Where I think digital marketing is heading in 2017

At work we compiled our digital marketing predictions for 2017, after writing what seemed like an essay for a short blog post, I thought I best cut down on there and expand my predictions and thoughts here. Last year, I found some of my predictions were not as important as I thought, such as shopping via social media. And things change so quickly, something we never even considered can become the next big thing.

In 2016 I really tried to focus on social media and influencer marketing. Its not something we concentrate on at work for our clients yet, but it is something have a keen interest in. I have to admit, last year I wasn’t the best ‘Tweeter’ quite sporadic in my posting. Sometimes I just didn’t have time to check my Twitter and other times I forgot to share articles and stories I had read and enjoyed. So for 2017 one of my New Year’s resolutions is to focus on my social media accounts better, after all sharing is caring.

So here are my predictions to where digital, content and social media marketing is heading in 2017…

Conversation

It may seem in the digital world conversations are not real, throw away comments typed onto a keyboard can have the same effect if they were spoken. We have seen this particularly with online bullying and trolls. However that does not mean what is said on social media platforms is bad and conversations are meaningless. It is a fantastic platform for brands and marketers to use.

We now see that the art of conversation in the digital age is not dead. Last year many brands started use chat bots on social networking apps with customers as part of their engagement strategy. You can find them on social media platforms such as; Facebook messenger, WhatsApp and Twitter direct messages. For me I feel this can be a valuable tool for any company, or brand no matter their size. We have seen customers and brands benefit from interaction on social media, as portals to help our customers, offer advice and generally have a personable presence online.

An herein lies the perfect portal for bots, yes they may seem impersonal on the outside, however bots offer a level of service which can fill in the gaps. So for those who may not always check their emails or know where to find brands on social media sites. It allows brands and companies to collect valuable data on the service they provide and allow them to always be improving, something everyone should be doing.

Influencer marketing

This is a topic I started to learn about last year, although my job over the years has had an element of influencer marketing, in the last year it’s something I really wanted to focus on. Last year was a big year for influencer marketing, I started my introduction to it here: Talking about influencers . Online everything now has a price, how expensive it is depends on what you want to do, who you want to share and who you want to see. This is in essence the basis of influencer marketing and although there was a big shift in the way brands and companies work with influencers last year, this form of marketing has far from peaked.

In 2017 I think we will start to see new ways of working with influencers, so not just paying an ‘influencer’ for social shares and blog posts. Instead brands, marketers and influencers themselves working together to create engaging content that’s not just via blogs but across all social media channels. This could be creating bespoke content for Snapchat, Pinterest and Instagram, to drive users to brands sites but also influencer’s sites.

Live streaming

Live streaming is not something I have really considered, at work we have only live streamed once when the river near our office was close to flooding. Personally I don’t often think I’m doing anything interesting enough to share with my friends on Facebook, so don’t bother. However as we have seen, social media users have started to want more content in the moment, whether that’s just someone’s day to day life, a brand live or video streaming of a world event.

Facebook is where live stream is, it was used to some good effect during the US presidential election in November and I think during 2017 we will see more and more events live streamed and users themselves will also start to share their lives, live.

Balance

Finally I believe balance will be a big trend for 2017 or for me anyway. In a world that seems to be led by our smartphones I want to add balance to my life. Spending all day online for my job, monitoring news stories and social media sites, it can feel like an informational overload. However when I leave work I am still glued to my technology reading more news stories or articles when I am at home and jumping on my social media. For 2017 I will be looking to digital detox as much as I can outside of work and getting my digital fix in work.