In the past 25 years, the marketing industry has undergone an incredible evolution of change. There was a point when newspaper advertisements were a means of selling and marketing. While they are still effective for some businesses – social media marketing has revolutionized the way marketers function and create their strategies. In truth, and we can all agree, not being on social media or reaping the many benefits from social media can prove to actually hinder a company’s chance of success.
With that being said, in the past few years, the rise of social media marketing as exponentially evolved, thanks to new innovative techniques and software. With that being said, in 2018, we are noticing some massive changes in the social media marketing culture, some of which businesses should be taking note of. For example, if your company is not utilizing the power of video marketing, you might be indirectly handing over potential leads to the competition on a silver platter.
In today’s article, we are going to dive into social media marketing in some of the few changes that are happening throughout this year. You should note though, this is an ever-evolving industry. Come the end of this year, there might be even graver changes. Stay up to date with TweetAngels for the latest information on social media marketing.
- Chatbots
Any professional digital marketing can agree that one of the biggest changes and adjustments in social media marketing involves the inclusion of chatbots and other artificial intelligence software. You might recall, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, chatbots were one dimensional and did not have a great enough grasp to hold a full functioning conversation with an individual. Now, with the advancements in artificial intelligence chat bots are quickly becoming the most used system to improve customer service and relationships.
Now, in 2018, the increased use of chatbots has also lead to newer artificial intelligence breakthroughs. Currently, there is a wealth of discussion about the idea of robot-powered content. In other words, artificial intelligence software programs are becoming advanced enough to perform the required research to develop content and stories used for content marketing.
Shocking Chatbot Statistics
- 96% of businesses believe chatbots represent the future.
- By 2020, over 80% of businesses would have included some form of chatbot automation software.
- Chatbots will help save up to $8 billion by 2022.
- Social Media Influencer Marketing
In the past 5 years, one of the most popular terms and concepts in the social media marketing industry has been “social media influencer marketing”. Now, if you are not sure what this is – it’s simply an individual who has worked effortlessly to build a large following. From there, the individual essentially will promote businesses on their social media profiles in hopes of increasing follow counts, leads, or even sales for a business, depending on the marketing objective. As of 2018, the use of social media influencer marketing is becoming unprecedented. While this form of marketing in social media is not new, what is happening is a massive trend towards both businesses and consumers wanted to either work with or become an influencer. Now, it’s highly advised that, if a business is interested in working with influencer marketers, they should first start building a relationship with the influencer. That connection will be an important role in building trust with the influencer’s active social media followers.
Neal Schaffer, author of ‘The Business of Influence’, speaks of influencer marketing:
- “The key trend for social media in 2018 will be influencer marketing. With the continued democratization of content publishing, traditional marketing channels have less influence while social media users and content creators have more. Anyone can yield influence and thus, as social media becomes more and more pay to play, every business need to incorporate some type of influencer marketing strategy to become more effective in their 2018 marketing. The trend towards brands leveraging user-generated content is one example of this, and if you are going to curate content to represent your brand, why wouldn’t you use that of an influencer?”
- Video Marketing
As we stated in the beginning of the article, one of the most important changes in social media marketing as of 2018 is the idea of video marketing. Last year, there was a huge push towards mobile marketing and this year it’s all about social media videos. In fact, Sean O’Neal from Adaptly had discussed that out of the many different other mediums in the world, video is literally the fastest growing advertising format. By 2020, O’Neal believes and predicts that video will be the source of over 80% of internet consumer traffic.
Now, there are many different ways that businesses can begin incorporating more video marketing into their social media marketing efforts. Now, before we begin sharing a few ideas, it’s important to mention that, before creating any videos – it’s critical to understand precisely who the target audience is. You don’t want to create video content that is for the wrong audience; otherwise, it’s a waste of time and money.
- Facebook Live
- Facebook Stories
- Snapchat Stories
- Interviews with Consumers
- Video Product Descriptions
- Product Tours
- Product Trailers
With that being said, businesses are faced with numerous challenges when it comes to video marketing though. Aside from creating a target audience, one must consider the message in each video. For example, how can the voice or face of the brand capture active social media followers in less than 5 seconds? If you can answer that question, perhaps you are ready to incorporate video marketing today!
Staying on top of Trends
As we mentioned earlier in the article, the social media marketing industry is constantly changing and evolving, in a positive direction. However, it’s critical that, if you plan to capitalize and implement proper social media marketing tactics in your business, you stay on top of current and future social media marketing trends. Today, we covered only three of the most pertinent social media marketing changes. Be sure to always come back in check in with TweetAngels. As your social media marketing experts, we are always on top of recent trends, fads, and changes!
