Social media has evolved far past the days of sharing your turkey sandwich and waiting to see if your friends like it. It’s become a marketing tool for small and large businesses alike, and has been so integrated into a company’s success that it’s nearly impossible to manage without a social media management team working with you on all of your interactions.
The digital world is never done evolving, and each year social media experts adapt to the new trends that take over Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. A solid management team is able to quickly adapt to new changes, and we’re here to share with you the top social media trends that are taking over 2018 – and how you can integrate them into your practices.
Table of Contents
Influencers
Let’s start with a little true/false question. True or false: Kylie Jenner or some other massive social media influencer needs to promote your product in order for it to be successful. We’ll give you a second to think about it…All done? The answer is: false! Micro influencers have been one of the trends that we’ve seen taking over 2018 so far. It’s no longer required that you have a massive celebrity backing your product to see a bit of success. Restaurants, jewelry companies, and clothing brands have all seen social media marketing success in using what’s called a micro influencer.
These micro influencers are people who typically have less than 100,000 followers on social media, and paying them to promote a product that they know their followers are going to listen to is often a safer bet than trying to cast a massive net with a huge influencer. If you’re interested in trying a micro influencer to help promote your brand, we recommend starting with someone that you know is going to reach your target audience. If a Las Vegas food blogger is constantly checking out ramen places, and you’re opening an udon store, it may be a wise investment to invite them out.
Live Video
Live video may not be a new social media trend, but it has been one that’s seen considerable success so far in 2018. Live video has been so integrated into social media that it’s now difficult for a company’s marketing strategy to succeed without it. The honest truth is that your fans and clients want to see you, hear your words, and feel your personality. Live video offers a more open look into how your company operates and gives a much more personal feel to your brand.
Consumers have gone on record saying that they prefer watching a live video to either reading a blog post or seeing social media post, and we can’t argue. The best part is that most social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat come with live feed integrated into it, so you don’t need any special software or training to access it.
Paid Ads
Don’t panic when we tell you this next trend. It turns out that in 2018, organic reach is plummeting. There are so many users on social media, with so much information constantly coming at them, that it’s becoming more and more difficult to reach them through traditional means. Simply slapping a post up saying ‘hey, we’ve got a sale going on’ and not putting any kind of promotion into it is frankly not going to reach a lot of people.
If it does reach them, it probably will not get quite as much engagement as it once did. To counteract this, many companies are putting more effort into paid ads or working with a social media management team to assist in creating more engaging copy and posts. This trend is by no means a roadblock to the success of your marketing, but it does allow for a chance to be more creative and thoughtful when making posts.