To evangelize doesn’t mean only reading from the Bible. Social media trends ought to concern the “professional evangelizer. To all of you who manage webs, Facebook pages, twitter accounts…whatever… this is for you! As of January 2015, 80% of Internet users own a smartphone. An estimated 2 billion persons worldwide are expected to own a smartphone by 2016. Additionally, devices like smart TVs and smartwatches saw a spike in popularity, and we’ll continue to see their adoption rise in the new year.

Sprout social notes 6 Social Media Trends That Will Take Over 2016. We’d better take note of five:

• Real Real-Time Engagement;
• Live Streaming Video;
• SEO-Search Engine Optimization;
• Mobile First;
• Data-Driven Decisions

Real-Time Engagement. If you want to get the Vincentian message out, there’s a very small window from when an event happens to when it’s “old news.”

Live Streaming Video. Video is in, and people want to be “in the moment.” Chronicles of events are frankly, tired and tiring.

SEO. Think carefully about length of articles you post, the words you choose, and even the formats of the articles you post. Google is watching.

Mobile First. Design for mobile. Think WhatsApp. Think Telegram. Think Twitter. Think small, compact versions of your videos.

Data: Grow your audience before you make too many changes. If you have Facebook pages, read the stats! Use survey monkey or something like it.

Preach the gospel and, when necessary (pardon me, St. Francis) use marketing strategy 🙂 And take a look at SproutSocial’s great infographic.