Happy New Year from my family to yours! I’m thinking about many of you right now, friends, acquaintances, and business clients I do marketing for.

Besides touching on some marketing ideas and trends, I would also like to call for action on showing genuine interest and care in our everyday lives.

Social marketing trends

Social marketing trends in 2017 which continue to rule will be video, information as value, and being artistic and funny. We will value original creations whether writing articles, painting, beading, or creating amazing photos. Many of us will be going live on Facebook, or starting a live conversation on Twitter.  Anyting real time with value to somebody else will stay trendy. Being genuine. I love seeing ideas, like #nomakeup taking on and overpowering the distorted images we are flooded with in mainstream media. Overall, these ideas and thoughts line up with millenials’ values, who I feel will continue being social trend-makers this year.

“Make your content snackable and valuable” suggests LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. I loved that they put the main idea in such a simple way. It is exactly what most of us have time and appetite for.

I saw some social media hick-ups last year that made me smile and others that made me cringe. Among them was overkilling , over posting, fuzzy images, even scary videos with scary images trying to educate us. That doesn’t work. Let’s all put some effort into putting out quality content on the world wide web.

Making changes in our lives

Let’s shift our values from wanting to own things that we don’t really need, to researching issues and believing in causes that are worthy of our time. Spreading ideas, affirmations, and helping in any means that are in our power to make our near and far surroundings better. There are so many worthy causes out there. Human and animal welfare, helping areas that got struck by natural disasters, fighting hunger, immigration, saving species, and the list goes on. Shifting our focus will tip our scale back, which will then balance the distrust of strangers and the devastation brought by terrorist attacks in recent months.

My #nomakeup new year selfie

Can we make this year more genuine, more caring, with social media outlets sharing thoughts that go beyond fitness goals for January? One of my goals is to raise awareness about environmental practices and issues not only in my family (my kids love throwing stuff in the trashcan, which tends to fill up too often), but also among friends on social media. I’m making this an all-year event. My hope is that many little things that we can change in our everyday habits will trickle down to friend’s friends and to my kids’ friends, too.

What’s your new year resolution to make the world a better place?

So, cheers to a more genuine 2017, with fresh ideas, more caring and sharing in both marketing and our personal lives,

Monika