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Top 3 Social Media Marketing Trends 2017-What Industry Experts Expect?

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Social Media Marketing helps in enabling small business to expand further their reach to more customers. The social media marketing trends are dynamic, therefore, in order to reach your customers effectively, there is an urgent need to keep up with these changes.

95% of Online adults aged 18-34 are most likely follow a brand via social networking. (MarketingSherpa)

Top 3 Social Media Marketing Trends 2017

Here is what industry experts think of social media marketing in the upcoming year:

Karan Mehta, Marketing Manager, Naukrigulf.comUntitled 1

So here is my take on top 3 changes I would like to see in Social Media Marketing Industry in 2017:

1. Adapting to People

Instead of pushing content and ads on social networks, brands should think of adapting the content based on customer’s needs. The marketing metrics of Conversions, clicks, impressions should be replaced by metrics such as comments (views), shares and sentiment. Brands should build a conversation with social media users using their language.

2. Chatbots serving Customers

Chatbots, artificial conversational agent, is gaining popularity. As facebook chatbots gain more popularity, it would be great to see an adoption of chatbots by brands for 24X7 Customer Service.

3. Live Video going Mainstream

Live video broadcast has already taken off in 2016, but it will become mainstream in 2017. I would like to see brands adopting video streaming and tests the concepts of video meetings in order to connect with the audience.

4. Better Facebook Ad Targeting

In 2017, Instead of blanket targeting based on broad interests, pages should be able to offer a more personal experience based on interactions they have had with Facebook.

Prateek Shah, Founder, Digital Defynd

Top 3 changes I would like to see in the Social Media industry in 2017

1. Shift from Shares & Likes to Conversion Driven Metrics

Focus needs to shift from happiness metrics like comments, shares, and likes to conversion-driven metrics like sales, revenue and other forms of conversion.

2. WhatsApp Marketing

Marketers need to crack smart ways to tap the opportunity of Whatsapp marketing.

3. Diversify Portfolio

People need to stop relying on just social media and diversify their portfolio to make digital marketing work in entirety.

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Saumar Deka, Digital Media Marketing Manager, Happiest Minds TechnologiesSaumar deka. Bmp

1. LinkedIn for Advertising

LinkedIn providing better analytics and more self-service tools for advertising.

2. Twitter for Identifying Influencer Marketing Trends

Twitter bringing in a better algorithm to identify and discredit ‘paid’ influencer marketing and manufactured trends.

3. Role of Google+ in Influencer Marketing

Google+ finally catching up with the big 3, by introducing something revolutionary.

Pranav Kale, Lead Program Trainer, Digital Vidya

These are the 3 changes that I would like to see in the social media marketing world:

1. Connecting Business Objective with Social Media Objectives

Brands need to focus on connecting the business objectives of the brand with the social media objectives, and not focus on superficial objectives such as likes, reach etc, which in many cases are not in-line with the actual objectives.

2. Content Building

Content building is so so essential, especially when the competition is going through the roof. Brands which continue producing good content shall continue to do well.

3. Diverse Social Media Strategy to Rule

Having a diverse social media strategy on different social media platforms is so important. Every person visits a social media platform with a different mindset. A brand just can’t repeat the same content on all the social channels. The culture of the social media platform needs to be understood, and different strategies need to be drafted for each channel. No point taking the easy way out.

Zubin Kutar, Digital Marketing Head, Communications & Social Media, Tata Consultancy Services – TCSZubin

1. Chatbots

With the increasing dominance of AI and with social networks launching their own AI platforms – ie. Google Allo. Chat bots will play a major role in man – machine relationship. The Siri and Google Assistant equivalent platforms will rule social channels to ensure customer issues are resolved faster with less human intervention.

2. Big Data

Sharper focus on analytics and user behavior will drive the need for big data to be integrated with social platforms..this will include user behavior on the channel and on other networks via first party and third party cookies….Thus ensuring sharper targeting and content for advertisers to reach their potential audience

3. AR / VR

Brands will adopt to AR / VR to engage their users, what happened with Pokemon is a great example of the success of the technology, however, the adoption and its usage will depend on the brand and the connect it makes with its users. We have seen the adoption of these technologies in the auto industry to give a differential experience to its clients.

Rajeev Sharma, C0-Founder, GreyBox TechnologiesRajeev

1. Refinement Trend

In 2017, we’ll see more of a trend toward refinement, Businesses are different and their objectives / goals too, therefore, focusing on a platform that can help achieve the same. Yeah, so this is beyond the tools and features expected from a platform.

2. Leveraging location based marketing and IOT

I’m not sure if this is already in progress anywhere or implemented in any form, some time back, I was looking at Location-based Apps and found about Dark Sky. Hyper-accurate local weather forecasting, with down-to-the-minute rain and snow predictions using radar mapping with a 24-hour and week-ahead forecasting.

Now, combining these two and show the offer e.g. based on the current weather condition, time, day of the week offer me a Beer or Vodka in my current location. If it has machine learning accuracy like Google Now, it is possible to figure out if my office time is over?

Rohit Uttamchandani, Head – Digital Advertising & Content Marketing, Social BeatRohit-uttamchandani

1. Live Video will Pick up Pace

The adoption of live streaming video, by both users and forward-thinking brands, has been growing rapidly in the second half of 2016 and I expect to see even further growth in the coming year.

The growth of this medium has been driven primarily by people’s fear of missing out (FOMO) on something new, as well as the novelty factor that live-videos have. With Facebook acknowledging that it will prioritize video (and particularly live video) content in the news feed, brands will find new and innovative ways to harness this medium and drive engagement with their audiences.

2. Snapchat’s popularity will Increase further

Snapchat has been growing at a massive pace over the past year and this growth will continue into 2017. Brands targeting a young millennial audience, which forms a large percentage of the platform’s active user base, will make better use of the platform to tell brand stories and engage with their audience. Snapchat is also looking at building products and we can expect more marketing opportunities to come in as these products roll out.

3. Facebook advertising will no longer be as cheap as it used to

Facebook ads have been a very powerful platform for driving business growth, with costs being much lower than other online advertising media, across most sectors and industries. Over 3 million businesses currently actively advertise on Facebook and this number continues to grow.

However, with Facebook stating in its Q3 2016 report that it is approaching maximum ad load and that it won’t be able to increase the number of ads it shows anymore, the ad supply may not be able to keep up with increasing demand.

This would begin pushing up prices, as well as require advertisers to focus on making their ads more targeted, creative, engaging and relevant to ensure they continue getting the best ROI from FB ads.

Sanjay Mehta, CEO, Mirum IndiaSanjay mehta

Top 3 changes you would like to see in Social Media Marketing Industry in 2017

(well, I am speaking of the Digital Marketing Industry – not sure if there’s a standalone Social Media Marketing Industry anymore!)

For the industry players to get a little more self-respect and stop being walked all over by clients(howsoever big brands they may be).

On a related note, for the industry players to not keep getting pushed to a lower fee, and pushing the next agency to drag it even lower the next time. Guys, we need to make some money too, you know!

To clearly get our place in the sun. Yes, 350+ mn and going strong, reasonably fast bandwidth now, which is not that expensive anymore, and clients finally thinking digital first. If this is not the time for digital media industry, when would it be?! So no more, an afterthought, no more about “let the creative agency figure the campaign and then we will call you”. Yes, let’s LEAD it for our clients!

Samvidha Sinha, Lead Program Trainer, Digital VidyaSamvidha 195x127

1. App based social networks continue to scale

App based social networks like Snapchat and Instagram continue to scale and expand in terms of new users and accounts. Further, with online advertising becoming highly competitive and expensive audience, business are looking for newer avenues. And newer ways to market themselves, Small Medium Businesses now are enjoying these ‘Discovery’ platforms as part of a new market to showcase their products and grow brand affinity from old and new audience.
Instagram, for example,  now allows ‘Contact’ button to be shown along with ‘Follow’ which a business reach, connect and transact with their end users directly.

2. Videos, More Videos & Live Videos

When it comes to continued engagement for your page, content is the king. With, Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube &  Facebook all vying for their audiences attention; videos are here to stay. Youtube and Facebook both have a prominent ‘Live’ button for its users to start creating videos and sharing them with the world.
In 2017, gear up your team, and your brand(s) to create meaningful video content, often.  Both, in-the-moment videos like you see on Instagram Stories, Snapchat, and live videos on Facebook are here to stay. The Social Media Agencies that can rise to this demand and quickly change according to this trend will thrive!

3. Slow weaning from Twitter

Although, Twitter is a well-established platform with its fair share of the audience who love the platform. The platform has not really been able to engage as many new users in the last two years as the other newer platforms. Even though the platform has introduced several new features such as ‘Twitter Memories’, ‘Go Live’ button for Periscope. Although, these features have been well received. But to get a newer audience, for 2017 Twitter has to roll up its sleeves, and fast.

Shubhendu Jha, Head – Client Servicing, WeeBeeSocialShubhendu

Top 3 changes you would like to see in Social Media Marketing Industry in 2017:

Digital marketing channels are constantly evolving. In a time and age where information is easily accessible and internet speeds are good for data consumption, the digital channels (especially social media channels) try their best to keep up with the user requirements . Even the advertisers and publishers struggle to keep up with these requirements and at times the demand overcomes the supply. Hence the Social Media Marketing Industry is very dynamic and everyone tries their best to cope up with changing times. Still, there are some challenges which remain untackled.

Since 2016 is almost over, we have a lot of expectations from 2017 and following are the Top 3 changes which I would like to see in the Social Media Marketing Industry in the coming year:

1. Bringing Back the Organic Reach

Yes, you read it right. The organic reach has come down to almost 2-5% on social media channels like Facebook. Even Instagram is now using a similar algorithm. If you have a 1000 page likes then your post reaches out to 50-70 people max (Even lesser for some pages). The reason behind this is that there are now tons of Individuals and Pages that are pushing a lot of posts into people’s news feeds, hence Facebook needs to be strict and limit the reach so that the news feed does not clutter and serves less but quality content. Due to this page owners have to invest more in advertising to reach out to their audience and the hard work which goes in creating a huge page like base goes in vain. The channel needs to improve the organic reach so that page owners get some relief and benefit.

2. Getting rid of bots and contest mafias

Every Social media channel these days is plagued with fake accounts and contest mafias. They hurt the authenticity of social media audience and create huge losses for advertisers and publishers. This goes both ways – Either your ads or posts are seen by fake accounts or people use bot accounts to create fake engagement which really adds no value to their brand or business. Social Media channels need to get rid of these fake accounts and create a mechanism where the right information reaches the right people. Another problem which needs to be taken care of is the contest mafias – Thousands of fake/secondary accounts are created to play and win contests. These are not real users technically and brands get happy seeing engagement from them. This needs to stop at the earliest as this again puts everyone’s efforts in vain. They only interact for the purpose of winning prizes and have no inclination toward the brand or its social media page.

3. Finding ways to encourage more sharing on social media

I say this from personal experience: Quality trumps Quantity. A lot of marketers want to post 2-3 times in a day and due to this volume the agency or person who has to work on the content gets exhausted and lowers down the quality of content.

We as marketers and entrepreneurs need to focus more on quality content and keep users at the center of the communication. We need to create content which is share worthy and we ourselves would love to share with our friends.

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The emphasis should be on valuable and entertaining content which can be done by telling great stories, using an emotional appeal or praising the audience. These are the top three challenges which the social media marketing industry needs to tackle immediately so that both the experiences for users and ROIs for publishers are authentic and rewarding.

Soumya Sharma, Co-Founder, WeeBeeSocialSoumya

  1. Return of organic content reach
  2. Virtual reality content
  3. Improvement in audience targeting and removal of bot accounts

What Industry Experts Expect in 2017: Social Media Marketing Trends

Conclusion

These social media marketing trends predicted by Industry Experts will penetrate the social media landscape over the course of a period. Since the big brands like Twitter, Facebook, and Google are already releasing new features or improving the overall user experience, marketers are readily modifying their marketing plan.

Prepare for these trends and you will see increased brand awareness! Which social media marketing trends could be added to this list?

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Avatar of sakshi behl
Sakshi Behl
Sakshi is a content marketer during the day and a reader by night. She writes content sprinkled with a twisted imagination. She has done her graduation in psychology from Delhi University and has an insane love for history.

4 thoughts on “Top 3 Social Media Marketing Trends 2017-What Industry Experts Expect?”

  1. Great information about social media marketing trends. What could be the best way to use AR/VR in the eCommerce startup?

    1. Great question, Nivedita.

      1. With AR, you can enhance the product preview by allowing a customer to view what is there inside a product’s packaging without opening it.
      2. With the help of scanned images of a product, you can activate views of additional content like additional images of the product in its use, customization options etc. By using an AR-enabled device, these images can activate a video version of the promotional material.

      You can learn about Social Media Marketing to actualize these ideas in the e-commerce industry.

  2. Yo that’s right. Anything live will be more impact for any social media channel for any business. Year 2017 will be the year of live videos, whether its Twitter, Facebook or any social media.

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