Social media is always a fascinating matter, not just for us who are still wandering in that territory but also for those working in social media. There was big anticipation to see what would 2018 bring in regards of innovation and significant changes in the industry, which we all know, is full of challenges.
Such endeavours might look a little bit overwhelming sometimes, but with the right guidance, such problems will be sorted out efficiently. Social media interests keep fluctuating, and nothing ever stays the same, so it's crucial that business owners and end-users are aware of these changes so they can stay updated and fresh, thus guaranteeing your brand remains relevant.
Not just by following trends but staying ahead of them. In other words, we want you to shake your social media presence, so it freshens up and gives that "brand-new" feeling. With that in mind, we've created a list of five social media challenges that are setting the pace in the industry. It's well into the year now, so we want to focus on the ones that are still strong up until now for they are opportunities to develop strategies that will enhance your ability to work smarter and get ahead of the pack in a market-wise manner.
So let's dive into those expectations, and see how you can face up to the challenges:
1- Live video, always growing and always expanding: Back in January, Facebook announced a significant change in the News Feed algorithm where the content comes from family and friends instead of the pages they follow. That means that posts that are shared by users from their own personal media networks will rank better, and the type of content that proved to be the most engaging was that one of the Live Video. In addition to this, another significant change was also announced a few months ago, and it was the "Watch Party" feature, which allows a group of FB users to watch a shared video simultaneously even if the video is streamed live.
Now if you consider Facebook to be an exceptional marketing tool for social media strategy and you´re always striving to adapt your business to changes, then live video is the place you should be looking at so you don't have any unexpected issues in that area. Approaching to these changes the right way has proven to be very useful for many brands who use Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to live stream events, which keeps the customer engaged and committed to the brand even if they cannot physically attend the event. Live video can also be used to handle Q&A matters effectively. These type of strategies have the engagement of customer as the final target, and they've delivered great outcome from end-users.
2- A new age for messaging apps: With 4 billion users worldwide, messaging apps are far more than just traditional text messaging and can be seen as an excellent opportunity to leverage the social media presence of your business. Some brands have successfully led their customer service dynamic down the messaging app road, getting fantastic results.
Make sure you take a look into what a chatbot is and consider implementing it for a real-time engaging experience with your customers. We all know that customer service inquiries don't work exclusively during office hours. Messaging apps, apart from being more fast and effective, provide a unique customer service experience, and end users are more likely to stay. 2018 has proven more reliable-effective in engaging customers through messaging than with social networking.
3-Virtual Reality? Anyone? : Even though it is relatively new to the scene, 2018 has proven that VR is becoming increasingly more popular. An immersive experience will positively engage customers and also for most customers it will be a brand new experience. A for-profit organisation known as TOMS uses Virtual Reality to show their customers the result of their purchase (they sell shoes, so for every pair of shoes they sell, an unprivileged kid in South America receives one at no cost). Philanthropy aside, if you consider facing up to these new-era challenges, you may want to give Virtual Reality a closer look and see how your audience responds.
4-Mobile Social Media: Everyone knows that the relationship between social media and smartphone is almost as perfect as the number of mobile users increases on a daily basis. Meaning that compared to how it was ten years ago, almost everybody uses a smartphone nowadays. According to Statista, it goes up to 2 billion as of 2018. Such a fact is an excellent reason to consider mobile users fundamental to your business. And we all know the MobileGeddon led by Google recently in which they leaned towards mobile searches rather than desktop ones. So if you want more conversions on your landing page (this is where your customer first lands when they enter your website) try to focus your marketing attention on Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
5- Artificial Intelligence and Voice Search for the new guys in town: Although also relatively new to the market, we have a significant increase in solutions that feature this type of technologies. Now we have voice-controlled personal assistants in mobile devices, Television sets and smart loudspeakers. It also has moved forward into the automotive industry with the development of automated technology for vehicles, and we are probably not too far from engines starting through voice activation. Right now we have cars that can place phone calls for you and you don't need to remove your hands from the wheel. Voice-activated solutions are slowly taking over the market, so remember that continuous adaptation to these trends will only result in profitability and strong media presence for your business.Getting ahead of your client’s needs may be an excellent way to enter this type of technology. Think about ways in which your content can be moulded to fit such solutions.
Social media is always growing and always shifting unpredictably, so your best bet is to be ready for anything. Make sure you understand social media and its constant changes. This list cannot possibly mention every single trend out there, but you can rely on this list, so you just don't go wandering in the dark.
Social media is more about people rather than technology so do not underestimate the human factor. Always remain updated on knowledge and prepare to forecast all the thing that can affect your business both positively and negatively. Just keep in mind that if you are uncertain on which path to follow or how to proceed with any of this trends, you´ll count on the professional guiding assistance of DYSC IT Solutions.