Bob Hutchins
2016 is just around the corner, which has us thinking about our top priorities in the digital space (for both ourselves and our clients). While we won’t go as far as to say these are our predictions for 2016, these are areas we currently envision ourselves honing in on next year…
#1 Two Words: Native. Video.
The phrase “social media network” will soon be dated (if it isn’t already) as these platforms (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, etc.) branch out to become so much more than a place to connect with friends and like-minded people. Facebook and Instagram are on their way to becoming niche search engines… robust ecommerce sites…
One of Facebook’s primary goals, as we see it, is to become the web’s top video platform. Currently, we are witnessing natively published Facebook videos getting some of the best engagement of any post type on Facebook. (“Natively published” means the video is uploaded directly to Facebook – not posted as a link to, say, Vimeo or YouTube.) We’ve written here about why native Facebook videos are a hot commodity.
#2 Stop Broadcasting. Start Responding. (And make it quick!)
Secondly, we believe that brands will shift away from the publish!-publish!-publish! model that’s grown up over the last six to seven years during the rise of content marketing. We are saturated with content. Great brands will have to scale back on quantity and boost their quality. Furthermore, brands will have to learn how to become great listeners. “Seven of eight customer messages on social go unanswered within 72 hours,” we’ve learned. This failure is spelled O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y.
#3 Form Partnerships With Content Creators.
Thirdly, we’ll be forming more partnerships with content creators. Content creators already have the skills, tools, and intuition to create stuff that people love, whether that’s a YouTube video, blog post, or simply a Tweet. They also have the audience. If you find the right creator for your audience, you can hit a homerun: authenticity, trust, ROI… it’s all there. (Read more about why we’re doing this.)
#4 Mobile-First… In Everything.
Okay, deciding to be “mobile-first” isn’t exactly a radical objective for 2016. Any digital marketer worth his salt has been preaching a mobile-first philosophy for at least two or three years. Yes, your website needs to look great on an iPhone. Yes, your ecommerce should work on a tablet. While we mean those things when we say “mobile-first,” we also mean something more: People on their phones will only visit a limited number of websites and use a limited number of apps. There is a cap on our willingness to type in URLs and download more apps. So, we believe that it’s critical for brands to meet their audience where their audience already resides. Instead of building a new app or website… meet them on social where they already are. (More on this in my next blog post.)
What Will Your Objectives Be?
What are your top digital marketing objectives for 2016? What items do you see as most important?
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