I strongly feel that we over complicate the social media industry and best tactics when in reality it's about building relationships and community
Your primary engagement strategies?
I believe in engaging with my social media followers in a very 1 to 1 manner. This means that I don't use automation and really spend the time to get to know my followers. While this isn't typically possible at a huge scale, I do my best to be very genuine and honest while engaging.
Your favourite Social Media Marketing tools?
SproutSocial and SimplyMeasured are my go-to's. SproutSocial helps me engage with my followers very organically and makes sure I don't miss anything; plus their community managers are top notch folks. SimplyMeasured helps me pull valuable insights about my followers and determine how to best deliver value to them moving forward.
Your biggest prediction for Social Media Marketing?
Social media (and marketing in general) will become all about 1 to 1 engagement. More about personal relationship-building and less about broadcasting. Is that bold? Eh, I'm not so sure. I strongly feel that we over complicate the social media industry and best tactics when in reality it's about building relationships and community.
The next up-and-coming social media platform?
PEACH. Kidding. Snapchat has been doing very well; however, the universal need for business use has yet to become realized. I'd keep a close eye on Snapchat and see how companies and creative agencies begin using the platform.
Will SMM become increasingly pay-to-play?
It depends strongly on the type of content that marketers are looking to promote. If they are genuinely engaged with their audience and take an engaging, empathetic approach, then they can continue to find results organically.