2013 saw social media achieve milestones in a number of sectors. Actually, it would be true to say that the happenings in the yearsocialmediadata surpassed the expectations of many people both users as well as service providers. This was greatly influenced by poor policies, shift in strategy, as well as discovery of better tools. Furthermore, social marketing Singapore not only grew in strides but also became the buzzword. However, despite this tremendous impact, social media also had some downturns. Social Media lessons that we can learn from 2013 are as follows:

1. Emerging Markets

Traditionally, The US and the UK were the largest markets. However, there seems to be a shift when it comes to the users of social media. For instance, statistics show that the Asian region especially Singapore, Indonesia, India, and China experienced a tremendous growth of an average of 37%. Both the UK and the US had the social network users’ increase by about 10%.

2. Keeping It Real

Social media featured prominently especially in brand marketing. Both small as well as large companies opted to prioritize on social media. The firms also realized the importance of engaging with the customer directly. It was no longer about relaying information, but more of building trust and long lasting relations. Trust and genuineness was thus viewed as the fuel for Social media. A good example of the authenticity can be seen from the Coca-Cola campaigns.

3. The Power of Listening

A focused social media agency soon realized that it was worth more listening than always being on the driver’s seat. The sooner a person realized the importance of striking a conversation with a personal touch, the easier it was to grow his fan base. Take the case of Dell. A few years back, the company was in turmoil. In 2013, the company trained its 10,000 plus workers on the power of listening to social media. This move skyrocketed the company to better heights.

4. Content is Indeed King

Previously, people were more inclined to using tips and tricks as a way of luring a larger audience. However, this changed in the year after review of the algorithms used to rank a web or blog site. Optimizing a blog, keyword stuffing, low quality images, poor copywriting, regular update, and tweets without quality content no longer work. It has now become necessary for social marketing Singapore to offer quality and unique content.

5. Standout from the Crowd

Although social media targets the same crowd, it pays to come up with a unique strategy. Rather than religiously following a popular strategy, it may be ideal to tryout something new. This is best explained by the emergence of Twitter, which overtook Facebook as the most preferred social media network. Additionally, networks that brought new ideologies such as sharing photos and images effectively appealed to a wider audience.

If the happenings in 2013 are anything to go by, then 2014 promises to be even a bigger year for social media. Already, signs of big things to come are being felt in the market. Any social media agency or person who relies on this strategy needs to keep up with the new trends. A good avenue worth investing in is mobile technology. The largest impact in social media was felt through use of smart phones.

Marcus Ho is a highly sought-after Social Media Strategist who specializes in revenue-driven campaigns on social media for businesses. Well known for his cutting-edge, fresh insights and proven strategies, Marcus has successfully helped over 200 corporations and SMEs to rake in hundreds of thousands within very short periods of time.

Some of his clients include:

Qatar Airways, 3M, PernodRicard, DassaultSystèmes, FreshKon, Home-Fix, Scanteak and Singapore Management University. Most recently, his campaigns have also won internationally acclaimed awards such as Smitty’sTravel+Leisure.