8 Social Media Trends For 2016
From the success of our last social media trends prediction at the start of 2015, I thought I’d do the same thing again.
With the older generation finally valuing social media marketing in their marketing strategy, 2016 will look to be a bigger year for start-ups and small-medium sized businesses utilising social media for their marketing communications.
Basic behaviours and consumer needs towards the end of 2015 have helped contribute to the predictions forecasted below, along with my own gut feelings ????.
1) GIFS
Hugely popular on Twitter, the growth of GIFS will now continue to surge with Facebook now allowing company pages to make full utilisation of GIFS, where they weren’t previously allowed to be uploaded unless through a personal profile.
A great way to express yourself without having to upload a video or if an image that just doesn’t cut it.
2) Emojis
A quick history lesson on the word emoji – if you didn’t already know – the word emoji comes from the Japanese words ‘picture character’ ????.
These little faces (or objects/symbols) have been making their way across the whole of the digital world ????, popping up in tweets, email subject lines, Snapchat ???? and everywhere else you can think of.
2016 will be less words, more emojis! ????????????
3) Instagram Ads
Instagram has gone from strength to strength in 2015, with daily active users amounting to 300 million, and consequently surpassing Twitter.
With engagement up to 15x more popular on Instagram compared to Facebook, the new inclusion of Instagram ads – now open to most users – is a great way to get that extra bit of exposure amongst a targeted audience. Don’t know how to use them? Start by linking your Instagram account to your Facebook page under your business page settings.
4) MORE Video Content
Facebook surpassed YouTube with video views in August, with 12 billion video views, (mainly due to auto play features) but regardless of who achieved the most views, the surge in video viewing is evidence to demonstrate the favoured way users are consuming information is no doubt growing towards video.
Expect more video content from brands and users alike, especially with how easy it is to upload videos onto social media networks through popular smartphones.
5) Proper User Generated Content
Creating ALL of your OWN content on social media will be more important than ever. Your followers are following YOU for a reason (okay no more capitals).
Sharing relatively random links is not only driving traffic to someone else’s website, but also, a lazy excuse to posting on social media – exactly what your following DON’T (#sorrynotsorry) want to see!
6) Periscope T.V
Is Periscope the future of T.V? With the rise of Snapchat and the amount of viral videos on Facebook, I personally can’t help but watch less T.V.
Periscopes new inclusion on Apple T.V is a massive jump towards it becoming a platform that users are tuning into from the comfort of their living room, a behaviour that may have the potential to at least compete with T.V.
7) Snapchat Filters
So we’ve all seen the surge of brands jumping on the Snapchat bandwagon, mostly unnecessarily (not naming any names *cough* banana republic *cough*).
While Snapchat are trying their best efforts to monetise their platform with sponsored discover features, what users seem to be engaging with mostly are Snapchat filters. The best examples being the recent James Bond Sceptre film and Coca-Colas Christmas filter (both seen below).
Snapchat filters are a great way for brands (with the financial muscle) to invest in cool, creative filters that millennials are actually engaging with and sharing amongst their peers.
8) Real-time content – more so than ever!
Real-time content is often the most popular and engaging form of content on social media as it’s in context with sociological trends.
More and more brands are jumping on conversations, especially now with Twitters new ‘moments’ feature, expect smaller brands to be joining conversations and coming up with real time puns that translate to getting you to buy something from them.
Remember, “Content is King, but context is Queen” – Gary Vaynerchuck.
By Chris Kyriacou
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