The Present and Future Trends of Social Media That Will Dictate 2017

Written By: Anthony Weiner

Social media is not all tech; to a large extent it’s about the people using the apps and websites to share their everyday likes, dislikes, and thoughts. If you think social media has reached its pinnacle of success, you are nothing but mistaken. Social media, to a great extent, is like a living being. It is breathing, moving, evolving and adapting to the daily needs of its users.

This is both a great challenge and opportunity for the digital marketers who are using social media as their platform of promotion. Technology makes up for the large part of social media that draws marketer’s. However, it is the activity of the members – creation, publishing, sharing and different forms of visual interactions that gives social marketing its edge.

Video Is Hot, Rest Is Not

According to Mendelson, VP of Facebook in Europe, “Videos on Facebook are growing faster than we ever anticipated. Within the next 5 years Facebook will be all video”. And this is not surprising at all. Do you remember Mark Zuckerberg’s comic Q/A with Jerry Seinfeld on Facebook?Well, that video on Facebook live reached over 9 million views.

Real-time video is taking over the world of social media. From Snapchat to Instagram, every leading social platform is doing it and people are loving it.

So if you are not comfortable with creating real-time social media videos get a Trustworthy SEO Company to do it for you.

Social Internet

Facebook is still the leading social network. It is dominating the social media with video, user stats and advertising that is here to stay for a while. Even with the advent of the video age Facebook has preserved its leading share in the market.

A few future predictions do tell us that, Instagram will be the next big thing on social media. But this will definitely not be at the cost of Facebook followers and users, at least, not anytime soon.

So think about making your company profile more socially inclined. Your potential customers may like to informally interact with your brand and services before even entering your corporate website.

The Social Convergence

2016 saw a spike in the number of Facebook users, Instagrammers and bloggers like no other year. Now with the convergence of Microsoft and LinkedIn, one can only imagine the dynamic boost in innovations that will change the way we see marketing and advertising.

The Cost Effect Ratio Of Playing Social

Did you know what social media advertising generated a moderate $6.1 billion in revenues in 2013? By the end of 2017 the numbers are expected to reach whopping $11 billion. More than adapted strategizing, this will be caused by a rise in the number of options for social advertising.

Have you used the new updates of Snapchat and Instagram? If so, you may have noticed how advertisements are inserted between user content. Most of these ads are in sync with the user’s shopping trends and app use trends as well.

As far as the near future is concerned, there is no way around paid advertising on social media. And why not?Social networking platforms like Facebook and Instagram are allowing you to reach out to millions with just one optimized post.

Chats Bots Vs. Customer Service Agents

Facebook has again ushered a new era where customers can interact with bots to satisfy their basic questions and curiosities. Have you used the latest version of Kik messenger? This app offers an interesting milieu of bots that can keep the user engaged for hours. They are informative and entertaining. It is a glorious opportunity for corporations to tap into the trend and create specialized bots (and maybe some AI) for their customers.

Mobile First, Rest To Follow

2016 was the year of native mobile apps and mobile friendly websites. Google has already started showing preference for websites that are mobile optimized. Smartphone traffic exceeded desktop traffic in 2014 and by the end of 2016 about 2 billion people were expected to own a smartphone.

Automation On Social Media

This is the era of automation. Social media automation provides a wonderful opportunity to the companies to better analyze customer behavior and offer the users the right content at the right time. This can be a part of machine learning and big data. There will be an extensive involvement of human expertise to kick-start the automation movement on social media. But this is going to be huge for online social advertising once it is set in motion.

User Involvement And Participation

A recent trend shows that people are more motivated than ever in creating social content alongside their favorite brands and celebs. This has opened a new window of opportunity for the brands, where they can partner with their consumers to serve mutual interests.

This is one of the most wonderful manifestations of the “user-generated content” scenario. Since many roads lead to Rome, corporations can choose between videos, images or plain ol’ text to communicate with their consumers. There is nothing more momentous than influencing passionate people (customers) to co-create a brand image and propagate a bran campaign that is both scalable and of high quality.

Social media is, to a large extent, composed of dynamic consumer behavior and brand interactions. Social platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow the consumers to directly interact with corporations. This has a huge impact on marketing strategies and the brand image these interactions co-create.

It is really important that brands equip themselves with the genius to look beyond the present of social media advertising into a realm of social platforms integrated with VR, AR and user-generated content that will exponentially increase the impact of their campaigns.

Author Bio: Anthony Weiner is an expert of social media marketing and the dynamics surrounded with user-generated content. He believes the right combination of a Trustworthy SEO Company and a brilliant team of advertising experts can make all the difference during any brand campaign.