Social Media Predictions & Business Recommendations for 2018

Like technology, social media continues to evolve. For this reason, yesterdays social media marketing tactics may not work today. To stay relevant, your business needs to know what to expect so you can take advantage of new opportunities and avoid mistakes. Although no one knows how social media will end the year, the following predictions can point you in the right direction.

Pinterest Advertising

Expect that Pinterest will continue refining their advertising platform, giving you a chance to target your audience with enhanced precision. Additionally, Pinterest video advertising will become more effective for businesses and more attractive to users.

As you update your Pinterest strategy, be sure to study what types of pins create the highest levels of engagement. This will give you a chance to use video to optimize your organic and paid traffic.

YouTube for Leads

Businesses will increasingly balk at rising Facebook advertising rates and start using YouTube instead. That video site connects brands with shoppers at critical moments of the customer lifecycle, making it ideal for gathering qualified leads for free.

YouTube has its own search engine giving you a chance to create optimized content for the searches made by your prospective customers. When your videos solve their problems and answer their questions, people will reach out to you directly or follow links to your website to learn more.

LinkedIn Ads

Businesses will continue to look for ways to use LinkedIn for marketing. Part of this will lead to new enhancements to the site’s PPC advertising platform. Although the ability to reach practically every type of stakeholder via LinkedIn makes it attractive, it can also help B2C firms.

If you think about it, business owners, managers, executives, vendors, employees and everyone else involved in the business world also have roles as consumers. This means that B2C companies can also effectively use LinkedIn to promote their brand.

Facebook Reviews

The importance of customer reviews will intensify and increase as more shoppers look for social proof before making a buying decision. Facebook now ranks as the most trusted source for reviews, so the things people say there about your brand will directly impact your business.

In addition to monitoring your Facebook reviews as part of a reputation management strategy, you can also promote your brand by inviting your customers to leave reviews. As time progresses, this will become vital to your SEO as search engines place more weight on reviews while determining page rank.

Twitter Revitalization

If you have already written-off Twitter, think again. For the first time ever, Twitter has become profitable and seems poised to achieve meaningful growth. Don’t miss out. Get your business intelligence ready by dusting off your Twitter marketing and advertising skills.

You may find some opinions that Twitter owes its resurgence to the presence of colorful people on the political scene. If that is the case, the site may need to develop strategies to strengthen its appeal in ways that will outlast electoral cycles. However, for the short-term, you should take advantage of all the opportunities the site offers.

Instagram

People aged 18-29 have flocked to Instagram, often at Facebook’s expense. Still, the explosive growth of this social network has turned heads in the business community. Business activity on Instagram has increased for one reason: Engagement. Right now, about 80 percent of Instagram accounts follow at least one brand.

Tools such as Stories Highlights and Instagram advertising will only intensify marketing activities on Instagram. Meanwhile, tried and true tactics such as hashtag optimization and social engagement will become essential in the pursuit of organic traffic.

In summary, expect things to change in the social media world. As the preferences of existing users change and new generations of users emerge, social networks will need to adapt. Additionally, new technologies promise to unleash new opportunities for users and advertisers alike.

Use the above tips to lead you to new ideas for updating your social media marketing strategy. By staying informed and updating your skills, you will help your brand stay connected with relevant users while building online awareness of your brand.

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