Utilising social media effectively for your always on campaigns, is critical to any business marketing strategy for 2018. The stats back this up with 71% of consumers more likely to recommend a brand to others if they have positive experience with it on social media.
So, what does 2018 have in store?
2018 will see continued investment in influencer strategies. Over 90% of marketers who employ an influencer marketing strategy believe it is successful. The latest notable strategies include Sprite’s #wannasprite campaign featuring LeBron James, and Sprint, who worked with Jay Z on the launch of 4.44, his latest album. The big challenge for 2018 is to provide consumers with the authenticity they desire; brands need to work with real influencers and industry experts in order to have a higher engagement rate. For more information on influencer marketing strategies, have a read of our blog here.
Trends indicate there will be increasing brand participation in messaging platforms. Artificial intelligence, voice assistants and chatbots all enable brands to offer a smoother, more personalised shopping experience. Chatbots allow companies to customise their brand voices and send personalised messages directly to users. Facebook report that they see 100,00 monthly active bots on its Messenger app, offering a whole new platform for markets to connect with audiences. Millennials are likely to be the quickest to use chatbots; 60% of those surveyed have already used chatbots and 71% say they are excited by the prospect of future chatbot engagements with some of the major brands.
An increasing percentage of content will be ephemeral content which provides better engagement rates. Most ephemeral content is shared for up to 24 hours and then disappears forever. Ephemeral content allows brands to be more authentic; many brands are using Instagram stories to push out their best high-quality content. The key benefit of ephemeral content is that it forces followers to take fast action as content is lost within hours. Furthermore, having stories that persistently appear at the top of a follower’s feed makes the brand memorable and places it at the forefront of their mind.
To discuss how your brand can make the most of these and other benefits of social media marketing, we’d love to help. Please contact us at hello@tkm-consultants.com