3 emerging social media content trends for 2016

Long-form content and real-time video will accelerate as the year rolls out. How can online marketers plot a course based on these prevailing winds.

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The time that people spend using social networks and apps—whether it’s on a laptop, tablet or smartphone—is increasing at an incredible rate.

Buyers increasingly are self-directed and opting to participate in the creation of brand content and communities. For good or not, the democratization of prevailing wisdom is in the hands of the crowd and no longer solely within the silos of corporate marketing departments.

So, what’s in store for social media marketers?

One could argue that what makes social media relevant is people, but what makes social media work for business is content.

The future of social media for marketers lies in their ability to harness the way content is discovered and consumed and how content inspires action.

Customer centricity and data are the keys to informing content that creates great customer experiences. There are also emerging trends for social media that I think are worth watching in 2016:

1. Re-calibrate your “filter bubble.” Using the behaviors of a closed network as the primary source for filtering social content feeds (as Facebook does) runs contrary to the idea of open discovery of new information online.

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