Predicted Social Media Trends for 2017

This week on PR News for Smart Communicators, I read the moving article 7 Social Media Trends to Watch in 2017 From Yelp’s Manager of Local Business Outreach written by Sophie Maerowitz. She explained how the social platforms are in a constant state of change because they are always updating. This can be difficult for a company to manage seeing how there are so many platforms all with different updates. Maerowitz interviewed John Carroll, a Yelp Manager of Local Outreach who expresses seven social media trends for communicators to continue looking for throughout 2017. These trends may help a company be more prepared when/if the updates come along. Below are the seven trends Carroll believes will become prominent.

·         Video’s will still reign supreme: here he talks about the evolution of the video tools on platforms that already exist such as Instagram stories, Facebook Live, etc. He believes that videos allow for more rich content to reach the audience while allowing them to engage in an experience.

·         There will be an increased focus on capturing authentic moments: here Carroll explains how social platforms allow for organizations and individuals to share moments in real time. This means that moments are captured as they are happening and being posted for others to see.

·         Immersive technology will allow brands to take audiences along for the ride: here he explains the idea of virtual reality increasing today is allowing for consumers to feel an increase in immersive content that is portrayed. This allows the consumers to actually experience the journey with them first hand rather than showing them the experience at a later time.

·         The barrier between brand and consumer will dissolve: the word brand has changed over the year’s tremendously. Branding today does not just mean the label of product however it also takes into consideration the engagement of different people. Carroll states “brands are expected to behave in a human way on social media”. By this he is referring to giving customers the same experience and perception of a brand that you would receive if you were to enter the store or organization.

·         Staying on top of fads will yield positive engagement if you act fast: here Carroll acknowledge small trends and how if an organization or individual acts fast they can take part in the current trend. He then briefly states if the trend makes sense for your brand, you should participate in the trend.

·         Social media will continue to be a multifunction channel: as social media become more and more popular different organizations and individuals have begun to utilize it for different things. Carroll expresses how millennial-targeting brands are beginning to have successfully driven sales by making social platforms such as Snapchat their de facto channel.

·         Social platforms will get more complicated and more expensive: here Carroll explains how the idea of social media increasing so quickly is only complicating things for companies. They are now creating algorithms which make it challenging for brands to get content in front of consumers and rather they will need to depend more on paid campaigns as time goes on.

Seeing how much social media has already expanded and how fast the technological advancements are, it is important to keep an eye out for future trends and updates within the platforms that already exist. Since they are constantly updating, it is critical that organizations stay as up to date as they can or they will risk losing their target audience’s attention to those organizations that do keep up to date with the social platforms.