Social Media has been taking centre stage in the past year or so and many stories revolving around it made headlines. Facebook enticed Snapchat users to join and use Instagram and social media was also used by politicians to announce their official policies all in about 140 characters.
One thing is certain; social media is here to stay. There is a great deal of evolvement on the social media scene from users interacting with social media content to new strategies becoming mainstream.
There are several new and interesting social media trends to look forward to in 2018
- Instagram Stories will become popular than ever before– Statistics reveal that nearly 200 million people are active on Instagram and this number is 50 million more than the Snapchat users.
The fact is that Instagram stories is just over a year and a half of and at this rate nearly half of the Instagram users will be using Instagram stories by the end of 2018. Brands which are keen on connecting with the oh so many Instagram users must work on understanding and using Instagram Stories.
- Augmented Reality on the Rise- Apple Technologies announced their new super smart phones all set to hit the market in 2018 namely, the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. Both these devices come with a smart new chip that promises to deliver users amazing and never seen before augmented reality experiences.
It is a well-known fact that augmented reality will have its initial impact on gaming on mobile devices, but social media platforms will not be too far behind in implementing the new technology as well.
- Influencer Marketing will continue to thrive– it has been said that 90% of the brands and companies that employ the Influencer Marketing Strategy believe wholeheartedly in its success.
Rolex, North Face and HubSpot are some of the well-known brands that use influencer marketing strategies and their success stories will compel the brands which opted for traditional marketing plans to come over to the Influencer marketing strategy side. In case you need to need a social media aggregator application you might want to check Sprouter.
- Live streaming will expand-it has been estimated that nearly 2.5 billion people worldwide use messaging services and yet brands are purely focussing on connecting with customers through social media platforms.
Come 2018 and brands will be seen investing more time and money in connecting and staying in touch with customers through messaging services like Messenger, WhatsApp and Kik.
- Generation Z in the limelight– A study by Goldman Sacs revealed that Gen Z was more valuable to companies and businesses than millennials. The oldest among the Gen Z are the 22-year olds who are just beginning to enter the workforce arena and they will have more buying more in their hands compared to others.
Brands will recognise this change and we will see a shift in their marketing strategies to concentrate on the Gen Z with more time spent on social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram so loved by them.
- Twitter may take a pause– Over the past year it was seen that Twitter has failed to grow followers significantly and other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Linked have more users than Twitter.
The social media networking tool also lost the rights to stream the NFL Games to Amazon and 2018 may see the Twitter leadership making changes to how the social media tool operates. Possible methods of revamping may include new and interesting advertising options or a subscription element.
- Live Streaming to become even more popular– Live streaming was once considered a novel and not so common gimmick of organisations but today it has become mainstream in social media campaigns.
Live streaming was done to capture the attention of the followers and an example of a not so big brand which has been extremely successful the past year by live streaming some very compelling and interesting content on Facebook is Goruck, a backpack manufacturer and extreme endurance events organiser.
- Digital hangouts will become commonplace– Houseparty is a popular video hangout platform and it is used by nearly one million people every day. It is mostly used by Gen Zers to hand out or spend time with friends digitally. Infact, the app has become so popular that facebook is investigating means to create a similar set up within their platform.
Videos became an integral part of social media and video hangout groups is the next gradual next step of the concept. 2018 may bring an announcement by Facebook of a video digital hangout feature within its platform, for its users and if so, then it is sure to become a resounding success.
- Facebook Spaces taking the scene by storm– Facebook is always looking for ways to improvise and add to new features for their users. The social media giant is not just interested in live video streaming , it is working on a project by the name Spaces.
This new feature will allow friends to connect while on Facebook in virtual reality. Facebook is all set to announce Spaces in 2018 and when this happens then it will be the first VR Social Media Product by large.
- Stronger governance policies for Social Media platforms– the 2016 Presidential Elections brought worth a lot of controversies for social media platforms and the a few of the organisations decided to adopt a more hand on approach to managing and governing conduct on their platforms.
Given the huge criticism Facebook and Twitter received during 2016 it is quite likely that the social media platforms will embrace stringent governance policies and codes of conduct that protect them from future brickbats.
Conclusion
Several social media trends that will affect the users as well as companies are taking shape for 2018. It is quite likely that virtual reality and video streaming will go mainstream in the coming year. Brands are also more likely to turn to platforms like Snapchat and Instagram as the much in focus Gen Zers use them more than the others.
