Mass Central very recently published an article detailing what it considers to be five leading trends that will influence social media marketing services in the year ahead. That is to say, the article presents the subject matter in that way, but in fact the trends it has highlighted have implications for more than just social media marketing services. The article reflects upon web services in general, including web development and search engine optimization.

The article’s observations are well worth paying attention to. But there are conclusions to be drawn from that content, which are not made plain by the original author. Interestingly, the last of five trends mentioned by Mass Central can be seen as the first in importance when considering the future of your business’s relationship with social media marketing services and the other types of services that might be offered to you by a firm with comprehensive expertise in the modern internet landscape.

That first-and-last point is characterized by Mass Central as the demand for automation. But it could be more broadly described as the need for time-management in the increasingly demanding environment of web development and social media marketing. The article correctly observes that highly competitive companies must have a hand in a diverse and still-widening array of social media platforms. And this is to say nothing of the management of ordinary customer or client correspondence, and the interactive aspects of whatever you determine to be your best website design.

One way of managing these widespread demands, as the linked article suggests, is by using tools to automate some social media marketing activities. But this can be unpredictable and has the potential to lead you into trouble if things like retweets of brand mentions aren’t carefully monitored by a human being, ideally an expert in social media marketing services.

With that in mind, your time management goals can be achieved equally well by simply shifting in-house social media marketing services into the hands of a dedicated web marketing company. This tends to be a greater investment than simply adopting tools and keeping them as part of your in-house services for the long term. But the results of expert guidance and human social media management are far superior to the results of installing tools and flying blind without a clear understanding of how to use them.

Fortunately, in the current age of social media marketing services, when you invest in a skilled firm to handle that aspect of your web marketing for you, you should also be able to entrust it with ongoing web development, local SEO services, and so on. And what’s more, the other points highlighted by the Mass Central article ought to lead the reader toward the conclusion that this sort of integration of web services is an increasingly important aspect of managing and developing your website.

In other words, while the article portrays itself as a guide to social media marketing services, it has a difficult time separating those services from other things like web design, SEO, and the overall need for dedicated and experienced web marketers who can put you in touch with social media influencers and native advertising outlets, to truly boost your social outcomes.