Social Media Trends 2018: Top 5 Things For Marketers To Watch Out For This Year

Key Takeaways

hey everyone Brian Peters with buffer here today I'll be talking about the top 5 biggest social media trends for 2018 that all marketers should know knowing these trends will help your business plan ahead and get a leg up on the most effective social media strategies today let's get started counting down our number 5 trend brands start focusing on generation Z Gen Z was born roughly between 1995 and 2016 meaning that the oldest people in that generation are now turning around 22 years old so many of these youngsters are entering college or about to join the workforce and in marketing terms that means they will soon have a ton of buying power in 2018 brands will start to recognize this buying power and start to shift their social media strategies accordingly marketers and brands can expect a huge investment in platforms that Jens ears love platforms like Instagram snapchat messaging apps HQ house-party in other words more closed platforms coming in at number four increasing brand participation in messaging apps and chat BOTS did you know that over 2 billion people worldwide use messaging platforms yet brands and marketers are still hesitant to jump on what is a massive trend in reality most people use messaging app like whatsapp or Facebook messenger more than they actually do social media networks so in 2018 you can definitely expect brands and marketers to invest more time resources and effort into the connecting with our audiences on messaging platforms you'll be able to do things like allow customers a shop ask questions deliver content to them in a variety of other awesome use cases for these automatic chat BOTS and messenger tools our number three trend for 2018 is a continued investment in influencer marketing alright here's some stats for you did you know that influencer marketing drives 11 times the ROI than traditional forms of digital marketing and that 40% of consumers report that they purchase an item after seeing an influencer talk about it on platforms like YouTube Instagram and snapchat companies like North Face Patagonia lemon and lots of other brands are using influencer marketing to connect with audiences in ways that they previously could not through traditional forms of marketing so in 2018 expect to see a bigger investment from brands and influencer marketing especially targeted at younger generations who as we talked about before are a bit harder to reach on these more closed platforms our number two trend for 2018 and increasing popularity in Instagram stories and ephemeral content over 300 million people use Instagram stories every single month that's 50 million more than snapchat and Instagram stories is just 1 year old so brands and marketers interested in growing their Instagram account must learn to master Instagram stories why you asked because of instagrams algorithm posting the Instagram stories has a positive effect on the rest of your content not to mention it helps give your brand a more authentic and human feel something that people are certainly looking for today on social media and finally our number one trend for 2018 video finally takes center stage particularly live streams last year us along with pretty much every other marketer on the planet called for the rise of video in 2017 obviously those predictions came true but I think 2018 is where the majority of brands and marketers adopt video as a mainstay in their marketing programs the reason being is that technology is making it super easy for brands and marketers to create really quality and engaging videos and of course we can't forget that videos actually do work it's not just a fad as a matter of fact a recent study from word stream found that videos generate 1,200 percent more shares and engagement than images and links combined so in 2018 marketers and brands that can keep their audience's attention for more than 30 seconds with video are the ones that are gonna see big rewards on social media and that's it our top social media trends for 2018 and until next time i'm brian with buffer [Music]