5 Trends That Will Change How Companies Use Social Media in 2016

There are now more than 2 billion active social media users worldwide, and that sum is growing at a brisk clip of 25% each year. Businesses haven't failed to noticed the runaway expansion of social media. Nine out of 10 U.S. companies are now active on social networks. The same overwhelming percentage of those are reporting seeing increased exposure as a result, and more than half say their social media efforts are boosting sales.

So what’s in store for 2016? Here’s a look at five trends that appear set to change how businesses use social media in the year ahead.

1. SOCIAL NETWORKS STORM THE WORKPLACE

For years now, we’ve been promised that a new generation of internal social networks—for use within companies by employees—will put a swift death to email. No more hunting through your inbox for information. No more endless reply-all threads from hell. And yet email has lumbered on.

HAVEN’T NOTICED THE EXPONENTIAL INCREASE IN ADS ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS? THAT PROBABLY MEANS THEY’RE WORKING.

But maybe not for long. Slack has proven a game-changer. Its intuitive interface, built around themed chat rooms and searchable archives, has propelled it to more than 1.25 million active business users in just two years' time, from the team at NASA to the team at your local coffee shop. And Slack already has a sizable cohort of competitors going after a piece of the pie.

Meanwhile, Facebook at work is currently in trial mode with select companies, and it may soon be opened up to general use in the coming year as a freemium tool. Considering that much of the world is already on Facebook, expect adoption to soar once Facebook at Work finally becomes available.

2. COMPANIES TURN TO EMPLOYEES FOR AMPLIFICATION

Nearly 80% of businesses now have a dedicated social media team. But many still struggle to reach an audience. 2016 will see companies turn increasingly to an underused resource in the effort to get the word out: their own employees. Employee social advocacy programs, which encourage staff to share updates about the business on their own social media accounts, have grown by 191% since 2013 and are due to take off in the year ahead.

When done right, the payoff can be impressive; companies not only expand their social media reach dramatically, they also get measurably better results. Content shared by employees, by one recent measure, gets eight times more engagement than content shared by brand channels. A new generation of tools to facilitate employee sharing (including one we developed here at Hootsuite) should help this approach go mainstream in 2016.

3. COMPANIES WADE INTO SOCIAL MESSAGING

Here’s an eye-opener: There are nearly 4 billion global active users of messaging apps, from WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to WeChat and Kik. In fact, the top five apps in the world in terms of frequency of use are all messaging apps. Users are popping them open more often than even Facebook or Instagram.

EMPLOYEE SOCIAL ADVOCACY PROGRAMS . . . HAVE GROWN BY 191% SINCE 2013.

What does this mean for companies? So far, not much. Messaging remains largely in the murky realm that's come to be known as "dark social". Right now, it’s kind of a mystery as to what type of content is being shared among messaging app users and how that affects web traffic and "conversions." Intrepid brands—from Hellman's to Absolut to HBO —are testing the waters, but by and large messaging’s huge potential remains untapped.

Still, 2016 may well be the year that analytics and insights become more readily available, allowing companies to develop full-fledged strategies around social messaging. All the major social platforms now have messaging components, and it’s only a matter of time before they figure out how to make that data available to businesses for marketing purposes.

In the meantime, messaging is already emerging as a key channel for one-on-one social customer service. Twitter lifted its 140 character limit and follow requirements on direct messages earlier this year with customer support in mind, and Facebook Messenger has been busy piloting customer service features of its own.

4. SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING HITS ITS STRIDE

Haven’t noticed the exponential increase in ads on your social media feeds? That probably means they’re working. In contrast to old-fashioned banner ads, the new generation of "native" social media ads like sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram and promoted tweets on Twitter look and act a lot like normal updates from friends and followers. They’re also targeted with increasing precision. Advertisers are now able to drill down not just by age and gender, but by interests, location, company affiliation, role, and more. So the ads you get are probably the ones you actually want to see.

THE TOP FIVE APPS IN THE WORLD IN TERMS OF FREQUENCY OF USE ARE ALL MESSAGING APPS.

For all those reasons, companies ramped up social media advertising in 2015, with spending increasing 33.5% to nearly $24 billion—a figure that's all the more impressive, because just a few years ago that number was $0.

Expect to see those trends continue. By 2017, social media ads may account for a full 16% of all digital ad spend globally. Fueling the growth is a host of new tools that let small businesses design and pay for social media ads in a few clicks, simplifying a process that was once the exclusive domain of high-priced media buyers.

5. SOCIAL VIDEO EATS THE WORLD

In case you missed it, social video is exploding. Last year, Facebook more than doubled its daily video views to 8 billion, reportedly overtaking YouTube. Twitter launched native video of its own in 2015, while Snapchat now reports 6 billion daily video views in its own right. In total, adult users now consume a total of 66 minutes of online video each and every day.

Expect that total to climb to lofty new heights in 2016. Facebook is preparing to roll out features like Suggested Videos and maybe even a dedicated video feed, and SnapChat Stories are growing ever more popular and feature-rich. Little wonder that 70% of companies now say video is the most effective tool in their online marketing belts, and two out of three businesses expect it to dominate their strategy going forward.

70% OF COMPANIES NOW SAY VIDEO IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL IN THEIR ONLINE MARKETING BELTS.

Despite these stats, many companies are still reluctant to get into the social video game for one reason: The cost of professionally shot video can be prohibitively expensive. But alternatives are multiplying. Shorter formats, from eight-second Vines to 15-second Instagram videos, not to mention streaming video like Periscope and Meerkat, offer a hassle-free entrance into the arena. Meanwhile, crowdsourcing campaigns and tools are gaining popularity as a way for companies to create and share video content.

The biggest trend of all for 2016, however, hardly requires a crystal ball to see. Around the world, social media is quickly becoming standard operating procedure at companies. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other networks have fundamentally changed how companies reach and interact with customers, offer products and services, communicate with employees, and—in a nutshell—do business. And that wave hasn’t even begun to crest.

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Master the Chatter: 8 Tips to Get Your Event Trending on Twitter

It's every event marketer's dream: Pulling up your phone during your event and quickly peeking at Twitter, only to discover that your event's hashtag is trending. After all of your hard work putting the event together, seeing people engaging in conversation online (lots of conversation online) is a huge validation. 

But that seems like an incredible feat to accomplish when you've got so many other moving pieces in the event planning process. So how do you prepare for your event so you have a better chance of trending on Twitter?

To help you make the most of the chatter on Twitter, we put together the following tips. Check ‘em out to see how you can join the conversation and get your event trending.

1) Showcase streams in real time.

Branded hashtags are a great way to connect with your audience both before and during the event. By using one hashtag consistently, it'll help keep the conversation all in one place. Also, keep your hashtag short and sweet -- that'll make it easy to remember and free up more characters in people's tweets.

It’s also extremely important to educate attendees and get them to engage with the hashtag before and the day of your event. Before the event, send out emails and tweets using the hashtag, and let people know they can network pre-event using the hashtag.

At the event, display it on screens, posters, collateral, giveaways, t-shirts, napkins, pre-presentation slides, and pretty much everywhere you can think. Also make sure you tell people to use the hashtag and follow the hashtag for event updates.

HubSpot’s Social Media Manager, Chelsea Hunersen, also recommends choosing your hashtag's words carefully:

To me, setting people up for success means making sure that the hashtag is clear and is everywhere. Using easy-to-remember hashtags (ex: #humansofinbound) is the best way to jumpstart usage."

Pro tip: Boost Twitter conversations during the event by broadcasting tweets using the hashtag in real time on screens around the conference. This will encourage people to tweet more, whether it be about their favorite quotes or sessions, in hopes of seeing their own post on the big screen.

2) Designate a day-of social media manager.

Your on-site social media manager should be prepared with several things:

1. Have the streams they should be monitoring created ahead of time, so they can easily see all the conversations going on.
2. Create a list of FAQs you expect to come through, so that all a social media monitor needs to do is copy and paste the answer. This saves times and energy.  
3. Have content created and scheduled through a social media monitor tool ahead of time so that they can spend more time posting ad-hoc things throughout the day. With everything scheduled, there’s more time for real-time conversations.

Pro tip: Follow up all questions on Twitter with a tweet including the hashtag.

3) Post content that packs a punch.

Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites, and 150% more retweets. During the event, post pictures of speakers, parties, networking, and quotes; short video clips; and live-streams of the event. Seeing awesome content from the event will encourage people in attendance to share their own experience and memories.

Pro tip: Dedicate somebody from your team to take short videos and pictures around the event to help you post live media. If it’s a large venue, try to have three or more people dedicated to taking videos and pictures, and posting directly to Twitter.

4) Run a contest to encourage people to use the hashtag.

To encourage more tweets, host a contest. To enter, all they need to do to is tweet with the hashtag and an image from the event.

Pro tip: Have a social leaderboard, showing top tweeters, and reward those who tweet the most after the event with free swag, a free ticket to your next event, or another great prize applicable to your attendees. Enabling people to share awesome content and get rewarded for it will certainly be a huge driver towards getting your event to trend on Twitter.

5) Geotag your tweets.

Enable location services on Twitter to geotag each tweet you post about the event. This feature is off by default, so make sure to activate it before Tweeting at your event.

Why geotag tweets? Adding your location to every post will allow another layer to getting your event trending. People can click the location and see other pictures and videos from the event, allowing the opportunity to engage and share with other attendees.

Pro tip: Use the attendee geotagged posts as user-generated content -- retweet great videos and images that you didn’t get a chance to capture or record. It’s also a great way to share the perspective of the attendee rather than the organizer, which is your POV. The more content, the more shares and likes that will allow your event to trend on Twitter.

6) Give ‘em photo opps.

Eventbrite’s study with Mashworks found that 78% of media posts during events are pictures. So make your venue photo-worthy by paying attention to the details, such as purchasing wine glasses stamped with your logo or setting up a branded photo booth. Encourage photo taking with signs and hashtag mentions anywhere you have a great location for a photo. If you purchase wine glasses for a happy hour, for example, put a notecard next to the wine glasses that asks people to tweet a photo of them with the glasses.

Pro tip: Hire someone to take photos of people and send the photo to them directly on Twitter. Don’t have a huge budget? Send one of your teammates around the event with a smartphone -- there are tons of free and inexpensive photo editing apps they can use.

7) Get support from sponsors.

Partnering with sponsors on social media can help you encourage participation and increase use of your hashtag. Ask sponsors to use the hashtag in all their tweets as well. If they run contests, follow the same rules you made about requiring use of the hashtag to enter. For example, your sponsor can offer a reward to participants who complete and post a photo scavenger hunt at the event. Both your sponsor and event get more coverage, and your attendees get a fun, interactive challenge.

Pro tip: Offer a sponsorship discount for a specific number of sponsor tweets with images at the event to harness their influence on Twitter.

8) Tap into your speakers' influencer power.

It’s likely that the speakers at your event have some sort of influence in your industry, which is why they are presenting in front of your attendees. Tap into the influence they have on stage and ask them to do two things:

1. Tweet a picture or video (e.g. selfie or scan the audience) on stage and use the hashtag in the post.

2. Have a Q&A session in the last 10 minutes of their presentation, and have people enter questions on Twitter using the hashtag. (If you go this route, make sure you have someone in the room dedicated to fielding these questions for the speaker.)

Pro tip: Encourage competitive fun at events with speakers by having a contest of the most re-tweeted stage selfie. Encourage other speakers to participate and see who can get retweeted the most.

What other tips do you have for getting more attention for your event on Twitter?

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Fresh Take: Tips to Get Your Hashtag Trending

For years now, every Social Fresh Conference trends No. 1 in the US. We always use #socialfresh, and it’s a great brand awareness opportunity every event. We’re building the curriculum for the upcoming conference—taking place this Sept. 23–25 in Tampa—and we thought the tactics we use to create a trending topic would be useful to share.

Trending topics are, increasingly, valuable to gain visibility with a huge audience. They’ve always been powerful, but Twitter has made them more and more prominent. In fact,according to a recent report, Twitter plans to give even more attention to trending topics, events and news.

Beyond just top of the funnel awareness for your business, generating and owning a trending topic can be incredibly useful for building community, follower growth and audience research.

Can Any Business Create a Trending Topic? 

The following tips focus on creating a trending topic with your existing resources and not buying a trending topic, which is cost prohibitive for many.

You might think it’s easy for Social Fresh Conference or big brands to create trending topics. To an extent, having a built-in audience is a great first step—and we’ll review that—but it’s not the only way to help create a trending topic. Having a big audience does not guarantee your hashtag will trend. Our conference is intimate and limited to no more than 500 social marketers. So we definitely have a great audience, excited to engage with our hashtag. However, I’ve been involved with Twitter chats, webinars and happy hours from which we were able to generate trending topics, big to small.

How Many Tweets Are Needed to Trend?

There is no perfect example or precise number, but let’s break down what I know about our #socialfresh trending topic and at least one other example.

The #socialfresh hashtag always trends No. 1 in the US within the first few hours of the opening sessions of our conference. It typically stays in the top 10 for the rest of the conference and moves back into the No. 1 spot a few more times.

Here is a chart of what that looks like:

You’ll notice that our hashtag saw little use leading up to the morning of the conference, which is the first time we ask attendees to use it with a specific call to action. This most recent example shows a jump from around 150 Tweets to about 500 Tweets as the conference gets under way.

This specific timing is when we ask all our attendees to do something we call Fresh Networking. They break into groups, figure out a few answers to very specific questions (e.g., who traveled the farthest and who has been on Twitter the longest) and then Tweet their answers with the #socialfresh hashtag.

Social Fresh Conference goes on to generate thousands of Tweets, sometimes over 1,000 per hour, as our amazing speakers take the stage. But it usually only takes us a few hundred to get the trending topic started. Cision wrote a great article with three examples of the number of Tweets needed to trend. Two of the three examples generated thousands of Tweets for hours. But one example (see #HelloJesse below) only created a few hundred Tweets for two hours. It was for a Mexican pop band.

Yes, it’s easier if you have a lot of Tweets, but it’s very possible to create a trending topic with just a couple hundred people Tweeting multiple times each hour. There are a few crucial ingredients and tips that will help you do the same.

First, let’s review tactics to help you actually create the trend, and then let’s look at how to benefit from your trending topic.

1. Use Existing Audiences

As I mentioned, if you have a built-in audience, it really helps. A conference, happy hour, meetup, webinar or Twitter chat works. If you do not regularly host an event like this, consider it. The benefits for building community and meeting your stakeholders face to face are immense.

If you have a big email list or Instagram community or blog readership, engage those audiences. Give them a heads-up and a clear call to action. Make it easy for them to support your campaign.

When most people think of a trending topic, they think of the types of hashtags that Jimmy Fallon promotes on “The Tonight Show.” Jimmy asks his studio audience and, you know, a few million people watching at home to take their short and funny hashtag and run with it. Here’s an example called #WorstAdvice:

These types of crowd sourced and viral trending topics take massive audiences, a lot of paid promotion and maybe a little bit of luck. I won’t be focusing on these directions. You do not need these ingredients.

2. Use a Unique Hashtag

We use our brand name, #socialfresh. This can work for some, but don’t be afraid to pick something unbranded and even language that is more of a casual conversational style. I’ve heard experts recommend not using your brand name in the hashtag. I recommend using your best judgement. It works for us, but your mileage may vary. A great example of an unbranded hashtag is RadioShack’s #UNeedANewPhone hashtag from a few years ago. It was unbranded and very casual (true to the style of Twitter conversations, shortening You to U).

The best hashtags are usually new and never used before, or at least not used that often. In general, if it gets more than a few Tweets a day, I would consider something more original just to be safe. Twitter takes into account past topic activity.

For instance, we do not activate the #socialfresh hashtag outside of our conference, so it still works well for us. The conference is the only time we specifically ask people to Tweet out the #socialfresh hashtag. However, years ago, we used #sofresh as a hashtag—which was really fun—but we were competing with people Tweeting about taking a shower or their new outfit for the weekend.

3. Pick Your Timing

It’s been recommended to me by a few experts to try and avoid primetime TV hours in the US since those shows may be heavy competition for a trending topic. Even though it is still possible to create trending topics any time of day, I generally agree that shooting for less competitive time slots is a good strategy.

Avoiding large sporting events and entertainment events would also be something to consider for the same reason. I’ve seen success with Social Fresh in the morning and afternoon.

4. Give Precise Directions

The most common mistake I see is not giving your audience a reason to use the hashtag. There are a few ways to do this, but anything is better than simply saying, “Please Tweet out our hashtag; we want to trend.”

Make a Simple Ask

Simply ask for a very specific type of Tweet. At the beginning of a webinar, you can ask everyone to Tweet out their business name and what they do. At Social Fresh, we use the networking opportunity I mentioned above.

Give Examples

Give examples of what you’re looking for as well. When we asked attendees to Tweet welcome messages to our cohosts last year, I put a funny example up on the screen from my own account.

Give Incentives

We always make sure to incentivize the use of the #socialfresh hashtag at each conference. We might offer up door prizes, such as a Social Fresh T-shirt, or even give out a free VIP upgrade. Last year, we partnered with Omni Hotels and offered some very cool prizes. Omni gave away two free multi-night stays at their resorts and made very specific asks for photos, of both the conference and resorts. It was highly successful.

5. Involve Partners

Whether your event includes speakers, cohosts, sponsors or more, there are always partnerships you can include in your planning. Loop your stakeholders into the process about your plan for the hashtag and your goals for success.

If there are no obvious partners, reach out and find them, either through your online community, influencers, vendors or industry peers. Give them the knowledge and assets they need to help you expand the reach of your trending topic efforts.

6. Have a Plan

The most important step is to have a plan for why you want to create a trending topic and how you will take advantage of it. Also, be clear on what success looks like. This may seem like an obvious step, but planning for success is critical and often overlooked.

Decide if you want to build awareness, and define who you want to build awareness with. Maybe you want to grow your email list or let the press know about a new product. Maybe you want to educate existing customers. Choose your goal, and plan for that success.

7. Pick 1 Account to Focus On

A trending topic does very little if you have not planned great content. You’ll want to have content written out from at least one brand or personal account that you want to focus on. More than one account can benefit from the trending topic, but pick one to focus on.

For our conferences, we use our @socialfresh account as well as our staff personal accounts, but @socialfresh is the focus.

8. Create Entertaining Content

The content you create from your owned accounts should be a big investment. These are going to be your opportunities for accomplishing your goal, especially if the hashtag you are using is unbranded.

You want to create content that provides a specific call to action or sends your hashtag audience to a specific website. It’s equally important to have a large supply of funny and/or entertaining content that will get shared.

Entertaining content is more likely to include a photo, chart, illustration or quote and less likely to include a link.

9. Create Calls to Action

You’ve defined what success looks like, now create Tweets you can promote to help accomplish your goals.

You can promote these Tweets in two ways: 1) You can pay to promote a Tweet, so that it shows up at the top of the list of hashtagged Tweets—high visibility! 2) You can use your owned accounts and team/staff accounts to drive engagement with a specific Tweet via favoriting, Retweeting and replying. This can also push a Tweet to the top of the list of hashtagged Tweets.

I recommend the following course of action: Do both!

10. Track Your Success

Tools such as Sprout Social that provide social media monitoring are an important part of understanding your success.

You want to track two things: the Tweets and the conversions. Having a database of how many Tweets were sent out, when and by whom is very helpful, especially after you complete the campaign. You want to know what worked and what didn’t. Know how many times your links were clicked and whether the trending topic actually helped you build awareness or generate email leads.

Always take the time to determine your metrics before the campaign launches.

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Trending topics are not out of your reach and can be great short-term campaigns for your social media marketing efforts, if done right.

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