Social media has grown leaps and bounds in the last few years. It has become a serious business with exhaustive research and studies going into this field. The impact of social media is tangible, with all the brands harnessing the power of online marketing to reach out to the consumers. Online marketing is the trend – it is instant, cost-effective, attention grabbing and the results are real time!

As with everything digital, the trends in social media marketing keep changing and it is pertinent for small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to keep a tab on the changing trends to modify and create social marketing strategies compatible with the ongoing trends.

Everything is mobile: Since the days of Orkut, social media has come a long way. Today, every mobile comes with an inbuilt software for various social media platforms. Mobile apps are becoming a necessity, much like what websites once used to be. It has become indispensable for SMEs to invest in creating mobile-friendly apps and mobile based advertising.

Impact on offline advertising: Popularity and a vibrant fan base on social media like Facebook and Twitter is actually a statement proclaiming, “These many people like our brand, why don’t you?” A product’s popularity online instantly affects its sales and offline popularity as well. In the US, this trend has already caught up, where in a store, if you are browsing through a couple of dresses, you will be informed of exactly how many people have ‘liked’ the dress.

Online customer service: People nowadays are low on patience. Nobody likes to call up a customer care only to listen to endless loops of answering machine, before finally being connected to a human voice. By then the customer has already lost all his patience. Today, we want instant results, and that is the reason why consumers prefer logging online to lodge a complaint or post a feedback. This is one aspect SMEs cannot afford to ignore.

Get REAL: For now, many social media sites like YouTube and NDTV allow users to be in disguise, but this will change in 2013. Generally, users who are in disguise only create mischief or spam the site. This does not contribute to the website’s popularity in any way nor does it benefit the genuine users. In the coming year, social media sites will force their users to don their real avatar and contribute only beneficial posts.

The coming year looks promising for the growth of social media, and it is essential for SMEs to utilize this platform to gain maximum ROI.

This article was originally posted on the On Target blog