3 things your business needs to do on social media in 2014

The social media landscape is always changing, and this past year proved to be one of the most tumultuous. The surprising rise of Snapchat, the tweaks of the Facebook newsfeed algorithm and Twitter’s move to TV are just some of the many headlines we saw in 2013.

Staying ahead of the changes will no doubt put your brand at an advantage. Check out these three things you should consider for your brand to be ahead of the curve:

– Learn to shoot amazing video with your smartphone
YouTube has long been lauded as the must-have network to be active on, for it’s the #2 most used search engine. For those with no budget for a high-quality camera, it may seem a little intimidating, but there are many (of course) YouTube videos showing you how you can achieve a well-produced film with the camera on your smartphone.

And now, with the rising popularity of Vine and Instagram Video, businesses are now needing to be agile enough to bring their brand to these short-form video platforms. Allowing only for 6 seconds and 15 seconds, respectively, people are faced with the task to tell a story within a short amount of time. Take a look at what Taco Bell does — they have found a way to deliver entertaining content while still remaining true to their brand.

– Start training your staff (or finding staff) to help with social efforts
The bandwidth needed for social marketing activities has to increase with the evolution of social networks and the growth of people on social media. You can’t do it alone, and depending on the size of your company, it’s often not well-suited for just one person to handle.

It isn’t enough that you simply post to Facebook the newest deal you have for the day, or a link to an interesting news story that broke. Social media is increasingly becoming cluttered with information — it’s important to stand out with great content. Having someone else on board to manage social activities can free up your time to focus on other things, while potentially increasing the value of your social media postings. Here are some duties that could be split up, or added if you haven’t done these yet:

• Seek out online and social mentions of your company/respond
• Create, add or strengthen the value of the blog content on your site
• Try out other social networks, like Instagram or Google+
• Read and stay up-to-date on changes in social media platforms
• Scope out the competition and get inspired by other brands on social media

– Become visually appealing
A picture is worth 1,000 words, and it’s still the case even with social media. Maybe the case is stronger with the increase in social activity. This one goes hand-in-hand with the previous two points, but let’s make one more thing clear: quality images take time and expertise, but produce great results. Whether it is a new way to display your products, or using an infographic to describe a certain flow of information, you’ll need to find a way to get the message across quicker with pictures.