5 Social Media Trends You Need to Leverage

Let's face it: you know social media is essential to sustaining a successful business – but so do your competitors. And they're working tirelessly to build a reputable online presence.

So, how do you stand out and build recognition? Well, for one thing, following the latest social media trends is a must.

To maintain relevance and continue to influence your viewers and visitors, you need to ensure your posts evolve alongside a perpetually changing online landscape.

We've compiled the latest – and most important – trends here, as an easy guide for staying on top of your social media game.

1. Mobile still dominates

Traditionally mobile was perceived as helpful in improving your online presence – but its ascent to the primary (and not secondary) screen for most social media users means you need to be thinking of creating content specifically designed for smartphone users, according to Sprout Social. As handheld devices evolve and continue to gain prominence, it's time to start focusing your marketing efforts on mobile devices – smartphones, tablets and smartwatches.

2. When it comes to content, less is more

We all know how much content is out there: there are billions of social media users on countless networks following hundreds to thousands of accounts. Your audience has a truly overwhelming volume of content at their disposal – so they can afford to be picky in what they engage with. Making concise, impactful posts remains a prevailing force on social media, according to Forbes. In such a crowded environment, expressing your message with concision and accuracy is essential to effective social posts. The timeless adage, quality over quantity, rings especially true these days.

• Focus on delivering content that expresses your brand or company sentiment with as few words, or frames, as possible – otherwise, users will simply move on to more relevant posts.

3. Capitalize on available analytics

Mass marketing your brand, message and product is obsolete. An increasingly personalized, data-driven social landscape is being fueled by social media analytics and reporting tools, which offer you insight into how your content is performing, according to Sprout Social. Sure, it might sound daunting at first: but tapping into the analytic tools available through Google, Facebook and YouTube, to name a few prominent examples, will let you tailor your content more effectively – and give you instant feedback from users.

4. Video continues to gain traction

By 2020, video will account for nearly 80 percent of global internet traffic, according to OOYALA. It's an essential component to any successful social media presence. As viewers' attention spans dwindle and the vast trove of online content continues to grow, you need to spark interest in your followers – and quickly. Utilizing video is one way to do this. Here's a few sobering facts on why you're missing out if video isn't a component of your social media presence:

• Nearly a million minutes of video are shared every minute
• Snapchat receives 6 billion video views every day
• It would take you 5 million years to watch all the video shared every month

5. Personalized content is the future – now

Social media users are now offered a truly dazzling array of personalization: from controllable newsfeeds to search results specific to locations and results based on search history, social media has never been so tailored to users' experiences. Therefore, targeting your content has become increasingly important to engaging users – mass-messaging and vague, general posts simply don't resonate with audiences, according to Entrepreneur.

To view the original article, visit the CityBlast blog.