As the nature of brand competition continues to shift, businesses must be ready to seize any new opportunities available in the digital realm. Through paid marketing tactics, search engine optimization, email marketing and social media use, brands and businesses can reach throngs of loyal and soon-to-be loyal consumers and fans, providing simple yet powerful solutions for reach and profit.

Social media is without a doubt one of the biggest influencers in brand awareness today, with a variety of unique methods and strategies available on each platform. Today, we’ll take a look at some of the biggest trends you should be embracing on social media for your brand or business.

Social Media Shopping

Most social media platforms have recently added options for in-store purchases: have you taken advantage of this yet? Platforms like Facebook allow brands to seamlessly add products and services to their page’s store section, making it easy to promote and accept payment without having to navigate to the brand’s website. Additionally, options such as the Facebook Marketplace are also available, which can be a great way for small local businesses to target specific communities.

Other platforms are also working on improving or implementing these shopping features, so expect to see brands pinging servers on social media with integrated shopping solutions over the next year.

Members-Only Networks

Increasingly, brands are discovering that they can leverage their audience’s brand loyalty into a very powerful tool: private and members-only networks. These private groups and platforms for discussion can be a great way for brands to solicit feedback, promote new products, attract influencers and incentivize others to connect with the brand for added benefits.

Some brands on platforms such as Instagram are even going private entirely, disabling the public from being able to see their pages. While this action might not work for every brand or business, providing your audience with a sense of exclusivity can sometimes provide dramatic boosts to loyalty and engagement.

Automated Messaging and Communication

Handling day-to-day inquiries can be tiresome, yet many brands are still doing the grunt work themselves. Another key trend to watch out for in the coming months is the increased use of chat-bots and automated communication services on social media. These entities can be pre-programmed with responses to common questions, providing immediate answers to anybody pinging servers on social media for answers about your brand.

For everything from shipping methods and store hours to product availability, chatbots can be configured in a number of ways to provide a seamless experience for customers and audiences. There are even chatbots available for free and that can be configured in just a few minutes, meaning even the smallest of brands can easily begin automating the most tedious aspects of page management.

Brands must always stay on top of what’s emerging on social media, if only to stay one step ahead of the competition. For those brands that want to create a more streamlined and effective social media experience, adopting the use of chatbots, encouraging the development of private and/or exclusive sub-communities and providing fans with the ability to make purchases on the platform are all great emerging trends that’ll do just that.