter.

Google authorship is another reason Google+ is important. When authors link their Google+ profile with content they’ve written and published, that content is given Google authorship markup. This helps articles stand out because Google displays the author’s picture with the article title in search results, which encourages more clicks.

While stats may tell us users spend more time on Facebook than Google+, have you thought about the upside to that? Less time equals less noise. It’s hard to cut through the clutter on Facebook, but since that’s not a problem on Google+, you can get much more engagement when you share high-quality content on a regular basis.

There’s also a compelling link between email marketing and Google+. When you send email to people or businesses that use a personal Gmail account or Gmail for business account, Google gives your brand prime real estate on the right side of the page.

Take a look at this email newsletter I received from NY&Co. Notice their Google+ profile branding on the right side of my opened email.

When integrated with email marketing, Google+ provides more branding opportunities for your business.

Your email subscribers have the opportunity to follow your company on Google+ right from their email account! Notice, too, that the Gmail–Google+ integration shows your recent posts right next to the opened email. That helps drive more views to your Google+ posts.

#4: Tactics Are Top Challenge

The burning question for the vast majority (91%) of marketers is, “What social tactics work best?” This is followed closely by 89% of marketers who wanted to know, “What is the best way to engage audiences with social media?” These are valid questions, considering the constant changes across social media platforms.

As social channels change, tactics and engagement remain big challenges for marketers. Image: iStockPhoto.com.

Key Considerations:

A couple of years ago, I attended Content Marketing World, where Jay Baer informed us that to get his attention on social media, we had to be more interesting than his wife!

Seth Godin put it this way: “If people aren’t talking about you, there’s a reason—you’re boring.” Ouch!! But point made.

I believe questions like “What tactics should we use?” or “How do we ramp up social media engagement?” are secondary to the main question: “How can we be more interesting so people want to engage with us?”

If you’re not interesting to begin with, it doesn’t matter what tactics or platforms you use, nobody will engage with your brand.

When you’ve found a way to capture people’s interest, then you can start to think about how to encourage more Facebook engagement or how to build on other established social media relationships.

#5: Social ROI Remains a Mystery

Measuring social media ROI remains murky and elusive for marketers. Only 37% are able to measure their social activities (compared to 26% in 2013), while 35% aren’t sure and 28% can’t measure it at all.

To what extent do marketers agree that they’re able to measure social media ROI?

Key Considerations:

The confusion about social media ROI isn’t new. However, the inability to measure overall social media results doesn’t mean there’s a problem with a particular channel. It just means that marketers aren’t going about it the right way.

From the very beginning of your campaign, set things up so data are clearly defined, available and measurable.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to ask your fans and followers to do something specific (i.e., provide a clear call to action) and then track their responses (e.g., email signups, downloads or shares).

That doesn’t mean you should ignore metrics like reach or engagement, but for many marketers those metrics don’t always provide a clear path to sales and revenue.

So if you’re tired of pulling your hair out over social media ROI, try keeping it simple by asking your fans to perform ONE simple, measurable action.

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