Social media tools, like Facebook and Twitter, should be part of any business or brand’s new media strategy. Traditional marketing methods have evolved into using digital platforms to reach past, present, and future customers. Social media marketing is changing at a rapid pace, and knowing new trends in social media is critical to helping your brand adapt its business model.

If you are using social media for your business, you will want to be aware of new trends in the use of social media by your customers to know when to change or adapt your business model and marketing strategy. Only a few years ago the majority of social media users abandoned MySpace for Facebook, and now over 700 million users actively use Facebook. Over the past few years there has also been a rise in the use of mobile platforms like Foursquare, which incorporates the use of geolocation and game mechanics to connect users to local businesses. Knowing how your customers use social media to connect not only with their friends but to communicate with and about your business is critical for keeping in touch and reaching your customers.

To stay on top of these new platforms and catch the wave of new social media trends, be sure that your business and brand is present on any new social media platform that is gaining any buzz. For example, Google+ has recently gained quite a bit of momentum from use by early-adopters. While businesses can’t formally claim a profile on Google+ yet, it would be to their advantage to do so as soon as possible to reach their customers who also use Google+. Of course, Google+ could ultimately fail (like all other prior Google social networks), but in the event that a chunk of your brand’s customer base primarily uses Google+ permanently in the future, it would be in your best interest to retain a presence on this new social network to not only reach these customers, but have an especially strong connection with these customers since other similar businesses won’t likely be on Google+ yet.

Ascertaining new social networks that your brand’s customers are using is important to not only continue to reach your customers, but also have the strongest possible connection possible with these consumers. While you may just be another brand they “like” on Facebook, latching on to a new trend may give your brand an opportunity to have a stronger, more personal connection to these customers before other brands can reach them on that platform, too.