Social Predictions for 2014
Social media has been on a roll, and the majority of
marketers will increase their social media budgets
this year (source: Webmarketing123). The challenge
in planning for a year ahead in social, however, is
that the channel is rarely, if ever, predictable.
In 2013, for example, brands experimented with new
content formats and social selling strategies. Conversely,
emerging social networks like Pinterest started honing
in on ways to monetize their efforts. In order for brands
to succeed in 2014, we’ve asked a few social executives
to shed light on what trends they believe the New Year
may have in store.
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“2014 will be the year when social media truly becomes integrated into the full marketing mix.”
– Bill Piwonka, VP of Marketing at
Janrain
“While social media has been considered a part of
the media mix for some time, most brands have had
distinct strategies for their Facebook, Google+, Twitter,
etc. presence, while rarely considering how to
leverage the behavioral, demographic and psychographic
data available from their customer’s activity
on these networks into their overarching marketing
strategy. In 2014, we’ll see brands using this information
to both improve interactions on the individual
networks, and personalize the experiences
across sites and devices for their customers.”
“A picture will be worth 10,000 words.”
– Mike Volpe CMO at HubSpot
“People used to think of Pinterest, YouTube and
Instagram as outlets for visual content, but with
updates to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, every
social channel now prioritizes photos and images,
and organizations that ignore this trend do so at
their peril. Being successful on social media with
imagery doesn’t require a massive creative spend;
it mandates a clear understanding of the types of
content your audience wants and an understanding
that bite-sized content will win the day for attention
spans and engagement, especially on Twitter.”
“2014 will be the year social data will truly enter mainstream marketing and business operations.”
– Richard Pasewark, CEO of Visible Technologies
“Social media will come full circle as marketing
will take over the responsibilities of managing
more interactive and dynamic customer communication
over social channels — including sales,
support and service initiatives. In addition, international growth of social intelligence and engagement
will greatly accelerate and become the norm
in developing markets, where consumers are often
mobile savvy and use crowdsourcing for recommendations.”
“Shareable and visual content will play an increasingly important role in a small business’s marketing strategy.”
– Mark Schmulen, General Manager of Social Media at Constant Contact
“Small business will increase their adoption of
visual-based social networks like Pinterest, You-
Tube, Instagram, Tumblr and Slideshare. A powerful
image or video will carry much more weight
across social networks with small businesses creating
more visually inspired marketing
campaigns with fewer words.”
“We expect to see social commerce grow by leaps and bounds in 2014, due in large part to deeper integration between retailers.”
–Jesse Ness, Senior Marketing Manager at Ecwid
“For example, Pinterest just announced that several
major e-commerce websites will now greet visitors
by showing their most pinned items from the social
networking site. As retailers and social networks become
more interconnected, the result will be more
purchases made based on peer influence — whether
directly on an e-commerce site or on the social network
site itself. We also expect to see new approaches
to social selling. Social networks are still trying to figure
out how to monetize their user base. Some form
of social commerce could be the answer; however,
no network has fully succeeded in cracking the social
commerce code yet. So there will be lots of experimentation
in this space in 2014. The merchants
that benefit most will be those whose technology
can adapt to this deeper integration and interconnection,
and manage multiple
online venues as a single entity.”
About the Author: Allison Howen is an Associate Editor at Website Magazine.


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