Top 5 Social Media Trends For 2011

Location services will grow in popularity as people get more comfortable checking in to a business. It’s time to acquaint yourself with sites and applications such as Foursquare, Facebook Places and Gowalla.

These sites will help you better target prospects’ likes and interests, pique interest and influence purchase decisions by offering discounts, promotions or giveaways when they “check in” to your business.

Location-Based Marketing

Video Platforms

Video Platforms

YouTube might be one of the largest user-generated video-sharing sites on the Internet today, but other platforms will begin to surface that are more business-focused, easier to market videos on and not as crowded. Sites like Viddler, Vimeo and Dailymotion will gain momentum with a stronger focus on live streaming on sites such as interactive broadcast platform Ustream, or streaming straight from blogs.

Text Campaigns

Text Campaigns

As the mobile arena grows, small businesses will continue to move marketing campaigns to mobile phones. MessageBuzz and Enowit offer tiered levels of service and free demo accounts that allow you to test a mobile-marketing campaign. Start by incorporating a mobile widget onto your site to help collect mobile numbers through an automated system and create campaigns specific to area codes or regions.

For Cause Tweet-a-thons

For Cause Tweet-a-thons

A Tweet-a-thon is a fundraising campaign on Twitter for which users encourage their followers to tweet about and donate to a particular charitable cause over a specific period of time. These initiatives will gain in popularity as savvy entrepreneurs capitalize on the relationship-building advantages of social media and the good publicity that comes with giving back.

The Move to Higher Bandwidth

The Move to Higher Bandwidth

Say goodbye to 3G. The use of higher bandwidth will not only be a necessity but a demand from busy consumers. Widely becoming recognized with carriers such as Sprint and soon to be Verizon, 4G speed allows marketers to get the message out faster with quicker download times. Jump on this bandwidth wagon early and incorporate it into your 2011 marketing plan.