Social media is the space to watch in the coming years as this is where marketers, their brands and their audience engage and connect. Social media users have generated some very interesting trends that are rapidly redefining the way businesses and their audiences interact. No one thought social gaming such as Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook would become so widely addictive, turning the creator of the games, Zygna into a multi-million dollar company just because they caught the attention of the social media users and held it.

The mobile phone has also been a major influence on social media because of its interactivity and web connectivity. Here are five major social media trends to keep track of.

Social mobile

The smart phone, with its high speed internet connectivity has changed lives globally, revolutionising the way we interact. It allows users to carry their social media profiles in their hands wherever they go. Many businesses have an app to engage users who connect with them. Since major social media networks are now embedded at the menu level in these smartphones, texting could well become obsolete in a few years.

Social search

No one can argue about the secrecy and complexity behind Google’s search algorithms. But what everyone knows is the importance placed by Google search on social sharing data. This is also integrated into Google Analytics and now, with the introduction of Google Plus and its +1 button, things are only going to get hotter. The more people vote for content and share it socially, the better it will rank in the search engines. Social search is here to stay as it indicates human assessment, and therefore, worthy of trust. Social networks are given more importance in the search results and this is endorsed by the frequency at which YouTube videos, Facebook pages and LinkedIn profiles appear in the search results.

Location based social media marketing

Location based social media marketing is perhaps one of the best things to happen for local businesses. With the popularity of sites like Foursquare and Google Places, users find it easy to check in and find special deals in the area they live in, using their smartphone.

Social ecommerce

E-commerce is not new and most businesses have an online presence, with some percentage of their sales generated online. But over the last few years, users have acquired the facility to use apps to take their stores to their favorite social media network without leaving the site to shop for their favorite brands. This has become possible because businesses can now create a Facebook page that integrates e-commerce.

Social gaming

The park or field is not the only place where people play games. It is possible to enjoy your favorite games via social media networks with rich multimedia. These games are interesting and easy to use. Gaming companies that are smart enough to develop games that grab the attention of the users are emerging as billion dollar companies.

The power of social media is slowly removing all geographical barriers eliminating restrictions related to the place, time and logistics. Do you notice any other significant social media trends? Please share in the comments section.

Facebook reported 750 million active users at last count.  This alone is reason enough to leverage Facebook advertising for brands, products and services since a majority of consumers are likely to be on Facebook. Recently, Facebook launched Facebook for business which put Facebook’s powerful marketing tools in the marketer’s hands.   Also, the recent launch of Vodafone 555 Blue in South Africa proves that we can no longer sit back and see Facebook as a fun trend. This phone is built in partnership with social networking giant Facebook and is aimed at emerging markets. Facebook advertising is therefore, a must have in every business’s promotion plan.

Getting started with Facebook advertising is not difficult. Begin by listing your goals for your Facebook advertising campaign. You have to remember that while people enjoy hitting the “like” button, they are not so excited about being redirected to a page outside Facebook.  Focusing on driving likes and engaging your fans is a better option compared to expecting them to leave Facebook and go to your website or other unique landing page.

Make sure you visit Facebook’s help center where there is a full tutorial on how to get started, running your ad and Facebook’s policies and so on, to help you launch your ad campaign.  You can target your ad based on demographics like such as age, education, connections, location and also set a budget for your campaign. At most, it shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to have your first ad up and running.

Facebook has an option where you can target users whose friends also like a particular page. This will help you underline your ad’s message by reaching out to your user’s connections. When you choose this option, your ad will also include the users’ friends with their names next to the “Like” icon, and this will help you increase your ad’s CTR. This option helps you take advantage the users’ preferences, which will strongly influence the success of the ad.

Monitor and test your ads. Does your ad have a catchy image and strong call to action? It needs to grab the attention of users browsing around Facebook.  Consider refreshing the ad’s image periodically as users can get tired of seeing the same thing over time and will ignore it. This will, in turn, result in your ad underperforming. Make it a point to create new ads frequently and test them so you get the best ROI.

Facebook ad stats and dashboard will help you track your ads and the number of clicks, actions, and more. Facebook Insights helps you monitor the user’s interaction and engagement with your ad.  You can also make use of Facebook’s power editor feature, an extension of Google Chrome that helps you manage ad campaigns.

Social media marketing will evolve on an ongoing basis, benefiting businesses that decide to leverage it for their brands. Facebook’s advertising in particular, because of its sheer size, is an effective way to interact with your market and attract fans to your page from where you can engage with them on a regular and ongoing basis.

With Facebook announcing a number of changes and new releases this week the interweb is buzzing with rumours that Facebook is trying to push Google off its throne and ‘take over the web’. These changes include, among others, the change of fan pages to resemble community pages, where fans are no longer fans but rather, can choose to ‘like’ a product, brand or service.

Another big change is Facebook’s Open Graph.  When users logged into Facebook earlier this week they were greeted with a message saying ‘connect with your friends on your favourite websites.’  This new feature is aimed at instant personalisation and will utilise the data on your Facebook profile to show you information relevant to your interests, and also to show you what information your Facebook friends found useful on that specific website.  According to CCN.com the new changes mean, “If you’re a Facebook user reading CNN.com, you’ll be able to see what all your Facebook friends are looking at, view recommended stories and see which friends liked which stories.”  Facebook said this new feature will enable users to more easily share information they find on the Internet with their social network.

Mark Zuckerberg said at the f8 Developer Conference that “we are making it so all websites can work together to build a more comprehensive map of connections and create better, more social experiences for everyone.”  Users can opt-out of the new feature but that does not mean your Facebook friends cannot share your information with the mentioned companies.

Read more about these and other Facebook changes:

• On CCN.com
• Article:  Facebook plans to take over the web
• Post:  Facebook announces a slew of big changes