Social Media Trends to Look out for in 2018

Social media strategies are becoming an increasingly important part of businesses’ digital marketing strategies. However, social media is constantly changing and it influences other areas of marketing. For example, changes in the social media world can affect who your target audience could be; this is why it’s important to stay updated. Below, we’ve shared the top social media trends that you should look out for going into 2018; it could be time to make a change with your social strategy!

Instagram Stories Is the Next Chapter

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Everyone was a little wary about Instagram Stories when they first came about around a year ago; many people saw them as a Snapchat copy and couldn’t see how they’d work on the platform. However, they’ve now become bigger than ever and they’re definitely one of our top social media trends to really look out for in 2018! The number of daily viewers of Instagram Stories has completely exceeded the number of viewers of Snapchat stories this year; over 200 million people use Instagram Stories each month.

From a marketing perspective, Instagram Stories can be really effective for engagement with your business. Accounts with over 10,000 followers are now able to add a link directly in their stories to their website or articles; before this feature, you could only add a link in your bio. Stories are also a great way to add personality to a company, making your audience much more likely to engage with you.

 

Being Influenced by Influencers

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Influencer marketing has definitely become one of the fastest growing social media trends in the marketing world in 2017. In 2018, we predict that the investment in it is only going to increase. Around 90% of marketers already using influencer marketing as part of their strategy say that it’s been successful for their business.

For those that don’t know, influencers are people with a large following on social media platforms, particularly YouTube and Instagram. Essentially, they influence their followers to buy your product or service just by saying they use it themselves and think it’s great. We spoke more about this form of marketing in our previous blog post predicting the future of digital marketing and SEO. Influencer marketing is a fantastic way to connect with new audiences, as well as increasing the positive engagement from your current following. It’s worth really taking a look at your target audience as some demographics respond much better to influencer marketing. Generation Z, in particular, respond well to influencer marketing; we’ll talk about this later as they’re another part of our social media trends to look out for.

Twitter Is Going to Change

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We don’t know about you, but we’ve been predicting this change for a while and it seems many other people are beginning to agree with us. In 2018, Twitter is going to start changing, or at least it needs to start changing. Why? Twitter is the slowest growing social media platform and with the increased popularity of other platforms, it has started to take a backseat. If you’ve noticed a change in your Twitter engagements during 2017, this is probably the reason why!

We can’t predict exactly how Twitter is going to change, but what we do know is it really needs to start competing with the bigger platforms out there such as Facebook and Instagram. This year, we’ve already seen the change in character limit from 140 to 280, suggesting that they’ve already noticed they need to start matching their competitors. If you focus on Twitter as your main form of social media marketing, this is definitely the one of our social media trends you should really keep a watch on; it may be time to change your approach.

Social Media for Publishing

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One of the social media trends that started creeping in during 2017 is that of using social media platforms to publish articles on; this trend is proving popular with audiences, which could suggest marketers are going to be putting more of a focus on this in 2018. LinkedIn, in particular, has become increasingly popular as a tool for publishing B2B articles.

Facebook has also introduced ‘Instant Articles’, which allow you to publish articles straight from your Facebook app. With both Snapchat and Instagram now letting you add links to your stories, it’s a great way to link your social media marketing together on all platforms.

Think Z … Be Z

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Whilst we’re focusing on social media trends, we can’t forget who the target audience is going to be. In 2018, it’s predicted that businesses are going to be putting a huge focus on Generation Z compared to the current industry focus on Millenials. The oldest members of Generation Z are around the age of 20-22 currently.

Generation Z are beginning to make their mark on the workforce, and they’re changing the way we work. Gen Z will have increased buying power for a long time now, hence why businesses should be focusing on them as their target customers. They are very focused on technology and are more active on social media than any other generation. Businesses should be investing their time into platforms that are popular with Generation Z, such as Instagram and Snapchat. As we mentioned earlier, influencer marketing is one of the social media trends to look out for in 2018 and this is largely because Generation Z are so heavily influenced by it.

If you need help creating the perfect social media strategy for your business to keep up with the ever changing social media trends, contact the team at Active Internet Marketing (UK). Give us a call on 0800 772 0650 or fill out our short contact form and we’ll get in touch with you!

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