5 Social Media Trends to Watch in 2018

The Golden rule of marketing is to promote your business where target audience spends the most time. Today, your target demographic is on social media which has become a powerful marketing tool.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and other popular networks regularly update their features to enhance user experience. The world of social media is constantly changing and your ability to adapt to the latest developments is crucial for business success.

Here are five social media trends to expect in 2018.

It’s all about video

Long gone are the days when social media presence was based on status updates, photos here and there, and sharing links to your articles from time to time. Communication has become more personal. People use video chats to talk to one another and businesses are starting to incorporate video updates into their social media marketing strategy too. Video use helps you avoid faceless and generic communication with the target audience, and basically everyone else.

Figures show that 43% of people want to see video content from marketers and 51.9% marketing professionals worldwide name video as the content type with the best ROI. Due to the increasing popularity of video content, we can expect the trend to continue thus making this trend a valuable format to leverage. Videos increase engagement in the form of likes, shares, retweets, and comments on all social media platforms.

With new formats, such as live streaming, businesses of all kinds have a wide array of options to explore and implement into their social media marketing campaigns.

For example, live streaming videos became highly popular in 2017 and next year their popularity is bound to increase even more. At this point, you can start a live video on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you name it.

Essentially, creating and uploading video content in multiple formats on a regular basis is the hottest social media to adopt in 2018.

Influencer marketing is still going strong

Still didn’t give influencer marketing a try? It’s about time to do social media outreach, find a suitable influencer for your business, and step into the future of marketing. In 2018, influencers are set to take over social media as more companies, both big and small, are realizing the importance of this marketing strategy as a form of noninvasive product/service promotion.

Not sure whether you should try influencer marketing? A few key statistics will help you make the right decision:

• 70% of teenage YouTube subscribers trust influencer opinions more than “regular” celebrities
• 86% of women turn to social media before making a purchase
• 32% of US-based influencers say Facebook is the best platform while 24% think Instagram is the best
• 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a reference from social media

In 2018, it won’t be enough to establish a collaboration with some random influencer especially now when this marketing strategy has become mainstream. Instead, the focus will be on building meaningful relationships with influencers, setting clear objectives, and choosing a person who meets your requirements.

Twitter in hot water

Twitter is usually the app that we use to write everything we think of, express our emotions, and engage in discussions. And it also plays an important role in social media marketing strategy.

But lately, Twitter marketing is lagging behind Facebook and Instagram. Multiple reasons could explain this negative trend and some of them are related to politics. For example, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, prefers using Twitter over any other social media app and he uses it on a daily basis, primarily to express his scandalous opinions.

Since Trump used this social media platform to, basically, bully people in numerous instances, Twitter users started complaining how other people are easily banned from the website but he is not. Plus, other platforms offer more features than Twitter.

Moreover, in 2017 Twitter has failed to generate followers at a high rate compared to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Let’s not forget that Twitter also lost access to streaming NFL games.

Don’t expect this negative trend to continue though. In 2018, Twitter leadership will rethink the way their platform operates and some changes are bound to happen. Potential changes could involve selling the platform to private investors, including a sort of prescription feature, and boosting advertising options. If these changes do take place, Twitter is set to improve your marketing efforts.

Messaging platforms on the rise

In 2018, businesses will have to step out of their comfort zone and focus on messaging apps. If we take into consideration that more than 2.5 billion people worldwide use messaging apps, it’s easy to conclude they deserve their own status of a type of social media too.

Most companies still stick to connecting with consumers through posts they publish, but we can expect brands to invest more time and finances in interaction with consumers via messaging apps. Chatbots will enable businesses, both big and small, to offer personalized shopping experiences on Facebook Messenger, Kik, WhatsApp, and Viber.

A combination of artificial intelligence and messaging apps will enhance the quality of customer service too.

Generation Z – the holy grail

A study by Goldman Sachs found that Generation Z is more valuable to businesses and organizations than millennials. At this point, the oldest Generation Z members are 22 years old.

What does this mean for social media trends in 2018?

Adolescents and young adults from Generation Z are about to enter the labor force, meaning they will hold greater buying power. Since brands have already recognized this, they are adapting their marketing strategies to appeal to this particular generation.

As a result, we’ve seen major changes in features on Snapchat and Instagram, and we can only expect more in 2018.

Conclusion

2018 is almost here, and it’s time to reconsider our social media approach to maximize marketing results. Next year, we can expect to see major changes on many platforms to enhance user experience and appeal to the younger population.

Make sure you keep up with these trends to achieve your marketing goals next year too.

Vivian Michaels is a huge tech enthusiast, who likes to write articles on evolving technology and internet marketing. He has written for various websites like VentureBeat, TheNextWeb, ProvenSEO, and more. Vivian is also a fitness trainer and never forgets to renew his Netflix subscription.