#EducationMatters - How Do I Keep Up With Changes in Social Media?

Social Media trends change every day. This summer alone has met with dramatic overhauls of Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, Pinterest Videos, and more have come on the scene. Less than 24 hours after Facebook Live was announced to the public, you had powerful influencers cornering the market while most of the business population was scrambling to figure out the details.

How did they get ahead? Education. Educating yourself on changes in social media is one of the most important things you can do for your brand, but how do you keep up with the trends? We’ve provided three sure-fire tips to keep up-to-date on social media changes:

Check popular social media analyst sites. Follow social media analyst sites like Mashable and the Social Media Examiner.

Social Media Influencers. If that’s not specific enough, search for experts in your favorite social media venues. Sue B. Zimmerman, for instance, is an Instagram expert. She always has great tips and video tutorials that prep for upcoming trends. Jon Loomer is focused on advanced Facebook marketing. Top Dog Social Media has fantastic generalist articles that cover how to communicate on social media, but their primary target is LinkedIn. Following the expert of your preferred social media site is a great way to stay ahead of the game. These are just a few of the experts in their respective fields.

Social Media TV. Set up social media TV using YouTube. Subscribing to a reliable social media channel is as simple as typing “social media” in the YouTube search bar, clicking on Filter & Explore to choose Channel (this sorts out the social media-related channels), and subscribe to any channels that keep you up-to-date in a way you enjoy.

Weekly summary newsletters or RSS feeds. Using paper.li or Smartbrief on Social Media can help you stay on track with current social media topics. Paper.li allows you to select your topics of interest while Smartbrief on Social Media is the most well-respected social media news summary you can have delivered straight to your inbox. Both are free to use.

For RSS feeds, consider using a feed reader to keep all your content in one place. Feedly is a common one that is universal across all mobile platforms. It’s also compatible with most desktops and can also be used in any web browser. It’s also free-to-use. Find marketing gurus and tech crunch sites to follow. This is also an excellent resource for following podcasts that talk about social media change.

Taking the time to learn about social media changes is necessary to your business success. #EducationMatters when it comes to staying ahead of the competition so that you can #BeAwesome in social media.

Be sure to Follow us and Let's Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+,YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the tools to manage them.

Click here for her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars