4 Noteworthy social media trends of 2017

Most social media trends are merely fads, enjoying a few glorious moments in the limelight before being disregarded for the next best thing, but not all trends fade so quickly. 

Social messaging – the underdog channel
Businesses in general focus in on social networks but disregard the messaging apps available in 2017. This is very narrow minded since messaging apps such as Whatsapp, Viber, WeChat and Facebook messenger has a larger amount of users than some of the world’s most popular social media platforms such as twitter and Instagram. Studies have shown that 62% of Millennials are more loyal to brands that communicate with them through over-the-top (OTT) messaging and SMS messaging than to brands that only communicate with them through other channels, and furthermore OTT messaging apps are estimated to reach over two billion users by 2018. As more companies start to realize the potential of social messaging, we can expect to see even more social messaging focused marketing in the next few years.

360° Content
360° video is a hot trend at the moment. Content that can be viewed from numerous angles allowing a 360° view, has given way to numerous new ways of advertising and already big South African companies such as Sanlam has started to implement 360° content in campaigns such as “spot the Wealthsmith”. 360° Videos are expected to make a huge breakthrough in the tourism and real estate markets, since these videos will allow consumers an immersive experience before visiting a tourism destination or buying a house, without having to pay for the experience. 360° Videos are definitely a trend to take note of.

And we’re live!
Video has been a popular medium to share information for decades and from video, social media platforms such as YouTube was born. YouTube was created with the idea in mind of providing the public with a platform on which to share authentic moments captured in time, and people still gravitate towards this unfiltered content which led to the creation of live video. Live streaming video allows people to communicate through video in real-time, and popular social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook have already capitalized on real-time video streaming. Live video is most certainly a trend worth looking into.

Believe it or not
Fake news is a massive trend taking over the internet. The internet has been transformed into the primary source of news and information for most people with internet access (especially millennials), but most people seem to forget that everything you read online is not necessarily true. As a result of people blindly believing everything they read online, fake news have been increasing, with numerous sites creating and spreading fake information about current events to cause mayhem. Fake news is definitely a trend that will continue to stay as long as there are people who are gullible enough to believe everything they read online.

These trends are what’s hot right now, so why not use them to your advantage to boost your marketing efforts? Not all trends are marketing goldmines, but there are definitely a few that are worth looking into.