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Social Media Trends 2014 (Part Six): Focus or Flounder

social media trends 2014 social media focs not excess final

View the full Social Media Trends 2014 SlideShare summary here.

Social Media Trends 2101 (Part Six): Focus of Flounder

We’re back with the sixth instalment of the Kamber Social Media Trends 2014 series.

Before we get stuck into part six, let’s recap the first five.

Trend One: Content Promotion Takes a Bigger Chunk of Media Buying Spend

Trend Two: The Rise of Niche Networks Outside the ‘Big 9’

Trend Three: Long-Time Content Creators Finally Reap Tangible Rewards

Trend Four: The Shortage of Content-Savvy Digital Talent Gets Worse Before it Gets Better

Trend Five: SoundCloud Headlines the Audio Sharing Renaissance 

Part six looks at a trend which is long overdue but one that should shake things up a bit.

Trend Six: The Shiny New Toy Won’t Fly Off The Shelf

Every year a new social media platform arrives on the scene and we collectively flip out at the possibilities it may provide.

Vine was last year’s darling and it appears the hype was justified.

But, how many more social platforms can we cope with?

How much more money and resource can we allocate to another new toy?

Here are some reasons why 2014 will be ‘the year of no’.

1. Social Media Platform Profiles are Recalibrating – The exodus of teens from Facebook to other social media platforms has been well documented. If you are a brand of business that specifically targets the teen audience, making Facebook less of a focus is certainly justifiable. This is part of a broader trend which has seen a shift toward investing more in channels you truly own instead of renting space on platforms you can’t control.

social media trends 2014 vine logo2. The New Toy Won’t Be for Everyone – Vine exploded on the scene in 2013 and we saw a lot of brands and businesses flock to it. But, in many cases, the cart was put before the horse and content was produced to suit the format, not necessarily to support an existing content strategy. We’ve seen brands and businesses mature a great deal in that respect of late which suggests anything new that comes along will only be utilised if it is entirely relevant.

3. The Big Boys Will Buy or Copy the Next New Thing – We saw Instagram respond to the surge in Vine’s popularity by introducing a 15 second video option. We’ve recently seen Facebook remodel Facebook Messenger in response to What’s App and Viberr. In many cases, it is worth delaying any moves into new properties until the big players signal their intentions to compete or make a takeover bid.

4. Genuinely ‘Owned’ Properties are Increasing in Priority – We’ve started to see brands and businesses realise that platforms like Facebook are ‘rented’ properties as opposed to being owned. When you rent something you are at the mercy of the landlord. If and when the 2014 shiny new toy arrives it may not be adopted due to this change of focus.

5. Return on Investment Questions Will be Asked More and More – The measurable value of social media has always been a matter of contention among the c-suite. While some benefits have been seen and taken advantage of, many other implied benefits are not making an impact. Being present on yet another platform isn’t likely to be met with wide open arms unless a really strong business case is made.

What’s next?

Part seven of our Social Media Trends 2014 series will look at the why Content Marketing will (justifiably) be the buzz phrase of 2014.

If you haven’t read parts 1-5, check them out here.

About Kamber

Kamber is a specialist content marketing and social media agency based in Australia.

We help brands and businesses plan, produce, publish and promote digital content that people crave.

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