TechRepublic’s Erin Carson examined some of the biggest trends for social media in 2015. Brian Solis added his thoughts on how to make it matter again…

Excerpt:

“This is where marketing and social and the future of all of this stuff really have a tremendous opportunity to take a step back and understand what it is we’re trying to do in the first place, and how we can add value in order to take value from each of these platforms,” said Brian Solis, principal analyst for Altimeter Group.

He mentioned a couple notable small business, Saddleback Leather Co. and Giant Nerd, that have realized that social marketing wasn’t just about using familiar practices — coming up with a clever ad campaign or slogan — and instead thought about social marketing as a bigger community play. It’s about everything from service to building relationships.

“The concept of marketing becomes something beyond a department, it becomes a way of relationship building and customer service that introduces all kinds of new opportunities — increased satisfaction, NPS scores, and stuff that marketing just wanted associated with in the past,” he said.

In terms of trajectory, there are more than a few trends emerging and developing that marketers will want to consider moving as they strategize for next year.

Full article at TechRepublic.