What a year 2017 has been for social media. Although we didn’t see any new platforms emerge there were quite a few changes and updates to the sites we know and love. Let’s recap some of the most notable changes below:
- Snapchat introduced the SnapMap and context cards
- Facebook integrated stories across its entire platform (personal profiles, business pages, groups, and event pages)
- Twitter increased its iconic character count from 140 to 240
- Instagram introduced Story Highlights and Archives
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Outside of changes made to the platforms, there were some key social media trends worth talking about that emerged in 2017. To recap, video reigned supreme. We saw major enhancements in video quality and there are a number of video tools out there to help small businesses and retailers to help improve your video marketing efforts. Live streaming videos have some of the heaviest weight on Facebook, and this trend doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
Facebook wants to provide the best user experience possible which is why the platform has to be strategic about who sees what when. Facebook’s algorithm makes it extremely difficult to get your content seen, but ads can be a workaround which is crucial for marketers. Having a pixel set up is beneficial for remarketing to people who have interacted with pages on your website. Groups have become more popular. This is because people are more likely to see the content posted in the group than on the business page. They also help create an online community and can be extremely high value when it comes to providing the best customer experience.
We’ve seen experience marketing emerge as a way to overcome online shopping. The better the experience a customer has with you not only online, but offline the more likely you’ll be able to keep them as a loyal customer.
Now let’s take a look at some things you should be looking out for in 2018:
- Offline Conversion Tracking
- This feature built into Facebook Ads helps track if someone saw your online ad and came into your story and bought from you. It’s still in its early stages but can be crucial when reporting on the effectiveness of your Facebook ads.
- Messenger
- This tool allows for automation in certain areas of your business and can provide an enhanced customer experience and customer service.
- Video
- A Facebook exec stated that the platform would be completely video within the next 5 years (and this statement was made a couple years ago). If this rings true it’s time to get started on using it and to get comfortable because it’s not going anywhere.
- Back to Basics
- This has everything to do with your social media strategy. Everything you do on social media needs to connect back to your business goals. If you don’t have a solid strategy then it’s time to take a step back and really set up a plan for your success.
Social Edge is making some major changes in 2018. We’ve been very retail-specific since we started 5 years ago, but we felt everything we were teaching could be applied to all types of small businesses, so we decided to widen the net in order to help as many types of small businesses as we can. So be on the lookout for the newly redesigned Social to Sale – this training is meant to help build a social media strategy that can help support your business goals in the New Year.
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