Social Media Trends to Watch in 2017

03/03/2017

Social Messaging

Surprisingly top messaging apps including Messenger and Whatsapp have a much larger user base than leading social networks including Facebook and Twitter. Retention and usage rates are also much larger on these apps and are used almost exclusively to communicate by the millennial generation.

These numbers make these services particularly appealing to businesses and marketers as a way to connect with their customers. Already brands including the BBC, Just Eat and Clarks are using messaging apps to engage with their customers and this year we’ll continue to see a rise in the number of businesses connecting in this way.

Live content

Live video content on social media sites including Facebook has been hugely popular over the last year and will continue to grow in 2017. Live content gives consumers an immediate unpolished view of your brand, unlike other video content there is no time to edit. This raw unedited content provides authenticity and builds trust with consumers.

Augmented Reality

Although this technology has been around for some time, apps like Snapchat and Pokémon Go have been largely responsible for its popularity over the last year.

Snapchat is primarily used for temporary multimedia messages called ‘Snaps’. The ‘Lens’ feature uses augmented reality to allows users to add real-time effects to their photos. These filters have been extremely popular in 2016, so expect other platforms to imitate similar technologies. Facebook has already confirmed they are experimenting with augmented reality.

Twitter Decline

Twitter focuses on snippets of information, which was fun and exciting at first but with this overload of information, updates and information are missed. Users are beginning to crave larger, more detailed information, perhap only once a day. We can see this trend growing on other platforms like instagram.

Sales Buttons

Sales buttons connect products posted on social media directly to the website in which it can be purchased. This is great way to streamline the buying process, where customers are no longer required to leave the page to search for the product. When a product is viewed on social media, the desire to own the product can quickly be forgotten, sales buttons quickly turn this into an impulse purchase.