Social Media has changed the way that businesses communicate with and market to existing and potential customers. Once considered an “add-on” or “extra” thing for businesses if time and financial resources allowed, that model is largely outdated. Social media usage is now a necessity to ensure a business or organization is at the forefront of its target market.

Is your business on social media? If you answered anything but “yes,” chances are you are a bit behind, and are missing out on potential growth and exposure opportunities through these platforms.

Due to the explosive growth of social media platforms over the past five years, usage is now a necessity to ensure a business or organization is at the forefront of its target market.

Organizations of all sizes are realizing the importance of online marketing, especially through search engines. However, after this realization comes a big decision to make - whether to capitalize upon SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Paid Advertising (Google Adwords), or a combination of the two.

Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence on Google, including within the “Search” and “Maps” features. By including your business information, you can help customers find you and tell them the story of your business. This tool allows businesses to not only manage how their information appears across Google but also interact with customers.

Influencer marketing is at an all-time high, but the summit has yet to be reached. Influencer marketing is an outlet for people with authority to share information about your business or product.

According to newly released statistics, 81 percent of the population of the United States had at least one social networking profile in 2017. Also impressive is how frequently social media sites are accessed by their users. 78% of Facebook users log on daily, and 55% of those daily users log in more than once a day. Social media can serve as a powerful tool for your business to reach a large audience of current and potential customers.

Instagram’s popularity among businesses continues to rise and over 25 million businesses have an Instagram profile. If your business relies on Instagram to meet your target audience, you should know that big changes are coming! Businesses will soon be able to better manage their organic presence; they will be able to view posts they've been tagged in, view other business profiles, and, to the great excitement of many users, schedule posts ahead of time.

Last month, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook Founder and CEO, announced that a complete overhaul to the Facebook newsfeed is coming soon. He said that the goal of these changes is to provide Facebook users with more meaningful and positive content. If your small business uses Facebook, these changes will make a huge impact on how you reach your audience. Here are five big changes that are coming soon.

As social media platforms and their users continue to evolve, your small businesses must be prepared for new developments and how they will change the ways your brand interacts with your audience. How will social media change in the months and years to come? Here are three expert predictions.