It’s important for smart business owners to be aware of trends across social media in order to stay abreast of the best way to use social media to improve business. It can be hard to know what the next best thing is, but there are trends happening now that you can keep an eye out for. This will help you to stay aware so that you notice when change is coming and aren’t taken off track by continuing old methods that don’t work. Some noticeable trends happening now are:

Mobile device proliferation – Because people are buying up mobile devices and using them more often for social media than in the past, most social media companies are designing for mobile first. This is why it is important to be involved in responsive mobile design yourself for all your online real-estate.

Let go of automation – Well, not all of it, but do be aware that social media is by its very nature supposed to be social. If you’re using too much automation, people will start to ignore you, and soon only the bots will be reading tweets. Stay social; use automation sparingly.

One-to-one interaction – Consumers want to feel special and with mobile devices they can. You can use a variety of methods to interact on a one-to-one basis with your clients, customers and potential clients, and customers using mobile devices and social media. The information is tailored to the audience – especially the audience of one.

Apps are where it’s at – App-based marketing has increased exponentially with the advent of more mobile technology. Create an app for your business. There are templates you can use and brand for your market, or you can hire someone to create a specially branded app that your customers would like to use.

Search just got better – People are getting better at filtering out content they don’t want to see, and viewing the content they want to see. But, social media is also doing some of that for you. For better or worse, organic search doesn’t necessarily work the same as it used to. While this can be difficult on marketers, it’s great for the consumer and business owners just need to get with the trends. Smart consumers don’t want to be sold, they want to be engaged. Trust us; this is going to bring a whole new level of excellence to social media.

Content curation – Great content is still king, and it’s even more important today than in the past. Remember, content is not just text. It’s pictures, it’s graphics, it’s conversing with others. It’s all of the things you do on social media. People want to see your content, consume your content, and share your content, and it doesn’t have to and should not look like a newspaper or magazine advertisement. In fact it shouldn’t look like an advertisement at all. It should look and feel like important, useful, interactive, valuable information that is also visually appealing and tells a story.

With these social media trends in mind, especially the idea of content being your most important asset (which has not changed since the beginning of the internet – only the forms change), keep in mind that social media is not a one-off event. It’s a compilation of small steps, possibly hundreds, that finally result in the interaction and results that you desire. Give it time; let it sink in.