Even before 2016 hit the calendar, exciting social media trends were already on their way to becoming opportunities for companies to effectively communicate their brands. This just goes to show that as time passes by, the social media strategy you are using also needs to adapt. This demand to improve is largely due to people looking for more and better ways to answer their needs and cravings.
Many businesses nowadays are trying to track customers through different forms of social media platforms and strategies. They no longer stay in one place and execute one plan. Thus it is important to ensure that you are not left behind by your competitors. How? As a start, you must be updated with social media trends. Know where your existing and potential customers are and what channel and method strikes them the most.
You might want to check on these five social media trends your 2016 online strategy might have missed:

THE MORE PERSONAL, THE BETTER
Many people are facing changes in their life. It could be a change in lifestyle, career or even dreams. Some of your customers may be getting married, having a baby or getting a promotion. You could actually take advantage of these changes by getting more “personalized”.
If you can determine when consumers are going through these life events and send the right advertisements at the right time, you have a higher chance of earning their loyalty.
Take Coca-Cola as an example. Coca-Cola leveraged Twitter’s Tailored Audiences to create personalized tweets using consumer’s first name in their Share-a-Coke campaign. The campaign increased Australia’s sales by 7% and U.S. sales by 3% (Twitter 2015).
VIDEOS, LIVE CHAT AND LIVE BROADCASTING ARE THE NEW “IT” STUFF
The past few years, we have seen videos build a momentum from Facebook to Twitter and to other social media sites. On November 2015, Facebook reported 8 billion daily video views, coming from around 500 million users. This will continue to rise up this 2016.
People want to be involved. They want to be a part of something interactive. This gives you an opportunity to originate and co-create video content with different communities. Some sites have already made necessary changes like adding the video tab and posting an entire video catalog on their Facebook page. This enables them to present their brands clearly to the consumers. You can do the same, with style.

At the same time, live streaming apps are the new craze these days. It takes interaction and engagement between you and your existing and potential customers to the next level. These live streaming apps would show the real you, unfiltered and unedited. A recent Comscore report shows Snapchat as the third most popular app among 18-34 years old.
LEVERAGE MOBILE-FRIENDLY CONTENT
A study shows that more and more people are visiting social media sites using their phones. Since phones are small and light to carry, it is no surprise an increating number of people would prefer to choose their phone over their laptop. These people are using their phones to browse social media, access news and entertainment, research products and make purchases, communicate with others, view visual content including videos, and post comments and reviews. This calls for you to make your content friendly to phones. People must be able to access your site through their phones without many hassles.
LONG CONTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES 
Most social marketers release their content on their websites. After that, they would bring the content to Facebook and other social media sites to generate traffic. By clicking the link, the customer is brought to the site.
In the case of Facebook, however, the popular social media network has launched Instant Articles. This platform allows publishers to instantly and continually publish long content on Facebook. Instant Articles keeps the consumers on the social media site where they are in.
Also, using Flickr for blogging is now emerging on Instagram. Through this, you are letting the consumers stay on the social media site where they want to be instead of sending them to another website.
LEVERAGING THE BUY BUTTON 
In order to make purchasing faster, a buy-button has been introduced to the marketers. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest have made it easier for advertisements to take place without the need to leave the application.
Facebook, for example, have this Call-to-Action button where you can choose what you want the the buyers to do like contact you. Instagram as well have introduced the Shop Now button alongside its recently launched ads program.
Consumers can now buy directly through the site they are in. This is a feature that any business would grab to extend their accessibility.
BEING SEARCHABLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA 
Google is known to be a leading search engine. But with the recent updates of some of the biggest websites, consumers can now search through the sites they are in like Facebook and Pinterest. Now the big question is, are you searchable on social media? This is another opportunity for you to have your brands accessible to the consumers.
Facebook continues to develop its own powerful search engine. With this feature, again, consumers do not need to add another tab for Google or other engines to do a search. They do not need to leave the social site now to find whatever they need online.
As social media trends like those just mentioned continues to happen, social media channels also continues to improve and evolve. It’s just a matter of how fast you can adapt and put yourself at an advantage against your competitors.
We can share with you more social media trends after you avail of our free 30-minute consultation.