In just the past 12 months, there has been a fundamental change in how people use social media. While Facebook remains the key social networking platform, it’s clear that much of the innovation coming out of Facebook these days is related to two areas: video and messaging.
Moreover, with the rise of new social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat (both of which are now growing faster than Facebook), it’s opened up new opportunities for B2B marketers who may have already tired of using Facebook and Twitter as their go-to social media platforms.
Putting all this together, it’s possible to see 3 big social media trends for B2B marketers in 2017:
Trend #1: The rise of new conversational experiences
What’s driving this trend is the popularity of lightweight messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. The new way for brands to interact with customers is via messaging apps, not within the social network. That’s opening up all kinds of new 1-on-1 engagement opportunities (e.g. chatbots) that are really new kinds of conversational experiences.
Trend #2: The rise of influencer marketing
In its year-end review of top social media trends, Edelman Digital specifically highlighted influencer marketing as one of the key trends to watch in 2017. The reason is simple – it’s easier for brands to reach and target a relatively small number of online influencers than to invest in massive marketing and advertising campaigns that are more scattershot in their approach.
In today’s digital world, these online influencers are much more likely to drive the purchasing decision than the traditional authority figures within a certain industry. And that’s putting a real premium on being able to reach them. For now, the best solution is to target them with Facebook Ads, which you can manage either directly via Facebook, or via a third-party solution like Social Ads Tool, which offers a Facebook ads manager interface.
Trend #3: The emergence of new video experiences
Live video had its breakout moment in 2017. Both Instagram Live and Facebook Live are changing the way people share their lives with others. And that’s opening up new opportunities for brands, which also are using Live Video to broadcast news and events.
Moreover, Facebook recently launched Group Video Chat, which is turning into a way for small groups of fans to have shared experiences via their messaging apps. This has huge implications for brands – it means that they have to find a way to get onto these messaging apps instead of expecting fans to find them on Facebook or Twitter.
So, if you thought social media marketing just meant updating Facebook and broadcasting tweets, think again. There has been an enormous amount of innovation in the social media space, and that has created some exciting new opportunities for B2B marketers in 2017.
IMAGE: Designed by Freepik
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.