As we are aware, social media is taking online businesses to new heights. It is one of the places where businesses and people meet and a lot of magic follows. In fact, it would be a thinkable statement if someone were to say that their business is still not using social media. Businesses are taking the advantage of social media to stay connected with their people. Social media leaves no stones unturned at ensuring that people will engage with you, communicate and then build a long-lasting relationship.
So, now as we head toward a new year, it is time to leave behind the old strategies and marketing tactics, and think about adopting new ideas for a better future. This is the time to find out what we should be doing in the year 2018 to ensure that our business will survive forever. Let us explore further the social media marketing trends that will transform your business for better in the year 2018.
Are you still not in the influencer-marketing league? Then, you are missing out on strong opportunities that would bring about a great deal of impact on the success of your business. Start it now and expand everywhere with social media outreach. Get yourself a fitting influencer and work together to take your business to the next level. Influencers have always had a great role at ensuring that businesses or organizations, regardless of their size find themselves a space over the social media, helping in the promotion of their product or service.
Still many of the readers would be in doubt how this influencer marketing is going to influence their business, if so, please go through the statistics below and then, decide:
- More than 85% of women take help from social media when shopping
- Around 24% of influencers from the US support the use of Instagram for reaching out to people, while another 32% are Facebook fans.
- More than 70% of people would make a purchase on the basis of a reference they came across over the social media sites.
- YouTube subscribers comprise around 70% of teenagers, who follow the opinions of influencers rather than celebrities before opting for a particular video.
Of course, collaborating with an influencer is one of the important steps to taking your business ahead in the year 2018, but your choice of influencer matters. Set comprehensible goals and build ideal relationship with influencers, but choose someone who will meet your criteria of requirements.
2. What is your story? Is it interesting?
It is believed that every business has a story of its own to narrate. What is yours?
They say implementing a story is fine, but the content should not be dense. Then, the question is how can we expect people to like content that does not run across pages and still drive user attention? We are all thinking about the same. Yes, don’t you like to upload your story to Instagram or statuses on Whatsapp that disappears within 24 hours?
Yes, we all do like. This ephemeral content is interesting as it attracts attention and stays in the mind though it is short lived.
Short-lived content takes effort and money just like any other content and the sad part is that it stays only for 24 hours before it fades away.
But, the perks of having such a short-lived content includes the following:
- Your users are enthusiastic to roll in and unveil the look of it before it vanishes.
- A kind of excitement is generated within the audience.
- This helps build a trust about your brand, ensuring that audience stay tuned in for more updates from your.
If you check the highest social media success stories of 2017 has this “Stories” feature as one of the most prominent marketing channels for social media sites, such as Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram. Though, some of the brands are yet to implement “Stories” as a marketing tool for their business, many others who have implemented this have experienced the wonders of this.
Check out how the Mission Impossible used ephemeral content to promote their upcoming movie.
Moving forward in the year 2018, this is all set to bring about a revolution.
3. Which messaging platform do you prefer?
A lot of messaging platforms are being introduced. In fact, in the year 2018, businesses will have to implement messaging apps. More than 2.5 billion people are actively using messaging apps across the world.
Of course, your statuses and posts bring you closer to your people. But, a personal message can go way beyond what you can imagine in terms of connecting you with your people. Some businesses implementing Chatbots have experienced how a personalized shopping experience has made them the love of their customer’s life.
4. Augmented reality is your way to success in real time
Augmented reality experiences are not much to ask for in the year 2018. By now, a number of businesses are coming up with exemplary augmented reality experiences, which is attracting consumers on a greater scale. Game technology has already adopted this magic, very soon it would be seen taking over the social media sites too.
5. Is it the Generation of Z?
Studies say so that it is the Generation Z, which is highly valuable to organizations rather than millennials. The 22-year olds that are slowly in the transition to the labor force will be soon buying themselves items that are the next gen solutions. In order to stay in synch with these, brands will soon modify their social media strategies to incorporate these needs.
6. Chatbots
As we have already discussed, chatbots are making a way toward the augmented reality. Meanwhile, these are also influencing e-commerce and social media too. Maybe, it will take some more time for these to actually exercise their power fully and influence people, but once implemented businesses are going to benefit to a great extent from these. Businesses are using chatbots to grow closer to their customers, providing them to share a personalized social space in the virtual world.
7. How can we forget videos
Video is found to be the highest consumer of the space over the web. So, how can we move ahead without these in the online world influenced by social media? Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg predicts that by the year 2018, videos will contribute to around 90% of the content on social media.
Now that the videos are trending across the different social media channels, ensure that your video has the power to capture the user’s attention within the short span of three seconds, which we have got.
Let us begin the new year 2018 with new promises that are to be fulfilled and carry forward unfulfilled resolutions from 2017, ensuring that we stay connected with our people 24*7, thanks to the social media.