Social Media Predictions For 2017

Social media has exploded over the last 10 years to become a juggernaut that merges media, content and technology. It has become part of over a billion users daily lives and shows no signs of slowing down. Innovation is what has driven this rapid growth and to keep billions of users active and engaging these companies to consistently push for innovation. 2017 will be no different for social media. We've looked at the trends, the mentions, what's going on behind the scenes and come up with 6 social media predictions for 2017 and here they are.

1. AI Lenses for Facebook and Instagram

The growth of Instagram Stories and Facebook adopting a similar feature means (stolen from Snapchat) major social looks like a major social media trend could be AI lenses across all networks. Here are some of the reasons we believe Instagram will increase the competition even further in 2017.

Possible reasons to drive this trend

• Snapchat long dragged out a move to go public possibly by March 2017
• 41% of US adults 18-34 use Snapchat daily
• There were more than 150 million daily Snapchat users in 2016
• $750 000 is the approxiate cost for custom Snapchat filters for a peak 24-hour period
• 100 million active users on Instagram stores two months after its release
• Instagram storeis are watched by 18% of users daily
• Facebook already testing AI lenses for its mobile interface

2. More Customer Service Chatbots

The rise in social media customer service or using social media platforms as a CS platform means more businesses are receiving more queries more often. Which becomes a time-consuming process. Social media managers are focusing way too much on resolving queries and becoming less effective at driving traffic because of this trend. Chatbots can help alleviate this day to day interaction and also help users answer simple requests.

Possible reasons to drive this trend

• in 2016 slack daily active users grew to 4 million
• Slack owns roughly 1.25 million paid accounts
• 484 Slack bots currently avaliable according to BotList
• 300 million people actively use voice and audio calling features on Facebook Messenger
• 11 000 active Facebook messenger bots
• Facebook bots now accept major vendors such as mastercard and American Express

3. Paid content continues to reign

Social media algorithms are making it harder for brands to get ads in front of users. They are also limiting the reach of organic posts from businesses pages and putting a larger influence on user engagement and user sharing. Focusing on quality and engaging content still, holds merit but paid continues to flourish, especially for generic and mediocre content, which makes up the majority of sponsored content.

Possible reasons to drive this trend

• A projected $41 million will be spent on social media advertising in 2017
• Paid advertising grew dramaticalliy year on year 2015-2016. 76% on search ads, 74% on social ads and 76% on promoted posts
• Twiter Q3 advertising revenue grew from $513 million in 2015 to $545 million in 2016
• Instagram mobile ad revenue drew $1.53 bullion across the globe

4. Prioritizing of business features and analytics

Social networks are prioritizing businesses needs, most brands are beginning to understand the value of social media analytics and its metrics are starting to hold value in many a boardroom, not only in sales but brand building. Expect even more focus on native platform business tools to encourage frequent use of the platform and justifying ROI.

Possible reasons to drive this trend

• 92% of C-level exectives alrady ue data and alaytics for marketing insights
• 36% of business use social medai analytics for more than competitor analysis
• 2016 Instagram launched its partner program and analytics dashboard
• Only 34% of small business use social media to engage and coverse with customers

5. Move away from automation

Social media automation is more likely than ever to simply turn into social media management. Automation feels robotic while consumers want real, humanistic interactions. Instead the following looks like popular tactics going forward.

Possible tactics to try in 2017

• Social media campaigns that interact with consumers
• Listen to your cusotmers. Don't just promote
• Build an orangic following with better relationships
• Avoid untimely messages around current events
• Be personal and give humanistic responses

6. Social shopping and instant purchases

Social commerce isn't showing any signs of slowing down and more networks are providing brands with easier ways to sell to customers. instant purchases are available on Instagram, but social media trends point to faster sales across the board, so watch out for new instant sales products coming soon.

Possible reasons to drive this trend

• 75% of social media users claim to ahve made a purchase becasue they saw it on social media
• Brands are focusing on buyer's emotions for purchases
• 57% of consumers are more likey ot buy from a brand they follow
• In 2016 Instagram released instant purchases
• 1.9% of digital holiday purchases came from social medai in 2015
• 28% of consumers said a brand's social presence was the biggest reason to try new products or services

A new social circle

So we've laid down our predictions and it looks like interesting times for social media growth. We will recap in 12 months and see which of our predictions were spot on and which were a miss. Which one of our predictions are you the most excited about? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Source:

• Sproutsocial.com
• adlucent.com
• business.com
• simplify360.com
• forbes.com
• ibtimes.com
• theverge.com

Tags: facebook, instagram, Social Media