TRENDS FOR 2018 - tunafishmedia.co.uk€¦ · TUNAFISH MEDIA | Ideas, Content, Results...

TRENDS FOR

2018

Our social, video and marketing predictions for 2018.

TUNAFISH MEDIA | Ideas, Content, Results

@TunafishMedia


@TunafishMedia

INTRO LOOKING BACK TO LOOK FORWARD....

2017 was an eventful year to say the least. We saw Trump become president, Prince Harry get engaged, we were introduced to Salt Bae, and Bitcoin turned people into investment experts overnight.

Not only that, social media continued to develop rapidly and technology changed the way businesses work and market themselves to clients.

We’re sure there are more viral moments and trends on their way for 2018, so here are our predictions.

This guide looks at what has happened in previous years for both social media and video and uses those developments to predict the effect 2018 will have on the industries.

It also offers tips and best practices for marketing your business through social media and creating vengaging content.

WHAT TO EXPECT....


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SOCIAL MEDIAFACEBOOK

We’ve already seen Facebook changing drastically for businesses, with ‘clickbait’ content soon to be rejected and the site prioritising content from user’s family and friends over business pages and adverts. The changes mean businesses need to think about how they are using the platform and the way they phrase copy. As well as being stricter with ‘clickbait’ content, platforms like Facebook will be looking to introduce a whole host of content moderation rules, codes of conduct, and governance policies to help protect their brand after the Trump-Russia fiasco.

Posts which encourage engagement through

competitions asking people to comment and

share, or like and share, may no longer

appear to users and could be removed by the

site. Though the question is - with everyone

using the site in that manner, will Facebook

stick to their new rules or will the big players

be excluded?

AR,VR & Digital Hangouts

With the introduction of the iPhone 8 and iPhoneX in November, augmented reality is now in the palms of many. Despite it primarily being used for mobile gaming, we can probably expect this to be taken advantage of on Facebook sooner rather than later.

With Facebook owning Occulus, a virtual reality hardware and software company, it is no surprise that they are looking at ways to incorporate this in to the platform. Expect the ‘Facebook Space’ feature to be pushed this year.

Facebook are looking to introduce digital

hangouts to the many arms of their current

platform. With over 1 million daily active

users, Houseparty holds the current monopoly

on the Gen-Z version of MSN but Facebook

will no doubt be looking to capitalise on the

popular video chatroom service.


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SOCIAL MEDIAFACEBOOK

Gen Z, Millennials & Influencers

If you aren’t familiar with the term, Generation Z are the group of people born between the mid-1990s and early 2000s. The biggest marketing method for this group are influencers - an expansive list of somewhat micro-celebrities that use their social media platforms to endorse, promote, and cleverly use product placement in exchange for an income. Expect this marketing method to increase dramatically in 2018 as brands attempt to exploit the use of influencers to target the Gen Zers and Millennials.

It’s not all doom and gloom!

Whether you’re an independent cafe in Northern Quarter showcasing your latte art skills, or a worldwide celebrity, live streaming is becoming a staple in the monthly content calendar for many businesses and personalities. Combined with Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm that favours live videos over text updates, it is the logical option for when you have urgent news that you want to get out to your followers.

The ability to see reactions, comments, shares, and views in real time also makes this type of content highly measurable for marketing companies, and can show instant results as to how well your content is engaging

with your target audience.

One of the upsides to live streaming is that you can do it straight from any smartphone with a camera. However, businesses are beginning to invest in specialist equipment to help keep a steady stream of high quality footage, without any dropouts. This allows cup draws, football matches, festivals, press conferences and other such live events to be streamed directly to social media, and prioritised to news feeds over other content, ensuring maximum exposure.


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Twitter need to pull their socks up in 2018. With Facebook (and by default Instagram) putting so much investment into diversifying their platform, integrating new technologies, and constantly making improvements and upgrades, Twitter need to consider making big changes to their platform if they plan on keeping up to speed.

So after the exciting (or annoying) change by Twitter in 2017 to increase the character limit to 280, it seems like the platform is willing to make changes to keep up with its competitors.

Businesses need to keep in mind that some

may not be receptive to change in character

limit, so it’s best not to go overboard with

their post length. Remember, sometimes less

is more.

Despite the increase in character limit, Twitter failed to grow followers in 2017 compared to other platforms. Whatever they have planned for 2018, it needs to be good enough to lure new people in, and to reignite the fire in existing followers.

Along with making big changes to their

platform, smaller, “backroom” changes need

to happen too, such as improving their feed

algorithms to push more relevant content to

user’s feeds. We can expect changes to the

Twitter Ads service too, to compete with

the more in-depth service that Facebook

provides.

Many businesses already use Twitter for customer service, as they can provide instant responses to complaints and queries, and we predict this will grow as Twitter now allows users to show ‘provides support’ on their account.

Crackdown on fake accounts - ever

wondered if your followers are who they say they are? Well you

can find out with a Twitter audit.

SOCIAL MEDIATWITTER


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Ever since Facebook took over the social platform, Instagram has made some big changes; multiple picture uploads, Instagram Stories, suggested posts and Story Highlights.

The ‘multiple upload’ feature, allows users to upload up to 10 images and videos in one post. This feature is great for businesses, as it can be used to showcase several things under one post, meaning their post frequency can still remain at an consistent level.

Instagram StoriesAlready being used to display fun behind the scenes content, businesses can take advantage of polls, ‘swipe up’ to see more or to shop and promote new posts and people. Instagram stories boasts many features to help your business - whether that be the location tag, to achieve more brand awareness, or the boomerang feature to show a ‘lighter’ side to your business.

Story Highlights

Users can now make their stories last longer than 24 hours and they can even give them titles, enabling businesses to give more structure to content and prioritise what they want their audience to see.

Instagram have recently introduced Type to the options in Stories - the first time that a user is able to post a story without a base image.

The addition comes alongside 2 other new features called Superzoom and Stop-Motion.

The Rise of Visual Profiles

2017 in particular has seen a rise in brands using Instagram as one complete ‘visual image’ as well as singular posts. With this, businesses are able to display whole themes across their Instagram, encouraging users to view the profile, not just the singular post. In 2018, we can expect more brands to think of their Instagram as a whole story rather than just individual snapshots.

SOCIAL MEDIAINSTAGRAM


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All work and no play, makes for a very dull day...

LinkedIn spent most of 2017 moving steadily away from the confines of business updates, aggressive recruitment, and facts and figures.

There’s been an increase in people using the profile to share more personal updates and fun content, similar to what you would normally see on platforms such as Instagram or Facebook.

We expect this will increase in 2018 as businesses and individuals decide to take themselves less seriously on the platform in order to appear more ‘human’ to their customers. Our advice on how to use LinkedIn in 2018 would be to not limit yourself to ‘sales’ posts.

Consider introducing the following updates to your business profile:

• Company news - staff updates, new clients etc.

• Industry Articles/Thought Leadership - comment and provide opinion on current trends.

• Behind the scenes - be transparent and let your following see a glimpse of the inner workings of your business.

• What you’re about, ethics, stories etc - Use the platform to showcase positive outcomes of your business, uplifting and success stories.

SOCIAL MEDIALINKEDIN

It’s also important to have a face to your brand - dedicate 2-5 people (normally the marketing department, but if you don’t have that luxury, use the most recognisable faces of your company) to regularly engage with the users that are interacting with your content.

At the moment, businesses only have the ability to post updates, so it is important that your content is engaging and relevant to attract the right audiences. As well as using the faces of your brand, encourage other employees to engage so it feeds in to their personal profiles and increases reach and exposure.


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Towards the back end of 2017, more and more entrepeneur/MD/Director storytelling became popular. Sharing tales of hardships in their early days, how it affected them, and how they overcame them, got a massive response from users, and sparked others to tell their stories too.

We anticipate this will happen more throughout 2018, with more stories and experiences being shared with the LinkedIn network.

SOCIAL MEDIALINKEDIN

Some tips for your LinkedIn posts:

• Be truthful - nobody likes a liar. Feel free to em-bellish the story to make it an interesting read, but there is nothing worse than lying and being caught out.

• Don’t plagiarise - It is ok to take inspiration or quote from someone else’s work/content, just be sure to credit the original author.

• Relevance - Make sure the story has a point, and make sure you get to it.

Thinking of going Premium?

There are four types of Premium accounts you can opt for on LinkedIn - Career, Business, Sales, and Hiring.

With all of these categories, they can help you expand your network, find talent, complete online courses, find jobs, and help you connect with more leads that aren’t otherwise accesible.

Although going Premium can help you in all of these areas, it doesn’t mean it will do it for you. You will still need to spend time and effort on the platform to really further yourself within the network.

If you are sending out sponsored content, ensure you are targeting the appropriate audiences that match up to your business.


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One of the biggest changes Snapchat launched last year was the Snap Map, allowing you to see where in the world your friends are when sending you snaps. The function had everyone worried about personal safety, however it hasn’t stopped it from being widely used by Snapchat’s target audience.

At the end of the year we also saw Snapchat announce changes to their algorithm so users see more content from the friends they want to engage with, (hardly surprising after we’ve seen so many social networks take this step). We believe the platform will continue to make changes like this throughout 2018 as it prioritises its personal users needs over businesses.

It came as no surprise then that in early February 2018, they released their new updated app and layout, which now seperates social interactions with friends from third-party content. Although the change has initially incurred a backlash from users, Snapchat have stated that “updates as big as this one can take a little getting used to, but we hope the community will enjoy it once they settle in.”

How can your business take advantage of Snapchat?

Geofilters - A fun and great way to promote your business or product, especially at events. Easy to design with a range of templates from Snapchat and they won’t break the bank. There are a few rules to follow, but you can find out more on their website.

Snaps - Snapchat is a great tool for sharing short and sweet pieces of content that highlight a particular moment in time. Think behind the scenes shots, business events like employee birthdays and just general announcements.

With a range of tools available to you, the key thing to remember is creativity. You only have a short amount of time (10 seconds for video) to make an impact - so think outside the box and catch your audience’s imaginations.

Snapchat now has 187 million daily users after gaining 8.9 million in 2017. Revenue increased by 72% (year-on-year) to £207m, and they paid publishers (those who create content for Discover) £72.05m in 2017, an increase of £30.26m from 2016. It’s safe to say that Snapchat is still very much running with the big dogs, and have no intention of letting their platform die off.

Expect more investment in the Discover area of the app, with more publishers looking to create content for it, as it now has its own specific section on the app.

SOCIAL MEDIASNAPCHAT


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VIDEO

So are you ready to go live? Here are our top tips:

Practice - Knowing where to place your camera and ensuring it’s setup correctly before you go live is key. You can even test your filming on a friend to make sure the shot and content is picture perfect.

Be prepared - It’s not going to be perfect - no one goes live for the first time and everything runs smoothly (Remember the guy on the news when his whole family came running into the room?) be prepared for this and remember sometimes it’s the bits you didn’t plan which can actually make your content.

Think - What it is you want to show, what’s your purpose of going live? If you decide this first then it will help you to stay on track and showcase something your audience wants to engage with.

Stay on brand - It’s not going to do you or your business any favours if you create content that isn’t relatable to what you do, the industry you operate in and the values you have.

Everyone knows that there’s been a huge rise in augmented reality over the past few years and last year Apple showed that this wasn’t going to slow down when they announced the new iPhone 8 and iPhone X. The developments of Apple technology and other mobile devices mean it’s becoming easier for brands to create their own content, especially short pieces which are ideal for social media sharing.

The increase in popularity of video on social media will continue to grow. It’s been said that YouTube was the second biggest search engine and with younger markets using the website to watch programs and vloggers, it doesn’t look like the site will be going anywhere. Live streaming also continues to develop with Facebook and Instagram leading the way.


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To remain relevant, social media platforms will update, refresh, and continue to pave the way for change and innovation. Integrating new technologies, that drive the tech revolution, will help to keep the public interested in their platforms.

The increase in options for customer service will make it easier for consumers and customers to contact businesses. To keep up with customer satisfaction levels, businesses will need to adapt to these new levels of expectations.

TO SUM UP...More updates | More competition | More technology

2018 will be a challenging year for social media, with new entrants like Vero making the market more competitive. However social media sees change everyday so it is unlikely this year will be it’s downfall.

Influencers will continue to hold the attention of Millennials and Gen-Zers, and the number of self-proclaimed micro-celebrities we see on our timelines will increase as big brands use these avenues to promote their products.

LinkedIn continues to remain focused on building professional relationships. However, with the rise of entrepreneurs using video to tell their story, the platform needs to work on how well it accepts video uploads to its users feeds.

Despite all the technological upgrades, you shouldn’t feel left behind. Try to dedicate a section of your day to reading up on the advances of technology, and if possible use it as much as you can. The more you keep up to date with the latest software, the more likely you are to succeed in the world of Social Media, and exploit it to suit your needs.

TRENDS FOR 2018 - tunafishmedia.co.uk€¦ · TUNAFISH MEDIA | Ideas, Content, Results...

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