Trend Spotting Social Media
What’s on tap in 2016?
It’s very difficult to stand out in the virtual world of social media, especially if you are a late comer to new trends.
In 2012 it was easy to get your photos on Instagram’s discovery page where you could get hundreds of followers in a few minutes. Today Instagram has over 400 Million active users: to stand out and get hundreds of followers is mission impossible.
If you spot new trends or fast growing social networks and quickly adopt them, your chances of becoming an influencer will be much higher.
On the other hand, if you miss an emerging trend and try to catch it later, it’s very unlikely that you will succeed. Even with big marketing budgets it’s quiet hard to close the gap between early adopters and newcomers.
Nike joined Instagram in its early days in 2011 and now has 43 Million followers and up to 700K likes per post without any paid media! Adidas joined Instagram a few years later and is now struggling behind it’s main competitor with only 8 Million followers.
There is so much noise in the digital world, and trend spotting is all about finding and adapting to the right signals that fit your business objectives.
The following video highlights 3 signals that currently stand out in the ever changing world of social media advertising. It’s a useful tool for anyone who would like to demonstrate the trends in an engaging format.
Online video
360 Videos, live streaming, VR, AR, Snap Stories, and even GIFs are all fast growing trends.
To adopt these trends, you need to experiment with these video formats and test what fit’s best your audience.
Social sales and social ads
You might have heard social ads are for awareness only. That trend is long gone.
Placing ads that are social by design or traditional ads on social media networks will get you good results. However social by design ads are outperforming the traditional ones.
Social network ad spending will reach $29 billion worldwide in 2016. The main driver and winner is Facebook . It’s just been announced that there are currently 2 million active advertisers on Facebook.
Customer interface
“Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.” — Tom Goodwin
What about your industry?
How is your user interface doing? Are you providing best in class user interface to your customers? If not get ready to be interfaced.
The world’s fastest changing communication technology will keep on changing and continue to evolve. Trend spotting should be a key ingredient in your social media and digital plans so you can leverage all of it’s benefits
Brands that know how to spot trends will become trendy brands. Brands that do not adapt to change will not survive.
