Technology has smart advancements every year, especially when it comes to social media and search engine optimization (SEO). At first, most of the internet marketers and businesses are underestimating social media compare to SEO. No offense, but SEO was dominating in the 2000’s.
When Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other social media platforms are on the rise, various brands have seen their true potential. It is not just about relying mostly on SEO by continuing your tedious on and off-page optimization tasks. It is all about taking that opportunity when a new door opens to increase their brand awareness. Every year, there are tons of social media trends that literally change the world.
However, in 2017, there are going to be some surprises that you can see as technology keeps on advancing from time to time. Without further ado, here are the top five social media trends that could happen this 2017:
1 – The rise of augmented and virtual reality
Think about Pokemon Go for instance. It changed the entire landscape of playing games in your Android or iOs device. It uses augmented reality to catch Pokemons in the “real” world by enabling GPS and the camera. It opens the door for brands to promote their products and services by using the augmented/virtual reality style. VR sets are now sold to millions of customers worldwide, and the growth never stops in using them from time to time.
Back to Pokemon Go for example, you are bumping to someone who is trying to catch Squirtle. From there, you make friends and play together. It increases social interaction rather than sticking to Facebook messenger and other chat platforms.
Virtual and augmented reality may not be the biggest trend you will see in 2017. It is still on the early stages, but it will be big for many years to come. With the new technology on the rise, expect that this would impact the product or service sales from various brands.
2 – Video live streaming is on the roll
When Youtube decides to be in the live streaming game, it changes everything. Same thing goes to Facebook Live. Brands are starting to take notice as a new way to make money off their products and services. Experts consider webinars as a video live stream, and it shows some success to internet marketers who are promoting their products and services by offering them free tips.
Their marketing strategy in the webinar is to give the attendees some free tips, strategies and advice. Before the live streaming video ends, the internet marketer is promoting an upsell product that could enhance their strategy even more. When the audience are interested but the price is high, they will be taken to the downsell part with limited features.
In Facebook Live, there are corporate events, eSports tournaments and others that are livestreamed in their platform. It creates an opportunity for internet marketers to gain more revenue to the products or services that they promote.
3 – Optimizing content for mobile
If you are doubting mobile traffic, you should know that this is a hidden gem for brands. In today’s generation, more and more people are using mobile phones daily than computers and TV. It is because they can communicate, watch, play and multitask anywhere as long they have a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.
Brands and businesses are starting to explore the world of mobile traffic. They’re doing whatever it takes to gain more exposure to their respective brands. For example, Paypal has developed their own app in Google Play for easy transactions to some users. Their platform in mobile is a bit different from the desktop or original version. The same thing goes to new and existing brands who are optimizing their content for mobile traffic. There is a lot of opportunity for them to gain exposure and sales.
4 – Chatbots are on demand
This is another social media trend that you need to look right now. When it comes to business, customer service is an essential factor for them to maintain their integrity and trust. With the rise of the chatbots, businesses are starting to use this as their online customer assistant.
Several platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and others are starting to have integrated bots in their system. Chatbots can also save time for customer service representatives to answer queries that are in-depth.
5 – Social pay-to-play is on
For you to reach your targeted audience easily, pay up!
If you think search ads and banner advertising are the only ways for you to get high-targeted traffic, you are wrong. Here comes social ads! In Facebook, they’ve implemented sponsored ads every time a user browses his or her timeline. For example, you’ve set an ad that talks about make money online. You can set the age, demographics and interests to targeted specific audience who are interested in this topic.
Free ways like joining social groups and communities are still working up to date. However, it would give you faster results and better conversion once you start pay up for social media traffic. Not only Facebook has this feature, but Twitter and other platforms have implemented paid ads as well.
Final words
As you look forward to 2017, social media can give you endless opportunities as long you think outside of the box. These trends might not give you instant results, but it will take some time until you master and figure out in taking advantage of them. Remember, just stay focus if you want to make a difference in social media by applying what you’ve learned in these social media trends for 2017.
About the author
Jeff Caceres is a social media marketer and expert for so many years. He consulted several clients from all walks of life on increasing their brand awareness and traffic with social video marketing. To know more how you can get a lot of retention views for your video, better check out the https://www.claimsocialauthority.com/ and start gain some attention from your targeted audience.