Ben Tyson, Head of Strategy at BORN SOCIAL, breaks down ten of the most important trends for social media in 2014. Spotted trends that we've missed? Tweet us @bebornsocial and let us know where we went wrong!

1. 10 Social Media Trends for 2014

2. 1. Social Integration
Making social brands rather than brands on social.
Offline & Online.
Only way to drive organic growth on all platforms.

3. 2. Simple Ideas Work
Best
Using platforms’ native functionality.
If you can’t explain it in 10 seconds, it’s probably too complicated.
“The consumer is your wife” – D. Ogilvy

4. 3. Content
a. Content is context/concept-led, then
achieved through imagery and text.
b. An engagement is an emotional reaction.
Seek an emotion.
c. Social content should tell a story to be
natural. Whatever the platform.

5. 4. Be Native
Facebook Instagram Twitter≠ ≠
Content can be made native across platforms
Facebook is not always first.

6. 5. Evaluation
Content, competitions: what would I think if I came across this on
social?
“The consumer is your wife” – D. Ogilvy
Once we start with a client, we can no longer understand what an
average consumer knows.
Tainted by our industry. Will sociologists/psychologists win?

7. 6. Mobile
If we don’t already, mobile should be what we think
of first.
80%+ UK Twitter users access via mobile. 60-70%
on Facebook. Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest close
behind.

8. 7. Small, Powerful Communities Win
No one cares about numbers anymore. No longer a vanity contest.
All we will care about is ROI.
Ben Silbermann – Pinterest.
How do we nurture small, powerfully engaged communities around
our brands?
The rise of “small”/”niche” social networks

9. 8. Technology
How we access social is beginning to change: Google Glass, smart
watches…
Those that win will be the ones who act fastest when these changes in
the hardware take place.
“What would you do tomorrow if the internet broke?” – Yahoo!

10. 9. Future of the Internet
Social Media = The Internet.
It will be the fabric that connects everything and everyone online.
Facebook and internet.org – Facebook to become your passport.

11. 10. “Real-Time”
Marketing
“The holy grail of social media”. Apparently.
Forcing it is the worst thing that could happen.
Oreo was a red herring. If you want to “do an Oreo”, leave the room.
"Can you plan for these things? No you can't but you can build your capabilities and your real-time mindset to try to take
advantage of them happening. The key thing for any brand to exploit these moments is to firstly think about capabilities - what's
you objective? - and once you know that then you can start thinking about the different moments you can plan for.”
- Bruce Daisley, Twitter