As the new year dawns, business owners everywhere are making New Year’s resolutions. Whether you want to be more active on social media, finally get that website up and running, or publish your first blog post, 2017 is the year to do it.
Before the new year starts, we like to lay out some of our marketing predictions that we think will take the Internet by storm. As always, social media marketing will remain popular because of its ability to adapt to the changing tech environment, so let’s look at some trends we think will gain even more popularity over the next year.
1. Advertisements Will Get Smarter
In the early days of social media, users would see timely posts and organic viewership was the norm. Today, this organic reach is a little more tricky, and with social media platforms always changing their algorithms, it may seem impossible to get in front of the people that matter.
There is good news to these changes, though, and that is that paid advertising on social media just keeps getting better. Gone are the days of crafting an ad and sending it out into the big, black hole of social media. Now, you can create highly-targeted campaigns, direct traffic to a specific action, and pay less for it than ever before. For example, with Facebook advertising you can set your budget, set a target market or location, and let your ad run and study the results. This targeted reach can help you generate traffic to your website, blog, or social media pages.
With the amount of growth we have seen over the past few years with social advertising, we predict that these advertisements will get smarter in 2017 and present themselves as a viable marketing option for financial advisors.
2. Communication Styles Will Change
Every social media platform is born with a certain purpose and niche market in mind. LinkedIn targets professionals, Facebook is for social sharing, and Twitter is for quick news updates. But as the audiences of these platforms evolve, so do the communication styles. Let’s look at a few examples.
This year, Facebook launched their new site, Workplace by Facebook. Workplace allows users to connect their employees and customers on a deeper, more professional level than the traditional Facebook News Feed. While this tool is just starting, it is an example of how social media platforms continually strive for growth and cross-pollination between markets.
Another example is the continual decline of Twitter, which faced a rough year in 2016. While still considered one of the leaders in social media marketing, Twitter has been faced with a need to adapt. Many marketers argue that the instantaneous updates that made Twitter so popular in the beginning are falling to the wayside and users are being drawn to more quality, long-form content.
3. Long-Form Content Will Dominate
In 2015 and 2016, we saw the rise of long-form content and we predict that this trend will continue. In most content marketing strategies, short-form content pieces are Facebook posts and Tweets, short blurbs, and other quick communications. Long-form content pieces are usually blogs, extended advertisement campaigns, and other rich, well-researched posts.
One of the reason why we predict the continued rise of long-form content is because audiences love a good narrative and blog posts are a great way to get these across. Longer posts also allow the writer to develop a connection with their readers, which all marketers seek in the fast-paced, digital world. By taking the time to sit down and read a long post or story from a company, a customer or prospect is investing their time and energy already. This relationship is a content marketer’s dream.
These are just a few of the trends that we are predicting for social media marketing in 2017. What do you think will gain traction this next year? Shoot us an email at [email protected] to share!