6 Social Media Trends You Need to Be Prepared for in 2018

prepare for the main social media trends for 2018

What? Changes again? Well, of course! It’s that time of the year again.

Grab a cup of coffee and let’s take a look at what’s coming our way. We’ve been preparing the social media trends for 2018 for quite some time, gathering information and checking reports.

Before I reveal our findings for 2018, let’s recap the social media trends for 2017:

  1. Real-time response to gain more ground – check!
  2. Organic growth on social networks is harder and harder to achieve and ads become the norm – check!
  3. Marketing automation becomes more and more essential – check!
  4. Personalization is crucial – check! (even more important in the year to come – see below)
  5. AI, AR, VR, chat bots, and immersive reality make their way into marketers’ everyday lives – check!

Now let’s see what the social media trends for 2018 look like.

Getting Ready – 6 Social Media Trends for 2018

Not sure how to tackle your social media strategy for 2018? Take a look at the trends below and you’ll know where to start.

  1. Mobile is King

Almost 60% of US users will access Facebook exclusively through a mobile device by 2020. Couple that with the fact that 80% of Facebook’s ad revenue comes from mobile and you’ll understand why you need to prepare for this.

Even more, you have to take into account the fact that Facebook is one of the last social networks that hasn’t been exclusively built for mobile. Snapchat and Instagram, the new(er) kids on the block didn’t even bother with a full-options desktop version.

That’s got to tell us something, right?

  1. Personalization Matters Even More

Three out of four users are frustrated when the content they receive is not relevant to their needs or to their taste. We already know that personalization is important in marketing emails.

It looks like this trend is about to become the norm for social media, too. How do we know this? Most social networks are improving their analytics capabilities. They are empowering marketers with the tools to be even more precise with their targeting.

Going beyond age and gender for your buyer persona is already old news. But tapping into their lifestyle and passions with accuracy is definitely something that will re-shape marketing in general, not just social media.

In this brand new world, relevant and personalized content is a must. Which brings us to the next point on our list of social media trends for 2018.

  1. Social Listening Is no Longer Optional

I’m sure you already know that social media is a two-ways street. You can’t simply automate the delivery of posts and forget about it. You need to engage, respond, ask questions, identify influencers and so on.

Social listening helps you go further than that. It helps you deliver the right message at the right time and to the right audience.

More than monitoring, social listening helps you understand what truly matters to your audience. Whether you need to be acknowledging a piece of recent news of speak about the recent pink chocolate rage, social listening gives you the scoop.

Better yet, you can use it to swoop in and steal your competitors’ thunder. In the end, it’s all about reaction speed in 2018!

  1. Marketers Have to Learn how to Manage Similar Social Channels

Each social network is trying harder and harder to be a one-stop-shop for its users and a one-stop-spend for its marketers. This is why they are borrowing similar features from one another.

Instagram introduced “Stories”, which is a way to channel Snapchat users on its platform and, more recently, Twitter announced that it might make 280-character tweets available for all users.

Despite the polarization that such news and updated generate, one thing is clear: marketers will have to learn how to deal with overlapping channels and features. If you’re reading the Idunn blog regularly, then you must already know that I always advice marketers and business owners not to stretch themselves too thin.

When you choose digital marketing channels or social networks, make sure you can give each of them your best. And, speaking of social media trends for 2018, always be prepared to exploit new features. This means, of course, leave some room in your schedule to learn how to accommodate new opportunities.

You don’t have to be on both Snapchat and Instagram if it doesn’t make sense from a ROI perspective. You can test both of them (along with other networks) and let the analytics report which deserves your full attention.

  1. Video Continues to Reign Supreme

Speaking of Instagram Stories, it turns out that it was a good decision for the company to implement them. More and more people are using Stories on a daily basis and this trend is expected to grow in 2018.

The same goes for videos on any social media network. From live broadcasting to tutorials and funny videos, motion picture has social media users captivated. If you don’t have a video strategy yet, it’s high time you created one for 2018.

  1. Influencer Marketing Takes over Social Media Networks

Gen Z users are currently the demographic that everyone’s attention is turning to. The oldest of them are 22-23 years old, which means some of them have already entered the workforce and more will do so quite soon.

This will give them a larger purchase power, hence the attention they are receiving from social media experts. Couple this with the fact that Generation Z is made up of the first digital natives and you’ll understand why your social media strategy for 2018 needs to be updated.

These people demand more than your word to even take you into consideration. They are looking for sustainable brands, eco-activists, societal involvement – in a nutshell, they will buy from brands who share their interests.

And what better way to convey that than through influencers? The Abercrombie & Fitch example speaks volumes about the importance of social media influencers.

If you haven’t yet tapped into all that potential, now is the time to start.

Do the social media trends for 2018 seem a bit intimidating? What if you had awesome, ROI-oriented social media experts in your corner? We’re just a contact form away:

 

 

 

 

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Adriana Tica is an expert marketer and copywriter, with 10 years in the field, most of which were spent marketing tech companies. She is the Owner and Founder of Idunn. In October 2019, she also launched Copywritech, a digital marketing agency that provides copywriting, SEO content writing, and strategy services to companies in the tech industry.

1 Comentariu la “6 Social Media Trends You Need to Be Prepared for in 2018”

  1. Top 6 Digital Marketing Trends You Need to Be Prepared for in 2018 says:
    October 19, 2017 at 1:23 pm

    […] already covered the social media trends for 2018, so I will focus on a more general approach in this article. You can also check the 2017 digital […]

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