Social Media Trends for 2017
Some of my favorite posts to write about each year: recaps from the year before and trends to watch out for in the year to come. Today, we’re tackling the latter. Social media trends are always fun to talk about, but especially with 2017 right around the corner. Will these social media trends for 2017 come to pass? Time will tell!
Social Media Trends for 2017
Video
You saw this one coming, didn’t you? I can all but guarantee that video in 2017 will be even bigger and better than in 2016. Thought you hit peak on those video recipes that are all over Facebook? Think again. You’ll be seeing videos even more on platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. If you’ve been considering trying out video marketing for the first time, 2017 is a great time to do so.
More: Video Marketing 101: What to Know to Get Started
Dark Social
I love Snapchat as much as the next person, but, from a marketer’s standpoint, it’s just another example of the rise of Dark Social. Marketers don’t know how many people are Snapping about their brand, since there’s no “Snapchat Analytics” like there is for Facebook. Another example of Dark Social is Facebook Messenger. Same, too, with Instagram Direct. These are growing platforms, but, as of right now, marketers can’t tap into them.
Social Commerce
In 2017, we’ll see an increase of people buying straight from social. This is one trend that we’ll see grow slowly throughout the year (rather than explosively), and we’ll likely have this one on our “Social Media Trends for 2018,” too. But, despite that slow growth, we’ll definitely see more social commerce in 2017 than we did in 2016.
More: Using Social Media to Sell Your Products
Pay to Play Advertising
Have you noticed that you almost always need to boost a post on Facebook for it to get any traction with your audience? You have to pay to play, and we’re going to see that trend continue to grow in 2017. The good news? Social advertising is cost-efficient and can be highly targeted, so it remains a good use of resources.
Let’s call Video, Dark Social, Social Commerce and Pay to Play Advertising the “Big 4” in terms of trends to watch in 2017. There’s a couple of smaller trends, too, that you should keep an eye out for in the new year.
The Decline of Traditional Websites
More and more businesses will begin publishing to social first, rather than sharing from their websites. We’re already seeing it in 2016 (the “Discover” section on Snapchat is a good example) and we’ll continue to see more of it in 2017.
Social Media as a Means for Discovery
Google rules the “search” seas, but social is catching up. More and more, people are finding information out first on social and on search engines second. In 2017, we’ll see social as a means for discovery get closer to catching up to search as a means for discovery.
What do you think of these social media trends for 2017? Do you have any additional trends that you would add to this list? We can’t wait to see what happens in 2017: what new social platform will rise in popularity? What platforms will fall from grace? Whatever happens, you can be sure that we’ll be here, keeping you informed on all of it. Happy New Year! We’ll see you next year.
Related post: How to Get More Followers on Social Media