When clients come to us with failing social media marketing campaigns, we try to look at the nuts and bolts of their strategy and content. Sometimes, the answer is obvious. Other times, it takes some serious analysis. Yet one of the most common issues we see when business owners try to manage their own social media is a lack of innovation.

If you’re trying to be successful on social media and maintain an ever-increasing level of engagement, you absolutely must adapt your strategy to appeal to today’s trends. All the experts agree, 2018 is expected to be the year that millions of businesses begin their social media marketing journey. As such, you need to know the most popular and trending strategies.

At The Go! Agency, we take pride in incorporating the most current and engaging strategies into our client’s social media campaigns. Whether it’s a new video format or communication tool, we’re there to try it out. Here are the current trends of 2018 and how they can help your brand today:

1. Chatbots. It seems that we have come full-circle with customer service. For a long time people preferred humans over speaking with a machine. Now, over 65% of customers who shop online prefer to converse with chatbots in platforms such as Facebook Messenger. Chatbots make customer service simple, effective, and fast. The best part is that Chatbots are specifically crafted for your brand. So whether you sell shoes or auto insurance, a chatbot can level up your customer satisfaction.

2. Re-Targeting. In the world of Facebook advertising, re-targeting has proven to be one of the most effective ways to further develop relationships with existing customers. If a customer completed a transaction or if they were interested in your brand at one point in time, re-targeting will be able to position your brand in the spotlight of their mind (and screens).

3. More Engaging and Longer Tweets. In 2017, Twitter made the monumental decision to change their character limit from 140 to 280. For marketers, this was a game changer. Now, you are able to really embrace your brand’s message and story through a single tweet. Moreover, more and more brands have been crafting their content with content that will get people talking. Content that incorporates requesting feedback, asking questions, posting polls, etc. has proven to be really on the rise. A real, organic conversation with your audience. Imagine that!

4. A Heavy Focus On (Optimized) Blogs. Despite blogging being one of the original forms of internet-based communication, it’s stronger than ever. Blogging is particularly great for both B2C and B2B businesses that have a desire to share pertinent information with their customers and the online community as a whole. And thanks to SEO, your blog will get you more web traffic than ever before. Optimized blogs are a sure way to increase your search result rankings and gain more online visibility.

5. A Real, Engaging Voice. Of course, you want to stay professional. Of course, you want to be as polite and mannerly as possible. But more and more brands have employed a casual and fun tone when engaging with customers- especially when responding to comments and questions on Facebook and Twitter. If you decide to take this route, you’re humanizing your brand, thereby strengthening the relationship between business and buyer. It’s a win-win in the marketing book.

6. Stories, Stories, Stories! Have you been on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat lately? If so, you’ve most likely seen a menu of circular profile images on top. Those are Stories, content that only lasts for 24 hours and gets a ton of visibility. Stories have taken over social media feeds and are changing the way audiences interact with brands. Platforms, such as Instagram, are consistently adding new features and options that will make your content pop. This is especially true for Instagram, which has a ton of features and options that will really make your content pop. Be sure to utilize this tool in both video and image formats.

For some, 2018 is off to a great year. We’ve seen some brands skyrocket to new visibility heights. For others that are struggling to stand out, they may need to adjust their strategy. Keep the above ideas in mind when going forward with social media to gain an advantage like no other.

Did you know that we work with hundreds of brands in order to help them stay ahead of the marketing game?

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