02 Apr Social Media in 2018: 5 Tips to Survive The Changes
Social media is always changing. Find out now the new trends for 2018 and how can you –successfully- survive them
We can’t deny that social networks rule the market and are one of the main tools to generate profit. These channels are constantly changing and that’s why those who work in this area need to be always prepared.
Media and technological revolutions happen at all moments. So, how can you position your brand in social media with so many changes happening constantly?
Every year new challenges have to be faced and the way each brand takes care of these little revolutions affect directly their success. To make good planning and achieve your goals in social media, it’s necessary to understand the present and future scenario.
From now on you will need to know the trends in social media for this year and plan your strategy accordingly.
What happened in 2017?
2017 was very important for digital marketing and social media. Videos were definitely the big revelation for Facebook and Instagram, as quickly part of their features were dedicated just for posting videos.
However, the organic reach became more difficult due to the constant changes in the algorithm, which brought with it the need to find new ways for the brands to actually be able to appear in their followers feed.
Let’s face them: trends and challenges for this 2018
1. Even more reduction in the reach
If you thought your reach out was being weak, get ready: this is the trend for all social network. First of all, these platforms need to monetize, and that’s why they are making up new ways for you to invest in them. Organic reach is decreasing, hence, you need to spend more money on ads. Try to have a special budget just for this, because the prediction is that this trend is going to keep growing.
Another reason for these reductions is because social networks are prioritizing the experience of the user. This means that a lot of the times your post is not going to appear in your followers feed because is not that relevant to them. Algorithms recognize this and chose the content that the user will prefer.
Finding new creative ways to face these challenges and create engaging content that connects with your target group, is definitely going to be an important task for this whole year.
2. Videos
As we mentioned before, videos are gaining more and more strength, and this will not stop anytime soon. The challenge is that this strategy is beginning to be saturated, so you’ll need to find new contents and ways to make your videos relevant and catchy enough to draw attention to them.
Creativity is going to be your best friend, so don’t be afraid of making uncommon videos.
3. Content generated by the user
The trend is that the followers of brands do not only want to be represented by what they see in social networks: they want to be characters in that construction.
One option to adapt to that reality is to invest in content generated by the user. A good example of that is Buffer, a social media management tool company, which has an Instagram profile 100% built by user messages.
This is actually a good thing that you can take advantage of. Allowing your followers to collaborate with the content will allow you and your team to ease the production of content, and focus more on other strategies.
4. The famous Instagram Stories
First, it was Snapchat. The stories would last for 24 hours, and if you sent a direct video or photo it would not last more than 10 seconds. After Snapchat, Instagram decided to launch the “Instagram Stories”, which are pretty much the same principle: videos or photos that will only last 24 hours, and then will disappear forever.
If the user doesn’t see it in that time frame, they are probably never going to see it. This type of content brings great opportunities for companies because it creates a sense of urgency in the user. The strategy is called “Fear of missing out”, – is literally the fear of losing -, which makes people not want to lose that moment in any way.
Such characteristics bring the opportunity to involve even more users, who only have that specific moment to experience and share the content.
5. Z Generation for the win
According to Business Insider, those born between 1998- 2012 belong to the Z Generation. Their lives have been shaped by social media and technology. The consumption habits of this generation are very much affected by social media: 80% of their purchases are influenced by what they see on the online platforms.
These young people offer great opportunities, once they believe in a company they become defenders of the brand. But attention! The opposite also happens, and when they are disappointed with a product, service or customer service, they can become the nightmare of any business.
Therefore, knowing how to work with that part of society, growing and more powerful, is a fundamental factor for the success or failure of a brand.
Recap
2017 set the pace for some changes and challenges that we have to face today. Algorithms, videos, new generations, tools and more have to be taken into consideration when we make our digital strategies, especially when talking about social media. Not being aware of this will easily leave you behind every other brand or influencer.
HARSEST
No Better Than The Best, Better Than The Rest
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Stockholm, Sweden since 2014
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