Trends

2017

This document contains;

• Key learnings from 2016• Where social media is headed.• Social trends for 2017.

“In 2017, the use of social media by businesses, employees, consumers, and advocates will grow. That said, we’ve seen a dramatic spike of malicious content that can damage brand reputation and defraud customers. Businesses need to take the steps to protect themselves.”

Brian Reed, CMO, ZeroFOX

“

Key learnings from 2016

Social is the new front door.

Video dominates on social.

Work is now social.

Where Social Networks Are Headed

• Content platform.

• Social selling

• Peer-to-peer influence.

• Moments in time.

• Customer experience and service

• Driving conversions.

• Social commerce/marketing

• Brand awareness.

• Community building

• Discovery

• Content distribution.

• Audience engagement.

Social Trends for 2017

Trend 1 Trend 2 Trend 3 Trend 4 Trend 5

Trend #1:

Social catches up to search for discovery.

Social usage has caught up with search, especially as a discovery and research tool to find and buy from brands.

Source: Global Web Index

98% of digital consumers are using

social network

Social is slowly becoming the source of authenticity. It works with search for discovery and opinions.

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Q2 Q3 Q4 Q2 Q2 Q4

2015 2016

% of internet users who use social network to research product

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Q2 Q3 Q4 Q2 Q2 Q4

Social commerce shows new promise.

Trend #2:

Buyers are researching and evaluating brands on social channels. The next logical step for consumers is to skip

traditional websites and buy directly from social channels.

E-commerce + Social Media = Social Commerce

Trend #3:

Dark social rising

• Dark Social is fuelled by the rise of messaging.

• Over The Top (OTT) apps like Snapchat, WhatsApp, Kik, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger are heavily used by consumers but they’re also difficult to track with traditional web and social analytics.

• Dark social needs to be a measurement focus for brands that target mostly younger audience.

How brands are solving dark social?

took a really simple approach. They knew

that people were copying and pasting articles and sending

them privately through email.

They built “share via email” buttons and began tagging as

“social email” in their UTM codes.

is taking a research approach. The brand

is creating special micro-communities on WhatsApp with brand advocates to

better study how dark social impacts

their brand.

The goal is to better align marketing

activities with the social behaviour of

their customers.

Nigeria recently launched a

Whatsapp Group for their customer

service agents and can take enquiries complaints from

customers.

This can also serve as a first hand source

of getting information

concerning their network.

Trend #4:

Video ignites social advertising

70% Of marketers plan to use social video

advertising in the next 12 months.

Source: Animoto

65% Of marketers will focus on Facebook video

advertising in 2017 followed by YouTube at 39%, Instagram

at 21.7%.

Source: Animoto

41% Of marketers say that optimizing paid social ads is a key priority for them.

Source: Altimeter

How can Brands utilize this opportunity on social?

Organic reach will continue to dcline for brands.

Pay-to-play will increase as brands use social advertising to combat a decline in organic reach

Pay-to-play will increase as brands use social advertising to combat a decline in organic reach

Conversational Ads are Promoted Tweets with compelling images or videos that include call to action buttons with customizable hashtags. They prompt users to spread your message to their followers, further expanding your reach.

Pay-to-play will increase as brands use social advertising to combat a decline in organic reach

Instagram’s new 60-second spot is an extension of the 15 and 30-second video ads. With the introduction of the 60-second spot, brands can now choose to run video ads that are any length under one minute long on the platform.

Trend #5:

Organizations turn to connected workforces

Organizations are building trust and connecting with customers through employee and brand advocates because they are realizing there is a lot of value in the talent, knowledge, and social reach of their people.

Customers want to speak to employees on social, not brand handles. Prospects want to ask questions about new products with sales professionals on LinkedIn instead of reading generic company updates.

Three Key Challenges for 2017

Organic reach will continue to decline for brands. This means more budget is needed to boost content.

Pay-to-play will increase as brands use social advertising to combat a decline in organic reach.

With increased investment in social, marketers need to shift away from vanity metrics such as ‘likes’ and ‘comments and focus more on reach and frequency.

Thanks!Any questions?marketing@terragonltd.com