2016 is less than 2 weeks away so it's time to discuss what trends to look for in social media for the new year.  I started to write the post, then decided I would get some help from the Blab Universe, and I surely did..thanks Samantha Kelly.   So here is the audio, video and blog post...10 Social Media Trends for 2016.

1. Be Personable-I have been saying this for years now. You audience wants to see more of the business owner(s) personality and personal life. Now, I’m not suggesting that you put everything out there for the world to see but give them a taste of what your life outside of work looks like.

We all know that business owners have very little time to themselves but there is a reason you started your own business. I find that most business owners went into business for themselves to improve the quality of life them and their families. Show your audience what that looks like.

Here’s an example drawing from my own life. I love baseball, and it really bothered me that I couldn’t be more involved in my oldest child’s softball career. Now that I am working for myself I have some flexibility with scheduling. This allowed me to coach my son’s t-ball team this past spring, and I loved every second of it. Pictures and moments were shared to my social media accounts.

I didn’t give away my whole life but I showed that I am human and have other passions in life. If you look around you’ll find pictures of my oldest daughter and me on the paintball field.

2. Become fans of your audience-This one will be the toughest for many business owners, and marketers. It’s also probably the most necessary one if you plan to grow socially as a business.

You probably network in real life if you’re a small business owner. There’s a good chance you see certain people all the time when networking. You ask them how’s business, you show an interest in their business and maybe even their personal life.

Why not do the same on social media? You have an audience (hopefully). Why not interact with what they’re sharing on social media? Like, comment, share…all of these things are noticed and often reciprocated.

I know this is a difficult task to manage. It can be very time consuming. There are several ways to do this. You can hire a digital marketer. You can bring on an intern. You can use a tool like Hootsuite to keep everything in one dashboard.

Whatever you decide to do stick with it. If you’re not a fan of your audience you will lose your audience.

3. Repurpose and Remarket-Such a powerful option in marketing yet so many fail to do this. On the day I am writing this blog post I shared a blog post that was written for a client of mine over a year ago..but it’s relevant today. This is called Evergreen content and you can do this with some of your own content, as long as it’s still relevant.

I also take my blabcasts (podcasts recorded on Blab.im) and upload the content to one of my websites, YouTube, iTunes, Stitcher and it will be on Google Play once Google launches their podcast platform. The link is then shared multiple times over several social media channels.

It’s great to blab or periscope live thus creating a community, but when you do this you’re only reaching a small audience. Not only can this be discouraging to some but it limits your reach. People lead busy lives so you cannot expect everyone to be available for a live show all the time. You can however reach those people later by remarketing and repurposing.

4. Content is still king, it’s just evolved-Yes, content is still king. You’re just seeing it evolve into formats that people can easily digest.