Where Social Media Is Headed in 2018

The market offers many platforms used to battle for a stronger and bigger market share or brand prominence through the adjustment of business models and marketing strategies. These are intended to offer better returns to shareholders as well as providing the better online user experience.

However, as technology progresses with the advancement of marketing systems and solutions, business owners and marketers need to be wise in the proper manipulation of social media as dynamic marketing platforms that would transform their business for the better.

Social Media ROI

There are always changes to market trends which keep business owners and marketers on their toes to stay competitive. Many trends could be easily identified in the market, although there are subtle variables at play which could become game changers. This is reflected in the announcement by Facebook of certain adjustments to its news feed which can impact business owners and marketers.

Such news would imply that various social media marketing strategies may need to change to ride the wave properly. Hence, there may be some struggles for various platform brands and businesses to connect with their users especially when none was previously available.

It was Facebook which first started its “free-for-all” features offer where the bait was aptly put out. This spurred all business owners and marketers who struggled to stay connected with potential business leads or users organically via their feed. This notwithstanding even paid reaches which have become more restricted today in driving traffic from posts to any website or business page.

This is where business owners and marketers need to measure the ROI of social media efforts. They would be alarmed to note the changing statistics, which do not become favorable to their businesses. This would prompt them in taking a keener look at the proper measures to be taken for any ROI in social media.

Buffer mentioned that the most measured approach is by analyzing engagement followed by lead generation and a sale. Measuring a conversion could be an extremely simple process or highly complex, but the former prevails for many small businesses. They must be able to move forward on a lead value instead of in-depth user engagement that would help them identify the source of the lead and its directional paths to end up from social media to the preferred website.

Social media is dynamic in attracting many users to share and procure relevant news, ideas or images which businesses could contribute online in promoting their brands and products or services. The huge scope of potential business leads on social media platforms is highly attractive for businesses to venture into social media marketing.

Video Marketing

Video marketing looks strong to become more prominent on social media marketing with earlier predictions; and it is turning out to be true, where more and more videos are being deployed by businesses to draw the preferred viewers and potential business leads.

There have been many businesses which focused solely on pre-made videos to get some attention in the market, but these may not have been exactly beneficial if the marketing strategy has not been carefully thought out to be executed properly.

This is the current situation as the market is not meticulous in dispelling ambiguity in market trends and uprising technologies that businesses would be warming up to. This has caused many small businesses to shy away from potential videos which may incur higher costs or efforts. The associated risks on professional quality video production on a tight budget could prove daunting to a small business, especially if there is a lack of experience and know-how.

Hence, video marketing struggles to attract businesses to embrace it unless cost is incurred in hiring professional video designers and developers. However, market polls revealed that users are interested and keen on videos this year regardless of objective and source.

Action by Business

Any business desiring to adapt to current market trends must consider two important aspects; one, video and two, social media. These are dynamic components which genuinely stand out for a successful online marketing campaign.

Any video marketer would point out the dynamics of video on social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook or Instagram for vibrant online advertising. This is providing better results for businesses that are proactive in manipulating the huge reservoir of users in the social media network. This leads to the availability of a strong or healthy marketing budget that caters to identified social media spending.

Businesses that want to benefit from the social media marketing need to adjust or tweak their marketing budget by considering different social media platforms for higher effectiveness when it comes to online marketing.

There are many social media experts in the market who could be hired or consulted with regards to SEO and branding. They may recommend the best of social media for the optimum outcome instead of pumping out content for content’s sake. This would profit the business more when proper online marketing measures are undertaken.

It is beneficial for all businesses today to sign up on social media marketing if they have not experienced the dynamics of this online advertising strategy. The market offers various social media membership programs that are cost effective and easy to secure more business opportunities from the preferred social media networks.

Conclusion

2018 could be the year for businesses to pay close attention to social media for their marketing endeavors because more and more competitors are doing so. Businesses need to stay ahead of their competitors by adapting to any market change instead of resisting it. This would provide much better results from any online marketing strategy implemented.