‘What’s going to be happening online in next twelve months, twelve weeks, twelve hours…? How, where and when do we identify which channels and platforms are best suited for what it is we’re trying to do with our brand?!’
Increasingly we’re finding that we’re having to research and summarise for our clients what’s going on in an increasingly pacy world, helping to identify not only what is happening now but what’s coming through. Means we can be both proactive and reactive almost simultaneously.
So taking social media, what’s 2018 likely to bring? Here’s our very brief take on it, three platforms at least. Some stats, some ideas and some observations. It could of course have all changed by the time I hit ‘publish’..!
2018 set to be the year of the Influencer. Influencer marketing places the focus on influential people rather than a target market as a whole and marketing activity is orientated at these influencers. In 2016-7 over 80% of marketers utilised social influencers and 94% consider it benefited brand.
Influence is not about number of followers or engagement, it’s ability to drive ACTION.
Instagram. Fastest growing social media platform with 600m unique users monthly, 53% of whom follow brands. Since Instagram launched Stories a year ago the number of daily users at 300m has increased by 160% and it is expected that by the end of 2018 over half of users will use Stories.
Facebook actively downgrades business content in users feeds via its content display algorithms, this makes it hard to gain visibility. Facebook Live videos. Watched 3x longer than regular videos and will push brands toward embracing spontaneous creative moments through live streaming. Videos for mobile should be 15 seconds or less (that’s Facebook speaking), use captions as sound increasingly muted. If longer then ensure key messaging comes in during 15 seconds.
Twitter is all about the latest news, anything too promo gets less traction, Instagram now has twice as many followers as Twitter. Use Live Broadcast for product news, reviews and interviews with influencers. With video now part of Twitter makes for great engagement and mobile friendly.
