7 Social Media Trends for Marketers

The social media is an ever-growing industry, and it doesn’t seem to take a break. Infact as of 2017, most people prefer contacting companies via Social-networks instead of calling toll-free numbers, or E-mails.

The above pie-chart establishes the fact that Social networks are here to stay and that’s a fact.

So now as that’s established, let’s have a sneak-peek at some of the social media trends which are either already taking shape, or are projected to do so in 2017.

1. Social Media Bots will continue to grow and are bound to get  better A.I Capabilities.

Sometime last year, Facebook introduced “Messenger bots”, earlier they were just “chat bots” which talked to you, provided weather reports and stuff as such.

But now the bots are doing much more than just talking. They’re taking orders, accepting and processing payments, offering suggestions and much more.

In short, they’re eliminating the need of “sales representatives” to an extent, and in the near future probably will completely do so.

So companies are naturally going to invest more (Triple to be exact, source:- MarketingWeek) in the betterment as well as development of their bots.

And it’s not just limited to “Facebook”. Soon enough, other social media platforms would have their company as well.

2. Mobile Ads will Grow

Doesn’t matter if you’re on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat, a majority of their profits reek in from “Mobile ads”.

And rightly so, considering how over $7Billion were brought in for Facebook (source:- Hubspot) from mobile ads alone.

And as TechCrunch reports, $31Billion in total, which is 51% of the total ad-spent last year was spent on “Mobile ads!” Not to mention the 22% growth in Mobile ads, which boosted up to $72Billion in total in 2016!

Also for the advertisers, it’s proving to be a better investment because most people have already transitioned from Desktops to cell phones for accessing Facebook or Instagram.

So if you’re an Advertiser or a marketer, it’s the right time to put aside some of your investment-money for mobile ads, because as time progresses, so will the costs along with the ROI for these ads.

3. Virtual Reality Capitalization

VR is still an infant, but by the end of this year it’s going to start showing signs of Adolescence, that is it won’t be limited to just “Watching videos” anymore.

Brands are likely to invest more in VR for purposes such as Virtual experience of their products, Travel start-ups or companies would use it to get us a kind of “demo” of the trip, and social-networks would most probably start offering virtual locations/ friendships and experiences such as “Second life”.

4. An Increase in Live Videos

Facebook, Instagram, Periscope and every other big brand out there has already integrated live video streaming into their features.

Everyone from local singers, to Prime ministers of countries have used live-streaming over social networks to reach people in real-time.

There’s no reason why it’ll go down in 2017! If anything, it’s going to shoot through the roof.

Brands and companies will use it more and more for sneak-peaks, people of importance or celebrities will use it to connect to their fan-base, and those who aren’t “so important” will still find a way to use it.

Bottomline? It’s going to increase!

5. Expiring Content

By expiring content we mean content which isn’t permanent. Something like the Instagram or Facebook stories.

It creates a sense of urgency, and people get to view the content only for the given amount of time. Hence there’s a certain kind of pull to it.

Brands have already made records using it, for eg. The Frame maker brand- Warby Parker sold out its frames in record time using Snapchat stories!

Also Live videos are mostly “expiring” after they’re over, considering how they’re “Live”, they also create a sense of “Authenticity” or virginity might be the better word, untouched, unedited, just pure content.

6. Visual Content over Text!

Be it live videos, photos, stories or any other kind of content, 2017 will see a dominance by Visual content rather than text.

Simply because they’re easier for people  to understand, as the human mind processes images 60,000x faster as compared to text.

And also because images/videos etc. Are naturally more descriptive than any paragraph of text can ever be.

7. Organic reach would decrease!

It’s already taking effect from around 2016, but in 2017 it’s going to be more prominent. Not all your friends see what you post on social networks, only a fraction of them does.

So the more friend’s you’ve got, the less reach your posts would actually be able to gather. It’s better to keep your circle small, so the few people who actually see your posts are close-enough or atleast know you or your brand to interact with those posts.

Final Words:-

These are some of the most prominent, repeatedly pronounced predictions for 2017  Social media trends.

While not all, but most of these are likely to come true. Do let me know your feedback and opinion on the predictions as well as current trends in the comments down there.

About the Author: Danish Wadhwa

Danish Wadhwa ( https://fly.biz/blog ) is Digital Marketing & Branding Pro, who is helping startup and business for sales conversion optimization. His drive, passion, and analytical mind enabled his successful foray into the arena of Marketing & Sales Automation