Social Media Marketing Campaign Trends For 2018

Do you actually remember what life was like before Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook? Hard, isn’t it? Like it or not, social media marketing Sunshine Coast is here to stay. And however much you hate it, it has enabled business owners to take their marketing campaigns to the next level.

Who would have guessed when SixDegrees.com was launched in 1997 that social media would become what it is today? In December 1997, 70 million people worldwide used the internet. That was 1.7% of the world population. In June 2017, that had risen to 3,885 million users or 51.7% of the world population.

Seriously, how can any business NOT have a social media marketing campaign now?

Fish Where The Fish Are

Done correctly – which generally requires a social media marketing professional – this gives an organisation access to a huge potential market at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. Take Facebook, for example. It now has over 2 billion users. Imagine the cost of advertising your product to that many people via print media or TV!

It makes sense to advertise your organisation where your potential customers spend the majority of their time; fish where the fish are. But if you’re after the big fish you need to make your social media marketing campaign specific. This is where skill, knowledge and experience come into play.

It’s all about understanding the demographics of each social media app. It’s also about knowing the best times of day and the best days of the week to post. And remember, the popularity of a social media app can change overnight.

Facebook Still #1

As of October 2017, Facebook was still #1 in Australia, with 15,000,000 active monthly users. Next comes YouTube with 15,000,000 UAVs, followed by Instagram at 9,000,000. Interestingly, Twitter has started to lag behind.

As we move into 2018 the best social media marketing campaign will make more use of video. Studies show 43% of people want to see more video content whilst 51.9% of social media marketers say video content offers the best ROI.

Influencer marketing will also continue to grow in 2018, as more organisations realise how effective this form of non-invasive promotion can be. And the statistics support it. 70% of teenage YouTube subscribers say they trust influencer opinions more than ‘regular’ celebs.

Messaging Apps

That’s not all; 71% of shoppers are more likely to purchase a product based on a social media reference, whilst 86% of women use social media before making a purchase.

Here’s another one to consider for 2018: messaging apps. For marketing? You bet! More than 2.5 billion people worldwide use messaging apps. If you don’t tap into that you must be crazy! We can expect to see more businesses interacting with customers this way, with chatbots enabling those businesses to offer personalized shopping experiences.

It may also be a case of ‘move over Millennials’! Generation Z is about to enter the workforce. That means more spending power for an age demographic that loves social media.

If you’ve had cold feet about social media marketing Sunshine Coast in the past, it’s something you need to seriously investigate in 2018 if you don’t want to be left behind.