Social Media Trends to Look Out For in 2018

According to Adweek, there are five social media trends that will be essential to reaching key audiences in 2018.

1.      Short-lived content

As evidenced by the popularity of Snapchat, content that is only available for 24 hours or less is great for catching the attention of millennial and gen Z audiences. Engaging creative is essential for this strategy as it needs to catch the eye quickly.

2.      Utilize storytelling and influencers

Relating to consumers through either a persona or influencer helps boost engagement. According to Adweek, “45 percent of people who buy on the internet are affected by the opinions of other people”.

3.      Chat bots

The popular software application has been utilized by large companies to help with customer service. Timely and polite responses to questions benefit both the customer and the business.

4.      Livestreaming

Channels such as Facebook Live and Agora allow businesses to interact with audiences while broadcasting. Facebook Live videos can even be boosted to reach a larger audience.

5.      Artificial Intelligence

It has been proven that consumers are more likely to engage with social media posts that include images. Artificial intelligence allows marketers to search for posts that relate to their brands which can then be reposted. 

Are Instagram Stories Hurting Snapchat?

Since its initial release in 2011, Snapchat has worked to establish itself as a competitor of Facebook. The social media giant released the Instagram Stories feature in response.

As reported by AdWeek, Instagram Stories now has 200 million daily users. When compared to Snapchat’s 158 million daily users, it appears that Instagram Stories is winning the hearts of Millennials. However, new data released by Episode suggests this is not true.

Women aged 13 through 25 make up the majority of users on Snapchat. Episode reports that 69 percent of these women said they do not use Snapchat any less since Instagram Stories was released. So how does Instagram Stories have more daily users?

The key lies in Instagram Stories’ definition of a user. Anyone who either posts a story or clicks on one is considered a user. So an Instagram account with a large following can generate many users with a single Story post.

Despite the addition of Stories to Instagram, Snapchat is far from dead. In fact, seven percent of Episode’s respondents said they still send between 50 and 100 snaps daily. Nine percent send more than 100 snaps per day.

Advertisers should not be so quick to give up on Snapchat as the engaging app maintains its popularity among teenage girls and young women. 

Dominate Digital Forces Look to Continue Their Growth

As eMarketer projects digital ad spend/revenue for the next few years, Facebook and Google look to hold onto their top ranks. Ad spend in the United States looks to grow by 15.9% equaling $83 billion in revenue. Both Facebook and Google look to increase their ad share percentages by 32.1 percent and 14.8 percent respectively.

Overall, Google wins the gold by owning 40.7 percent of the US digital ad market with Facebook settling for silver with 19.7 percent. However, when that’s broken down by search and display the tables turn just a bit.

Google still takes home the prize when it comes to search with an estimated $28.5 billion in ad revenue for 2017 (77.8%), but Facebook comes in on top when we’re talking about display. Facebook brings in $16.3 billion in US digital display ad dollars making up 39.1 percent of the market. Both Google’s search and Facebook’s display revenues are expected to continue growing through 2019.

When looking at mobile, the two digital powerhouses combined accumulate for 57 percent of mobile spend with Google acquiring 32.4 percent and Facebook earning 24.6 percent.

The below chart shows multiple digital providers and their ad share percentage projections through 2019 while focusing specifically on digital mobile ad revenue.

Snap Inc., the inventors of Snapchat, is expected to see the most dramatic increase over the next few years. However, their share is still small and far from the dominating digital forces.

Other platforms like Twitter, Yahoo, and Yellow Pages are expected to decline in the near future. 

Gen X Surpass Millennials in Social Media Usage

Surprisingly enough, Millennials are not the strongest social media users of the bunch. That’s right, according to Nielsen; Generation X (ages 35-49) spends the most time on social media at nearly 7 hours per week.

Millennials do fall in second place with over 6 hours on social media weekly. Across gender lines, females spend 25% of online time on social media while men only reach the 19% mark.

Sean Casey, President of Nielsen Social states that 39% of heavy social users believe that finding out about products and services is an important reason for using social networks.

Thirty-five percent of heavy social users say that special discounts are important and 29% say supporting their favorite brands or companies is important.

On top of that, women are likely to interact with social and television simultaneously. 

Sixty-one percent of unique Facebook users who discuss television on the social network are female.

Generation X females may be the best people to target with a mix of television and social. 

Ads are Introduced to Facebook Messenger

In 2011 Facebook released the first version of the Facebook Messenger App. As with most new social platforms, some people loved the new offering and others hated it. However, as time went on, the Messenger App became the only option for Facebook users as Facebook removed the option to message directly from the Facebook app.

Now, roughly six years later, Facebook is doing the inevitable and introducing ads to the Messenger app.

Ads will be displayed in a “sponsored” section which will be added to the same window that shows which of your friends is active on the app. At least in the beginning stages, Facebook has assured users that the ads will not appear in a conversation; unless of course a user activates the “ad experience” or starts a conversation with a sponsored brand.

Similar to most new advertising opportunities, Facebook is rolling out the platform piece by piece in order to control any issues should they come up.

Advertisements are currently active on the Messenger app in Australia and Thailand.

As predictable as this change was, consumers aren’t too happy about it. However, once the dust settles and advertisements in the app become old news, I am willing to bet that business will go on as usual.

Younger Generations and Social Sharing are Changing Tourism

Take a second and think about your family. Consider yourself, your children, your parents, and grandparents. Pinpoint which generation each member is a part of. Now that you’ve got that down, think about their travel habits: How often do they travel? Where do they go? Do they consider traveling a luxury or a priority? Etc.

Chances are, the older generations traveled less, traveled for different reasons, and didn’t expect to travel as a part of life.

In 2013, nearly 290 thousand American students studied abroad for academic credit. That number has since jumped to over 313 thousand in 2016! On top of that, there’s a rise in American young adults who travel for volunteer and internship positions worldwide.

If I think about my life, the first time I went out of the country was my sophomore year in high school. Since then, I have traveled to 6 different countries on three different adventures. My parents on the other hand first left the country on a cruise back when they were newlyweds. My mother now has no desire to travel outside the US and my dad visits to Scotland solely for golfing excursions.

So why is that? Well, there are a number of reasons as you can imagine. Millennials and Gen Z might have more disposable income than the Boomers had at our age; they definitely spend it differently. Younger generations tend to be stuck in a “right here right now” mindset instead of planning for the future. Traveling is easier than it was when our parents and grandparents were young adults. Alongside all of those easy to assume reasons is the less obvious answer of social media.

Yep, that’s right. Social media fills people with wanderlust. In fact, Millennials and Gen Zers are more likely to choose a travel destination from what they see on social media than any travel ad they may view. For younger generations, the word of another carries much more weight than an advertisement. Eighty-four percent of Millennials and Gen Zers will even make travel plans based off what their friends or influencers post online.

Comparing my dad’s travel plans verses my own shows firsthand the vast differences: he uses a travel agent; I use Pinterest and online blogs. He communicates directly with the hotels he will be staying at; I book online. He takes pictures to keep to himself; I take pictures to post on social media.

With this, how do advertisers get in front of these young travelers? Like in all areas of advertising, they have to adapt and evolve with the changes. Continuously put paid media in front of viewers without them thinking they’re viewing an advertisement. The use of social media is vastly important as well as native content, influencers, and user generated content. 

Facebook Fights for Their Ads

In recent months, Facebook announced that they would begin blocking ad blockers and pushing ads through to users with the blocking software.

In a gist, it’s a back and forth battle: ad blocking engineers develop software to block ads – Facebook engineers develop software to block the ad blocking software – Ad block engineers develop new software to block ads – Facebook develops newer software to keep pushing ads through. You get the point.

The goal of blocking the blockers was to first and foremost to grow their ad revenue from advertisers. After all, that is how Facebook receives money to keep the business running and free for users. Second, Facebook created a setting allowing users to tell Facebook what type of ads they do and do not wish to see. Basically, they made ads user friendly. Not interested in Chinese food? Fine, we won’t show you that ad. Not only does this make ads more relatable to users, it also assures less waste for advertisers.

So is the consistent battle of fending off ad blockers worth it? After seeing desktop ad revenue increase by 18%, I would say their approach thus far has been a success. 

Social: Saying 'See Ya' to Social

What if I told you there would be no more social media? Chances are you wouldn’t believe me, but recent news implies that saying see ya to social is exactly the direction we’re headed in… kind of.

Companies like Snap Inc., Twitter, and Facebook have ditched the term “social media” for more sophisticated terminology.

Snap Inc. after recently changing from Snapchat, now classifies itself as a camera company. Twitter has removed their app from the “social” section in Apple’s App Store to the “news” section. Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, says, “There are so many jokes to crack about that…” in response to the idea that Facebook is a social media platform. Sandberg says, “It’s certainly not even a term I think we’ve used in a while.”

So why are companies treating the term “social” like it’s the black plague by running in the opposite direction? Well, by ditching the “social” label, companies are able to offer brands a bigger “media” concept resulting in more ad dollars. 

It might seem crazy at first, but these companies evolving from social media into more sophisticated niches might not be such a bad thing. Nick Cicero, CEO of Snapchat-focused agency Delmondo, says, “When you compare Twitter as a news app to any one individual news organization’s app, Twitter wins, hands down”.

The term “social media” has always had a ring to it that’s attractive to the younger demographics; your millennials and generation z crowd.  Now, with a more buttoned up category, advertisements associated with these media platforms will be able to spend their ad dollars with a more prestigious feel.

Instead of advertising on a place where kids go to talk about their lives, post pictures from their weekend, and share memes (social media), marketers can advertise on a place where people go to get direct news, forecasts, and reliable information (media network).

Snapchat: Growth Charts, Name Changes, and Recording Glasses

Snapchat has experienced substantial growth in the social world and it doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. In fact, Snapchat is moving up the ranks in terms of users, popularity, and time spent on the app.

Snapchat made an announcement last week regarding their branding change and the new name of their company, Snap Inc.

This name change is for the company as a whole, as the app will still be referred to as Snapchat. The new name was rolled out alongside a new product that eliminates the “chat” feature.

Snap’s new product is video recording sunglasses which let customer’s record experiences from a first person viewpoint. The glasses record 10 second videos with a simple finger tap. Videos are then sent to the app via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection.

Snap Inc., while slowly rolling out more advertisements within their app, are also opening doors for new opportunities within their new product. 

Olympics, Advertising, Gold Spikes, and Social Media Rules

The most anticipated event of the summer is well underway in Rio with people from all over the world tuning in and cheering on their country. For advertisers, the Olympic Games are a great opportunity to advertise on a large stage, however, you might want to double check what you say.

AdWeek brings to light the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games when Nike dipped their toe in some risky marketing strategies. At the time, Nike was not an official Olympic sponsor. So what do they do? Give Michael Johnson, a track and field superstar, shiny gold $30,000 racing spikes. Johnson ironically won the gold medal for the USA in the 400-meter dash stunning America with his gold medal and gold feet.

Not only did Nike sneakily advertise on Johnson’s feet, but they also (not so sneakily) built “Nike Centre” right next to the athletes’ village. On top of that, they handed out flags to visitors that had a huge swoosh on them.

But I’m not done… Nike made sure to load up on billboard advertising for the big event as well, flooding Atlanta with messages like, “You don’t win silver, you lose gold”.  As well as magazine ads that read, “If you’re not here to win, you’re a tourist”. Ouch, Nike.

Clearly, these tactics didn’t settle well with competitors who were official Olympic sponsors, like Reebok; or the International Olympic Committee (IOC). However, what was done was done, and couldn’t be reversed. Instead, the IOC and USOC (United States Olympic Committee) did what they saw fit and tightened up their rules.

Today, brands who are not official Olympic sponsors are not allowed to use words/phrases on social media like: Olympic, Olympian, Team USA, Future Olympian, Gateway to gold, Go for the gold, Let the games begin, Paralympic, Pan Am Games, Olympiad, Paralympiad, Pan-America; and that’s just the beginning. Many brands are choosing the safer route and avoiding simple words like “summer” and “gold medal”. AdWeek lays out a clear list of do’s and don’ts here. 

Bottom line: cheer for the Red White and Blue, but be careful with what you type in that 140 character tweet. 

Print and Other Traditional Medias Trusted Over Social

Professor of marketing at Melbourne Business School, Mark Ritson, uses Nielsen research to point out the continued trustworthiness of print marketing. As mentioned by Ritson, Nielsen declares that sixty-percent of people still trust print advertising. Fifty-six percent of people trust outdoor billboards and other out-of-home advertisements. However, the percent of trust level drops to forty-six when discussing online and social media ads.

Even millennials, the social media gurus, trust print and television advertising more than online and social. So why is that? Shouldn’t millennials lean towards the new and innovative outlets?

Well, I have no facts for you. No cut and dry numbers to tally. But what I do have is first-hand experience, insight, and opinions from a millennial herself: me. 

Theory 1: We don’t fully trust the internet itself

Millennials are raised being told, “Don’t trust everything you read online”. Well, that carries over directly to advertisements. We’re taught to do our due diligence to verify accuracy or simply take everything we see/read with a grain of salt.

Theory 2: We assume anything with a poor design is a poor product/service

The poor aesthetics of some online ads automatically rule them as a scam, inaccurate, or simply untrustworthy. Again, growing up in the digital world we are taught to be cautious of things we click on and access.

Theory 3: We are bombarded with digital

There are so many online/social ads that they’re an annoyance. With seemingly fewer television and print ads, they make a bigger impact. Expanding on this, growing up we were accustomed to seeing television and print ads. However, since the Internet was relatively new, there were little to no ads online making their entrance into the digital world disruptive.

Theory 4: We still like the attributes of physical print advertising

Direct mail print pieces give us a physical reminder. While digital calendars/coupons/offers are becoming more and more popular, I would still rather get a direct mail piece, disconnect the coupon, put it in my wallet, and make a point to go to the store to take advantage of the special offer.

Theory 5: We think less expensive = cheap quality

Digital ads are cheaper therefore less important. I think the majority of individuals realize that a television ad is more expensive than a display banner ad, therefore since anyone can afford online/social ads; they must not be as quality, prestigious, trustworthy, etc.

Like I said, no facts with sited sources or charts with extensive data, I simply have opinions of a twenty-something millennial living in the media world.

Instagram to Allow Facebook's Dynamic Ads to Reach its "Visual" Audience

We have all seen retargeted ads, whether we are aware of it or not. You know when you’re surfing the Internet and see an ad for the same dress that you looked at yesterday? Yep, it’s retargeted. Or how about when you researched traveling to the great Smokey Mountains and two days later saw an ad for luxurious cabins available in the mountains? Sure thing, you’ve been retargeted once again.

Facebook calls their retargeting ads “Dynamic Ads” after originally being known as “Dynamic Product Ads”. Without much surprise, Facebook has extended their Dynamic Ads to their recently acquired, Instagram.

Susan Buckner, the market operations lead at Instagram declares that, “Instagrammers are visual shoppers.” Buckner notes that users visit the social network at least six days out of the week. Sixty percent of people claim to discover products and services on Instagram with an astonishing 75 percent taking action after seeing a post.

Dynamic Ads can be shown on Facebook, Instagram, or any third-party site or app that is a part of the Facebook Audience Network.

The travel industry has been a huge success with these retargeted ads on Facebook as they can show prices, availability, flight times, etc. on their ads to people who are likely interested. Facebook even takes into account the demographics of their user. For example, a high school student with a part-time job won’t be retargeted with an ad showing ticket prices for a roundtrip flight to Australia even if they were daydreaming about said trip yesterday. Why not? Because a high-school student cannot afford that magnificent vacation, so it would be a waste to target them.

This is huge for advertisers; why not remind users of what they liked yesterday while they’re scrolling through their Instagram feed? Advertisers have a captive audience who is very visual, might as well fulfill their desires with creative and relevant ads. 

Pinterest Holds a Plethora of Possibility

Personally, I feel as if there are three types of people in the world. Avid Pinterest Pinners, people who draw a blank when Pinterest is mentioned, and men who roll their eyes at how much time their female counterpart spends browsing Pinterest. I happen to be the first type of person. Pinterest is, by far, my favorite social network.

Pinterest is a website that allows you to share, collect, store, and organize ideas that you find online. Users can scroll through their news feed to see Pins (or ideas) that their friends have saved as well as Pins “picked for you” based off interests and “promoted pins” paid for by advertisers. From there a Pinner can save a Pin themselves onto Boards that they control and organize. Think of boards as online folders where users save ideas like recipes, outfits, vacation ideas, wedding plans, home décor, and so much more.

Now that you’ve got the gist of the Pinterest world, let’s take a look at some fascinating statistics:

• According to DMR Digital Statistics, there are 176 million registered Pinterest users, 85% of those users are female.
• Of all US social media users, 30% use Pinterest.
• Sixty-seven percent of Pinterest users are under the age of 40.
• While the male population is small on Pinterest, in 2015 the representation of male users grew 120%.
• Sixty-six percent of users say they use Pinterest to inspire them.
• The percentage of millennial users on Pinterest is 67%.
• Seventy-nine percent of millennials use Pinterest to teach them to do things, 84% of millennials use Pinterest to discover things related to health and fitness, and 80% of millennials use Pinterest to help them find things to buy.
• According to USA Today, 80% of users access the network via mobile device

If you’re an advertiser, you’re probably eager to reach this specific and captive audience. Well, lucky for you, now you can! Pinterest has recently unrolled their advertising platform to small and medium sized businesses allowing the “mom and pop” shops of the world to reach Pinners.

Pinterest has many advantages to advertising on their social network.

1. According to Social Marketing Writing, the half-life of a Pin is 3.5 months which is 1,680 times longer than a Facebook post!
2. The audience on Pinterest is actively seeking ideas, information, creativity, advice, etc. Personally, I go to Pinterest just as often, if not more, than Google when searching for a product to help me complete the task at hand.
3. Promoted Pins look nearly identical to organic Pins so users don’t see them as intrusive or annoying.
4. Pinterest allows “cinematic” Pins on mobile which play with video advertising and are highly eye catching for mobile users. 
5. Pinterest is growing and growing and growing

What more could you need? It’s time to start Pinning, reaching your audience, and raising that ROI.

Facebook Continues to Top the Facebook Charts

eMarketer reports on three monumental achievements Facebook looks to attain in 2016. For the first time, Facebook will have over half (50.3%) of the United States population as active users. eMarketer predicts that 162.9 million users will logon to their Facebook account at least once a month throughout the year. Facebook-owned Instagram is second on the list followed by Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr.

Second, Facebook continues to be on top when it comes to social ad spending. Facebook will earn 73.4% ($9.86 billion) of US social network ad dollars during 2016 while Twitter settles for a distant second by only capturing 13.8% ($1.86 billion).

Lastly, eMarketer projects the increase of mobile users to continue rising. “This year, 86% of US Facebook users will access the platform through a phone, with that figure climbing to 91% in 2019”. Undoubtedly, this will increase the percentage of ad dollars that are received through the mobile platform. While Facebook increases their users on mobile devices, Twitter still trumps the mobile scene with 92.3% of their users accessing their accounts via mobile device. 

The Unclear Yet Promising Future of Advertising on Snapchat

It is no real surprise that Snapchat is becoming increasingly popular in the social world. I can still remember when I first downloaded the app and saw no point in sending a picture that my friend could only view for ten seconds or less. A few years later and you can still send short pictures to your friends, but you can also send videos, make stories, follow celebrities, watch clips from live events, read Wall Street Journal articles, and much more. The Snapchat world has taken off and advertising with the growing network is ready for launch.

Currently, you can watch paid videos from a select group of companies in the Discover tab where you see their stories and read their articles. Companies can also advertise with sponsored geo-filters that users can use for 24 hours. The rest of the advertising possibilities are still in the preparation phase.

Snapchat has tossed around the idea of improving ad targeting in the Discover portal to track the content that each user is specifically viewing and then following their off-site browsing and searching activity. This is an upgrade from Snapchat’s current strategy of targeting ads based on what channels people are checking out.

Moat, a third party measurement company, has become of interest to Snapchat who wishes to track the success of their advertisers better. Currently, there is no length tracking on “views” to see how long a user actually views an ad for. For example, one user could click on an ad and immediately click off while another user clicks on the ad and watches the whole thing. According to Snapchat’s current measurements, both are considered a “view”. By partnering with Moat (as Facebook and YouTube have already done) Snapchat will be able to assure their advertisers that they are getting the biggest bang for their buck, or at least let them know how long users are keeping with their ad.

Lastly, Snapchat is contemplating with the idea of a redesigned feed to combine personal stories, Discover, and Live and Local Stories. This redesigned feed would have a back-end algorithm to personalize each feed to each user.

While many of these advancements are still in the developmental stage, the future for Snapchat is promising with opportunities for growth and expansion through advertising.