Social media has been playing a pivotal role in modern digital marketing. Today, the all-pervasiveness of social media makes it an effective business tool for both B2B and B2C companies. However, like any other industry trend, social media trends also change rapidly to either to cater to the ever-changing needs of customers or to keep pace with emerging technologies. Thus, to enhance the competitive position of your business, it is important for you to keep up with the constantly changing social media trends.
Like the bygone year, 2017 too will witness new trends that will revolutionize social media optimisation as the year advances. Therefore, digital marketers will need to stay ahead of the existing social media trends in order to take their business to the next level in 2017. In this post, we will enlighten you on the latest social media tactics that will be utilized by digital marketers worldwide for boosting their shares, conversions, and engagement rate this year.
- Live Video: This year brands will significantly count on live video streaming options. Live video has started gaining traction with the introduction of live video content for Instagram in December 2016. Twitter too got into live video streaming last year by rolling out 360-degree live streams powered by its live video app— Periscope. However, the feature can also be utilized without installing Periscope. Additionally, Facebook too has been giving preference to live videos in its newsfeed. Thus, the focus will be on creating live video marketing strategies this year to showcase the authenticity of brands to the world by providing real-time content, be it exclusive announcements, interviews, or behind-the-scenes glimpse of your business.
- Less Automation: Businesses will focus on less automation in 2017 as it gives a robotic feel, whereas consumers prefer authentic human interactions. Except chatbots, businesses will focus less on automated social engagement by emphasizing on social media campaigns for interacting directly with customers and listening to their opinions. Brands will also emphasize on building strong relationships by building an organic following and providing humanistic responses.
- Micro-Influencing: As the trend of micro-influencing is taking over the digital industry remarkably, it will have a major impact in 2017. Instead of counting on celebrity endorsements that generally involve a high budget, more and more brands are counting on micro-influencing— an affordable option of generating better returns and yielding higher levels of brand engagement. Micro-influencing is indeed a great way to extend brand reach as they feature real people who are well-informed and passionate, and are considered reliable sources by masses for making purchase decisions. Though micro-influencers have a smaller followings on social media compared to celebrities, they perfectly fit the niche of the brand. A study carried out by the Keller Fay Group and Expertcity in 2016 revealed that 82 percent of consumers prefer the recommendation made by micro-consumers.
- Virtual Reality (VR): The viral popularity of Pokémon Go that took the world by storm in 2016 needs no mention. Taking into consideration the success of Pokémon Go, we can easily predict that VR is going to rule the roost in 2017 as the New Year is likely to introduce innovative techniques of integrating VR into marketing strategies for the mainstream audiences. The trend of replicating human contact will persist not only in 2017 but also in the coming years as VR starts penetrating the market more intensely
Since the New Year has just kicked off, it is high time for marketers to take cues from the previous year to understand what has worked perfectly for them in 2017 so that they can implement those lessons in the present year.
