We don’t spend much time pondering how our lives change in a single year. Instead, we simply think that things will stay pretty close to the same, except for the personal plans we make. Things like technology often get overlooked even though social media are continually updating. These changes are small, but they’re also quite frequent even though we don’t notice these changes all the time. Nevertheless, in 2018 there will be many important changes that will be worthy of your attention.
7 Important Changes Social Media Marketing to Expect in 2018
With Social Media Marketing dominating SEO today, Social Media Marketing (SMM) is something you’ll want to pay attention to. In this regard, there are 7 important trends experts predict will show up in 2018. These include:
• Five years ago Google Glass introduced us to augmented reality (AR). While this was a flop, many other companies (including FaceBook) are trying to enter this arena. Additionally, many AR apps and VR headsets have been successful. Coupled with faster Internet speeds this will be the year these things really take off. When this happens people believe that social media will be one of the most popular applications, bringing people from around the globe into closer contact with one another. This new way of interacting with other people will change SMM and SEO too.
• Live streaming is already popular with 80 – 82% preferring this instead of written Social Media Marketing campaigns. This will grow even more in 2018 because people are accustomed to it now.
• Privacy and open source aren’t things that you’d typically associate with social media. Apps have cracked down somewhat in 2017, but in 2018 this will grow.
• Gamification will start effecting SMM because people want to interact with one another, especially through game-like experiences. Many businesses have made a lot of money in this way already but now it’s time to blend these things together more organically.
• SEO ad growth is already popular, but now it’s social media’s turn. Until now Social Media Marketing has focused on building a user base. Now that they’ve been established for a while, it’s time for them to focus on building more advertising.
• Over 50 million businesses started using social media in 2017. They’ve found this is really popular but brands really do need to step this up a notch. For this reason, sponsored and branded content will grow more popular than that from independent sources.
• Local and personal experiences are growing more popular, as we’ve seen with the recent growth in local SEO. This is partly due to brand fatigue now that advertising constantly surrounds us everywhere we look. In 2018 the desire for local content will continue to grow as businesses look for new ways to connect with their clients.
Making the Best of These SMM Changes
These Social Media Marketing changes aren’t going to really change SEO as we know it today. However, they’ll make this an interesting year for SMM marketers and businesses alike. So, if you want to stay competitive in this realm and not allow your competition to get ahead of you, it’s important to watch and react to these things. Having a campaign that keeps up with these things really will help you differentiate yourself from the crowd.
While all of this may sound complicated to you, here at ISEOU it’s like second nature to us. Since we’ve been in business for 20 years now, we know and understand your business’ needs. We have experts in almost every niche possible. This ensures that we understand your needs and take care of them well. So, when you’re ready to get serious about SMM, contact us at ISEOU.