7 Social Media Content Marketing Trends For 2018

An eye-opening Statistia report revealed that there would be more than 2.80 billion social media users by the end of 2018, accounting for more than one third (37%) of the total population. The vitality of social media has magnetized the users and marketers alike. Users now strongly rely on social media to make their purchasing decisions hence its indispensable for marketers to keep up with user's expectations and find new ways to engage and connect with them all along. Marketers sweat and slave to penetrate into the social life of their buyers so that they can constantly create and deliver fresh, engaging content, approach the users through the right social medium and at the same time, and ensure that the marketing efforts are not outdated.

Indeed challenging! Marketers are ensuring that each effort they put in is tailored according to the highly dynamic behavior pattern of the users; failing with which all their efforts might just be waste. So its obvious that, with the start of year 2018, we put a thought in calculation of some social media content marketing trends that will rule the year. So here are the top 7 trends for social media marketing 2018 that would help marketers to serve the changing demands of social media users and gain competitive edge.

Live Videos Will Take The Professional Approach

Live video was a pretty new concept for the marketers in 2017. Facebook Live, followed by Instagram Live and other live streaming platforms is going to change the way marketers advertise their events, products and a lot of other stuff in 2018. While earlier the live videos were streamed by any marketing person to broadcast any event like a product launch, seminar, Q/A session, and live events, now this would take a more professional approach. Expert professionals would be hired to ensure the video content broadcasted through live streaming engages more and more audience. Professional live streaming would make its place into the regular content plan in order to boost engagement.

Preparations To Welcome Generation-Z

The kids born in 2000 would turn 18 this year, giving rise to the generation Z. This generation is more advanced and tech-savvy than any of the previous generations. It would be 2-3 times more influenced by social media than any other sales or discount offers, reported a study by Retail Dive. The marketing strategies would shift accordingly from offering deals to a more curated content for social media. The Generation-Z friendly platforms like Instagram and Snapchat would be given more preference and content would be created according to the platform needs.

Rise Of Time-Sensitive & Real-Time Content On Social Media

Since the past few years, content evergreen content was ruling the social media ecosystem. The evergreen content would soon give way to time-sensitive and real-time content on social media in 2018. Content marketers and social media managers would collaborate to form content that would be time-sensitive and relevant to cater the instant needs of the people. It would focus more on the current requirements of the audience and the trends in the market.

Advanced Analytics For Content Measurement

Analytics has helped a number of marketers understand their audience and offer a more personalized experience. In 2018, analytics would go advanced and more features would be added to measure the user behavior. An in-depth analysis of user data to the micro level would enable the marketers to personalize their marketing accordingly for increased sales. Social media platforms would integrate these advanced analytics measures to show a more detailed break-through of the audience behavior for the content written by professional content writing service providers. Social media marketers would leverage this analytics data to boost retention and acquisition rate and offer niche content for higher engagement.

Ephemeral & Disappearing Content To be On The Rise

Snapchat initiated the ephemeral or disappearing content which vanishes from the online world after a period of 24 hours. These stories on Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook would be on the rise in 2018. Marketers would shift their attention to leverage the power of disappearing content for increased engagement. This type of content disappears within 24hrs and it directs hits on the FOMO concept, i.e., fear of missing out of the users. The marketers can showcase the company culture, behind the scene content, and other processes to connect with the users. Even the links to the product or service pages would now be added to stories to direct the user to that page.

Shift To Social Media & Micro Influencers

Getting the industry influencers to share and promote the products and services has always been a great way to engage more niche audience. But this required a lot of efforts in reaching out to the influencers and was even had to offer high sums or products for promotion. This expensive marketing scheme would be taken over by the inexpensive social media & micro influencing in 2018. These are celebrities in a specific field with a considerably large following. They charge a lower price than the top-shot influencers but are influential in shaping the buyer's buying decision. With more than 66% of the online customers turning towards the recommendations of these social media micro influencers, it wont wrong to say that these influencers would walk away with six-figure income in 2018.

Increased Focus On User-Generated Content

User-generated content would be in the center of focus of the social media content marketers in 2018. A study by TINT even confirmed that 70% social media marketers believe that user-generated content adds humanely and authentic touch to their marketing strategy. Social media marketers would leverage the power of user-generated content for building meaningful relations with the audience. Be it reviews, testimonials, video testimonials, recommendations, referrals, ratings, suggestions, comments etc., user-generated content would continue to be on the rise in 2018.

The social media and content marketing trends discussed above would help the marketers to promote their products, services or business and leverage the power of social media content marketing in 2018 for building strong connections with the audience and engaging them for a long time.