Social media is everywhere. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr…

Somewhere in the world, a new social media user joins the fray every 10 seconds. And of the 3 billion social media users in the world, most of them spend almost two hours per day on their social media accounts.

So if you’re building a brand and you don’t have a social media marketing plan then you’re well and truly screwed. If you’re building a brand, you need to be attuned to social media marketing.

And not just social media marketing itself – but also the future of social media marketing.

So what can you do to make sure you’re on top of your social media marketing game? What trends should you be following?

Well! Read on to find out.

1. Get Influencers to Like and Help You

Every good social media marketing plan needs to involve influencers. Influencers tend to have an even bigger influence on their followers than celebrities do, even though their outreach may not be as large.

This is because influencers are followed for their knowledge and their opinions on brands or experiences. This means that the 40,000 followers an influencer has can be easier to impact than the millions of followers a celebrity has.

If you’re serious about building your brand and upping your marketing game then you need to partner with an influencer or two and get them to like and share your product(s) or brand.

2. Artificial Intelligence is the Future of Social Media

AI allows you to analyze consumer behavior and search patterns from all the different platforms you’re a part of. This allows you to help your business understand how customers are finding your products and services and where you’re showing up the most.

You can use this data to figure out how to better engage with customers. If you know how people are finding and coming over to your brand then you know if you should be using direct mail or sales outreach or digital marketing.

For example, many e-commerce stores use AI and big data to predict the demographics of their shoppers and deliver personalized coupons accordingly.

3. Focus on the Stories

Stories are everywhere! Especially on Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. A story is a collection of posts, videos, and photos that remains available for 24 hours.

Even YouTube and LinkedIn are jumping on the bandwagon.

Stories are great because they’re easy to create and they’re engaging. People like watching them. And you can sneak ads in easily because consumers will go through watching multiple stories in a row.

4. Videos, Videos, Videos

People want video – it’s as simple as that. We have supercomputers in our pocket and they’re perfect for consuming video at any place and at any time.

If you haven’t made video a part of your social media marketing campaign then you need to act now and get onboard. Video should be a part of every marketing campaign you do.

But you want to make sure that you’re not just focusing on views. You want to focus on watch time. It’s great if thousands of people are viewing your video – but only if they’re sticking around to watch it all the way through.

5. Authenticity Is the Name of the Game

You have to make sure your social media is authentic. Your social media feeds should be all about your brands. But your social media accounts should be about so much more.

You want to give your brand a personality. That means sharing things you like from other brands, from influencers, from other companies. It makes you seem more real if you acknowledge that there are other brands out there.

Additionally, you want to focus on using real people and real-life experiences as opposed to perfectly crafted photoshoots. It appeals way more to potential consumers if they feel like they can see themselves in your brand or using your products.

6. Augmented Reality Will Become More Mainstream

Augmented reality truly is the future of social media. It allows the consumer to “try on” the product from the comfort of their own smartphone.

Michael Kors is a good example of this. The brand used augmented reality ads to allow customers to “try on” their sunglasses before purchasing. You’d simply tap the ad where it showed up on your phone and the front-facing camera would allow you to take a selfie of yourself with the product on.

This is great because it gives consumers a chance to engage with your brand before they commit to a purchase.

7. You’ve Got to Get a Handle on Micro-Moments

There are moments and then there are micro-moments – a term given to us by Google. Micro-moments are a way of delivering your message clearly, concisely, and interestingly in a mere matter of seconds.

This is important. We live in a world of instant gratification and if you don’t deliver your information quickly and concisely then consumers are going to lose interest and move on. You have only seconds to capture a potential customer’s attention and desire!

Additionally, micro-moments are about the decisions that consumers make instantly – where to eat, what to purchase, where to go.

To take advantage of the rise of micro-moments, you have to be in the spaces where consumers search for instant information – Google, Google Maps, Amazon, YouTube, etc.

8. Don’t Forget to Live Stream

Live content is everywhere these days. If you can upload video or create a “story” then you can live stream.

Live streaming is a great way to get your customer’s attention because they don’t want to miss out so they’ll be wholly focused on you and the live story that you’re telling.

Additionally, it’s cheap to produce and offers real-time customer engagement.

Do It For the Likes

Now that you know what’s trending in the future of social media it’s time to start building your following and building those likes. And to do that, you’ve got to make sure your social media marketing plan is up to scratch!

We can help with that. Let us help you grow your business! Contact us today to start talking about what we can do to help you up your social media marketing game.