Just like social media is driving everyone crazy, the marketers are making it more insane. The total population of the social media platform is over 3billion, and it is increasing every day. With all the data and the power to track everyone, social media is the preferable platform for the marketer to build the brands. This is the fastest growing industry and also ever-changing.
That is why the trends of social media marketing are kept changing with the time. For example, one of the most trending thing on the Facebook marketing last year is the use GIFs as ads and posts. The GIF update from the Facebook helped the brands and marketers to think out of the box and get the maximum reach as possible. But with the New Year and new updates in only three months, a lot of things happened to start on the social media platforms. That is why being a veteran social media marketer and blogger I decided to write a blog on the top trends of the social media marketing of 2017.
The Chatbots:
The Chatbots are the product of the artificial intelligence. The better the artificial intelligence technology will become, the smarter our Chatbots will be. Just like Facebook is incorporating the latest artificial intelligence in their Chatbots, marketers are getting better ways to communicate with their audience. All the new brands that are entering into the social media marketing and the old ones as well all are turning towards the chatbots to provide better customer care and customer service. They know that the customer doesn’t like to wait for long that is why chatbots are the best way to keep them engaged until any brand representative don’t take the control. Due to its advantage of reducing the response time to customer’s query, use of chatbots on the social media platforms has become the top trend of 2017. So if you have to keep your Facebook page’s messenger in check even in the shower, you should start reading about the algorithms of the Facebook chatbots.
Live Videos:
The Facebook has already dropped a bomb called Facebook Live on their users last year. Which I find very annoying honestly because I don’t think anyone is interested in watching their friends live on their laptops or smartphones. However I figured out a different strategy to use this tool which many of the other social media marketers were also using and in the period of fewer than 90 days, this has become the top trends in social media marketing. Brands are using it to broadcast their BTL activities live for free, and the best thing about this is that they can even boost it and get the maximum reach.
Social Messaging:
Since Facebook has announced that people over the year have turned to private social messaging on their billion user’s celebration, the marketers have leaped out the paper of the Facebook and now using social messaging to reach maximum people. In just under the three months, a drastic change has been witnessed in the strategies of the marketers that with the ads, they are now incorporating messengers in their campaigns also.
Use of Influencers:
To get the maximum reach, brands are now more in getting the celebrities behind their back. I am not saying that they are casting big Hollywood superstars, but we have our own stars of social media. There are many stars of social media to whom we call “influencers” in our marketing terms that get a lot of reach on their posts and have a huge fan following. Facebook influencers like “Amanda Cerny” or “Jalals” who have got likes in thousands are the most favorite targets of the brands. This has been the trend in the Middle East and South Asia, but now it is also trending in the USA and UK.
The 3:1 Ratio:
The year 2017 has increased some maturity in the social media marketers and the rule of 3:1 ratio is now getting popular. The rule of 3:1 says that a page should have not more than four posts per week. Out of 4, three posts should be around your brand and the remaining one should be your brand or product post. This rule is made to create a strong engagement with your audience and encourages them to visit your page again and again to see your funny and exciting posts.
Crackdown on Fake News:
During the recent US presidential elections, the fake news on the social media pages created a big fuzz even in the White house. After this, Facebook also announced to ban these pages from using ads. However, there are still many pages that are spreading fake news and getting prominent reaches. Since the Facebook has also started taking actions against it, many social media marketers have stepped up and reported every fake news that they find either on their news feeds or in the different groups.
Twitter is getting into the game:
The social media marketing was very much dominated by Facebook last year, but Twitter with its new update for the marketers showed an aggressive intent towards Facebook. This intent is now taking the form of reality in 2017. Since the start of this year, Twitter has begun generating big money from the paid tweets. However, they haven’t yet accepted it, but the word from the horse’s mouth is that Twitter could shock the world and the Facebook at the end of this year by showing the drastic change in its paid marketing.
The increase in Paid Marketing:
It is not like that the existing brands have started more money on their pages. A marketer never suggests increasing the paid marketing budget if his posts are getting a satisfying response. The reason behind this increase is that every day new brands are creating their pages on social media platforms and they are spending heavily on it without taking any help from the professionals.
Final Words:
2017 is not even three months old right now, but the fast pace life of social media is witnessing so many trends that are impossible to cover in one blog. If you feel that I missed any trend that should be on my list? Join me in the comment box, and we will discuss the present and future of the social media marketing together.
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