Expert Predictions about Social Media Marketing in 2018

2017 has been a great year for SMM (Social Media Marketing) but there is more coming up in 2018 as social media channels widen their services for businesses. Earlier it was restricted to just building a brand presence online but now, it is as effective for publicity as mouth to mouth publicity.

No other platform is as powerful as social media for businesses to get in touch with direct customers. Anybody missing out on this aspect is missing out the best targeting options. The enormous number of organic and paid reach updates make sure that your marketing budget is well spent.

All leading brands are trying their level best in all possible ways to connect with audiences across a range of social platforms. They have gone beyond Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, utilizing the power and features offered by other new platforms such as Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest, etc.

They have assessed the fact that it is very difficult to catch the attention of customers. This is credited to the rise in competition. According to a research, our attention spans have decreased to just 8 seconds as we scroll through 300 feet of content, which comprises of posts by friends, by pages you have liked and by social media platform itself. Amidst this, it is very difficult to grab user’s attention.

What should be done to match this speed of scrolling a social media platform? What tricks of techniques will work if we wish to make the best use of social media for our campaigns and shout outs? Here are top 5 social media trends that you must include in your marketing strategy for 2018.

Social Media Marketing Trends 2018:

1. Find out all options

Cheat codes exist everywhere. Find out all the cheat sheets that can help you to track the free and paid social media shout out options. Also, stay updated with the latest improvements and algorithm updates of social media platforms so that you don’t miss out on anything.

2. Make use of chat-bots

Most of the social media platforms now come with chatbot options so as to make services delivered to customers faster. Be it solving customer issues and even ordering pizza, chatbots are able to provide an instant connection with customers from all over the world. Nearly 20% of operations in 2018 will be performed by chatbots.

3. Focus on short-lived content

Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook stories have led to the popularity of short-lived content, which is shared for up to 24 hours and then disappears forever. Brands are utilizing this feature for harnessing making eyeballs. They even have a separate strategy for their ephemeral content marketing.

4. Incorporate augmented reality

Mobile friendly sites are an added advantage to all businesses, we all know. However, with the use of augmented reality on mobile devices, businesses will make their websites stand out in their niche. It is so quick, easy and interactive, that it will be the most engaging way for marketers to reach their target audience in 2018.

5. Turn to real experts for shout outs

Gone are the days of influencer marketing when brands turned towards influencers with over 10,000 Instagram followers to promote their product. The audience will eventually get bored and lose trust. The opinions of real experts compiled in the form of a video or infographic content will help to maintain relationships with customers.

6. Use video-based content

According to a recent research, all social media platforms have begun yielding the best results in terms of reach and engagement on video contents. The way we consume video is changing as more and more video-based contents are being produced. The video is the fastest growing ad format in the world and has been doubling year after year.

7. Plan campaigns in holidays

Most of your potential clients are free during the holidays and spend a lot of time on social media. Thus, holidays such as Christmas become the best time of the year to launch marketing campaigns and attract customers to your online store or website. If you have a special discount or cash back offer going on during a holiday season, your sales are likely to go up.

8. Create public figures from within your team

Every employee can be their own brand, thus, an extension of your organization. People are genuinely and generally more interested in the brand stories and work culture of the organization. In 2018, an increase in company-wide involvement and storytelling across social media will be beneficial.

9. Use feedback from clients

Feedback from clients in the form of pictures and videos will definitely help you raise your brand image. They can deepen trust with your audiences by educating and promoting at the same time. Also, each and every client will have a different thing to convey. Try to present the versatility of your product to the audiences that you are targeting.

10. Measurement of goals

Social media channels will help to derive analytics for future references. Social media analytics platforms now provide the tools and expertise to help companies do their advertising and social media marketing more easily. Hence, reducing their dependence on intuitive methodology.

11. Understand artificial intelligence

2018 will be the year of Artificial Intelligence. It’s been gaining popularity and steadily growing, even though it’s still in the early stages, it will be incorporated in social media handles. This means, not black hat techniques will work in social media marketing. AI-based tools will pop up in the coming year.

These 11 techniques are the sure shot for success over social media marketing in the coming year. However, there is always a scope for identifying new means of reaching out to people and meeting the demands of the future.

This does not imply that you can skip these techniques and work on the new ones. No, never! You first need to make the best possible use of these 11 techniques for social media management and then, go ahead for experimentation.

smm trends 2018
image source: pixabay.com

 

Now, if you find it difficult to do the wholesome work by yourself, no worries. You can hire professions for social media marketing. Various social media marketing experts are sitting around the globe to give an additional boost to your brand.

The experts have predicted the following things for Social Media Marketing in the coming year (2018):

  1. 2018 will see a significant rise in businesses and brands using Facebook Messenger with chatbots as a reactive marketing tool.
  2. Content creators with evolved methods of content presentation with boost their sales through social media users.
  3. The trend will shift towards brands utilizing user-generated content such as client testimonials, product reviews etc. for publicity and promotions.
  4. Advertising campaigns on social media will beat ad networks and hence, create diversification in the channels on investment.
  5. Smart marketers will learn how to effectively spend ad dollars on other social networks like Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and even Reddit.
  6. As the freshness of being able to “go live” from any device rises, the key differentiator will be the creation of high-quality, relevant video.
  7. Face and story of the brand will build more trustworthy relationships with the customers.
  8. Integration of social media profiles on the website such as the Twitter handle, Facebook page, and YouTube channel will create a better brand image.
  9. Analytics will help brands to measure accurately the impact of things like sponsorship activity and user-generated content.
  10. AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) will be incorporated to shun down plagiarism and ingenuine information.

Having so much already predicted, the list is yet incomplete. As more gets added, we can expert a wider range of possibilities waiting for us. In fact, may be outdoor marketing is replaced by online marketing completely. So, you have the goal ready.

Start harnessing the power of social media for your marketing campaigns from today itself. Meet the experts who can guide you to make the best output from your investment in the marketing campaigns over social media.

Plan head of the future so that you can walk with the future. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, etc will be big assets to organizations. But very few, like the one reading this article, are aware of this asset creation. The money you invest is similar to any other investment.

We hope the new year will be full of more opportunities and more success!

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Amit Mishra

Amit Mishra, the co-founder of Media Search Group, loves to pen down about marketing and designing. Be it search engine optimization(SEO) tips and strategies, Social Media Optimization, Increasing Engagement, and Traffic Score, Web Design and Development, Mobile Applications, Conversion/Sales, he covers it all. Been in the business for a long time, Amit Mishra knows some of the best strategies on how to expand and grow a Business Online.