THE "WATCH-OUT" SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2014

IDEA-BASED ECOSYSTEMS

The primary reason people use social media is to showcase their own identities. It's essentially like a giant selfie. This is why a local cupcake shop will get more Facebook likes than a local construction company. It's a reflection of who we are. Any time you can tie your brand to the identity of the customer, you'll have a win on your hands.

THE AGE OF INFORMATION OVERLOAD

In recent years, people have gone from information hunger to information overload. People would almost rather give out their social security number than their email addresses. But if you can become the go-to source for relevant information on a specific topic, customers will seek you out like they reach out to Upworthy and Pinterest.

SELL IT IN THE VIDEO

Internet users are more likely to finish a 30-minute video than they are an article. If you're not using online video, you're missing a big part of your audience. Plus, customers are increasingly making purchases directly through videos. A few examples: a new service called Insay and Target's "Falling for You" video campaign.

THE 4-SCREEN REVOLUTION

Consumers frequently use multiple devices at once--TV, mobile phone, laptop, and tablet. It wouldn't be pretty surprising if in 10 years, all that might be one device, but in the next two to five years, we actually expect an increase in the number of devices we are using at once. For companies, the challenge is to find ways to interact with users on multiple screens and to cope with ever-shrinking attention spans.

DECODING DIGITAL SIGNALS

Analytics are very significant to understand customers and change ways on how best to reach them. If 50 percent of your traffic is from mobile and your website isn't optimized for mobile phones, you're going to lose half of your traffic right there.

BUILD THAT SOCIAL LITERACY

All of your employees need to be social media savvy, not just the social media team. Each individual should be a creator, curator, and connector, and organizations should focus on agility, aggregation, and adaptability. Above all, people should be posting content that is relevant to the customer. You don't want to be like the person on Facebook who only shares updates about their dog.

THE POWER OF REVERSE-ENGINEERING

Companies should look beyond their own niches and industries when it comes to marketing ideas. Sometimes a company in an entirely different industry will have a great marketing tactic that none of your competitors have ever considered. So, watch out and think outside your comfort zone! Here's a good example!

HARNESSING THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA

A stolen bike could take weeks or months to retrieve, if it comes back at all. But Christian Garnette had his back in just a day.

Rather than reporting the theft to police last Tuesday after the 23-year-old Toronto man realized his bike was stolen, he turned to complete strangers on the Internet to help find it.

He posted a picture of his bicycle on the Facebook group of a local fixed gear shop around 3:30 a.m., asking if anyone had seen it since it went missing near the corner of Parliament Street and King Street East. All that remained was the front wheel and lock of the bright white bike.

“I had a feeling I would actually get it back because my bike stands out a lot and it’s kind of hard to disguise,” Mr. Garnette said.

Just 10 hours later, someone commented on his post with a photo of the bike six blocks away at Parliament Street and Gerrard Street East, locked and with a new front wheel.

I had a feeling I would actually get it back because my bike stands out a lot and it’s kind of hard to disguise

The stranger and his friend guarded the bike until two men arrived, claiming to have purchased the bike themselves. After a brief dispute, they were told Mr. Garnette, the rightful owner, was on his way, and conceded the bike as well as the replacement tire, for good measure.

“It was a different experience,” Mr. Garnette said. “I already lost two bikes. I even have a video of a guy stealing one of my bikes because my sister used to live in a condo and I ended up getting the footage from the concierge, but yet that was still not enough for the police to get my bike back. It feels like a Facebook group is easier.”

More than 3,400 bicycles in Toronto were reported stolen in 2012, according to Toronto Police Services. This was roughly 300 more than the previous year.

Jared Kolb, executive director of Cycle Toronto, said the increase in thefts is proportional to the growing number of cyclists in the city.

“There are more people riding than ever before and it is a concern,” Mr. Kolb said. “It’s one of these things where you can buy a really fantastic iron-proof lock, but a thief with unlimited amount of time will be able to get into any lock. It’s best to remove your bicycle from that risk by storing it inside or storing in a [proper bike rack].”

Toronto police spokesman David Hopkinson said many thefts are the result of people not locking their bikes properly to both the front wheel and frame, or sometimes at all.

He said the trend of bike thefts should decrease as people become more aware of prevention resources. This includes a free online Toronto police registry, where people can record their bike’s serial number, located on its lower bracket, which can be used to recover it should it go missing.

Still, many choose not to report their bicycles to police due to a general apathy, Mr. Hopkinson said. This makes it much more difficult for police to retrieve unregistered bikes.

“If there are no leads, then it’s difficult for us to follow them,” he said. “With a car, there’s leads to follow. License plates are everywhere. Bicycles don’t have license plates. There’s something like 23 serial numbers all over the car so even if you ripped the cars apart and you piece it off, we can still identify parts of that car.”

The relatively small size of bicycles also makes them easier to not only steal — but also hide permanently.

But Mr. Kolb said people aren’t necessarily seeing results from police when their bikes are stolen.

“One issue is that the average price of a bicycle in terms of all the competing priorities of the Toronto police are relative,” he said. “For many people, their bicycle is their primary mode of transportation so it’s a crucial part of how they sustain their livelihood.”

Monday marks Toronto’s 25th Bike to Work Day, which encourages people to try cycling as their daily commute mode.

Kelly Patrick, a 46-year-old who moved to Toronto in January from Ottawa, decided she would cycle to work for the first time Wednesday, locking her bike just outside her office building along Front Street East. When she left to go home for the day, it was gone.

If somebody stole your bottle of water, would you call the police? No you wouldn’t because it’s not worth it

Ms. Patrick said she walked to a nearby police station to report the theft, but that the constable at the front desk was unhelpful.

“He took nothing, no data, no stats whatsoever from me, other than he told me to go online,” she said. “I don’t think they take it seriously.”

In a survey conducted by Cycle Toronto, 168 of 303 respondents said their bikes had been stolen, but just 22% had registered them with Toronto police. Less than half reported the theft to police, and of these, 88% didn’t think it was worth it to report it.

Mr. Hopkinson said this was unsurprising.

“If somebody stole your bottle of water, would you call the police? No you wouldn’t because it’s not worth it,” he said. “It’s not worth a lot of money, they don’t believe they’re going to get their bike returned to them, so they think all it is is a hassle to make this report.”

But Ms. Patrick said her six-year-old bike meant more to her.

“It’s something that you own and something you rely on,” she said. “It’s still personal property and maybe that’s the debate you have to weigh. What is the value of having police get into stolen bikes and how else can you tackle this issue?”

GEAR UP FOR TWITTER'S NEW PROFILE!

Announced early last month, the Twitter profile update will soon be required for everyone on the service. Beginning May 28, all Twitter users will have the new profile, which has already been rolled out to new users and some existing users in the past month.

It's unclear how many people currently have the new profile, which features larger profile and header images, new timeline views and the ability to pin a tweet to the top of a profile page. Twitter did not immediately respond to Mashable's request for comment, but based on Twitter reaction to the design change, it appears that a number of users are still using the old layout (and aren't happy about the impending switch).