28Dec
It’s the end of the year. Reflect. Ponder. Review – 2016 saw celebrity feuds over Snapchat, the US election through a Facebook lens, and Vine’s fall from grace.
Now consider the future.
Are you into social media marketing? Then take note, because these trends should directly affect your ability to reach your audience. Welcome to the outlook for 2017, a year that appears to be more visual than every before.
1) Live Video
Pay TV (think cable and satellite) subscribers are planning to cut back their subscriptions in record numbers. They’re opting for social and digital content. Through Facebook Live and YouTube, we’ve seen a little of what live digital streaming is going to look like, but it’s still in infancy.
As viewers move from TV to digital, so must advertisers. Daily Facebook posts are great, but a weekly live update is even better.
2) Social Messaging
Social networks may be popular, but they’ve got nothing on social messaging apps. In February 2016, WhatsApp hit the 1 billion user mark. Businesses that want to survive in 2017 are going to need to take a look at these apps and figure out how a one-on-one messaging strategy works for them.
3) Social Storytelling
This year, we saw Instagram adopt Snapchat’s Stories feature, which enables users to share pictures of their day as it happens. We also saw the incorporation of advertising into Snapchat’s format, allowing companies to share interactive pictures and videos with users.
As these storytelling features are incorporated into more social networks and other forms of social media, it’s imperative that businesses, especially those that target youths, adapt their strategies to include this kind of storytelling.
4) Visual Content
2016 was all about content, specifically written content. In 2017, businesses will need to evolve past keywords and blog posts and move into providing other kinds of content.
5) Virtual and Augmented Reality
What was once science fiction is now the future of marketing. In 2016, we saw augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) take the world by storm. The potential for AR and VR marketing goes well beyond putting ads in a Pokémon Go knockoff or an Oculus game.
Virtual reality also means virtual social spaces—meaning that people can use VR to communicate with one another. We know for a fact that Facebook is looking for a way to incorporate itself into VR within the next 10 years, and businesses should start looking for advertising opportunities outside the realm of traditional online and social media.
6) Trust and Reliability
2016 saw the mainstream social media conversation turn towards fake news. How can you trust what your friend is posting on Facebook? The response is a new hypervigilance in fighting against the scourge of fake news. While the news media are vowing to fight fake news to regain their audiences’ trust, businesses must do the same.
As the social media universe expands, so does the spread of false information, which in turn causes skepticism among consumers. By establishing a reputation of trustworthiness and reliability, a brand can push through this skepticism.
The key to establishing that trust is figuring out the perception of your business online, and building on that perception.
Overall, 2017 is the most visual year yet, and with the advances in AR and VR, it may lead to marketing that incorporates all of the senses. It’s important for businesses to stay ahead of the trends, and innovate beyond expectations in order to stay relevant and reach an increasingly connected and global audience.
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