Social media is a household term in India now; however, the intricacies of this massive medium getting more webbed every hour will make things not-so-easy for online businesses in 2017. What could be the changing trends over the next 12 months?

The paradigm in the Indian online space is changing rather fast. In the last five years, internet and social media users have increased by 1 billion in the world and India definitely ranks high on increasing user numbers. With over one-third of the world’s population accessible via social media, there is a larger market that has opened up and similarly, there is a bigger challenge of getting lost in the noise.

Consequently, enterprises have become skeptical as well as sensitive when it comes to marketing their businesses on social media. The changing trends, the increasing proliferation and the evolving tastes that urge social media users to engage need a close watch. We at Asiacom have studied and furnished some of the most imperative trends and tips for social media marketers that will assist them to fine tune their approaches and target niche communities. Check out the most crucial five trends of social media marketing in 2017:

Marketing automation

How feasible is it to employ a dedicated individual to monitor and gauge social media activities? A recent study by a US-based firm smallbiztrends.com says that 92 pc of the companies are losing revenue for this reason and also not getting the desired results. 2017 is going to be the year where marketing automation on digital assets will be the innovative trend. The same study also finds out that 91 pc of the marketers in the world are now convinced that automation is the future and there is no way out. With a host of demographic versatility, social media management tool is becoming more and more apt for brands to make an impact.

Visual Marketing

Are you frequently using the Facebook Live or Twitter’s Periscope? Video sharing tools such as DubSmash, Blab, etc have taken the market by sheer innovation and tapping the trend of users becoming keener on interesting video content. The smarter marketers have integrated live feeds in their strategies and the way the US Presidential Election was broadcasted live by BuzzFeed remains an example for new trends in the marketing sector. Live videos bring maximum engagement with your followers and audience and in a crowded social media feed; integration of new media in an audio-visual experience is the key to reaching the untapped market.

Increased Personalisation

Understanding your consumer behaviour is another pivotal aspect that will decide the success of your marketing strategy in 2017. More ads and commercial content on the internet is making users weary and personalisation could be the only way that can help marketers break through the chaos of information noise. Some social media marketing tools and apps are already incorporating features to support personalisation and targeting.

Brand Advocacy

Advocate marketing is seeing a huge rise in the world of social media and there are increasing investments in the same. Micro-influencers have come into play and they have started deciding the brand’s social media reach as they have turned out to be the more influential factors than the brand it endorses. It is interesting to understand how employees, customers, and even social media fans can be influencers in building a brand identity. Thus, 2017 will be a year that will essentially witness the use the brand advocacy trick to increase the footprint on social media.

Native content

While the world is communicating seamlessly in an international language – the affinity towards native advertising is probably best described in Joe Pulizzi’s words as ‘gateway drug’. Pulizzi, the pioneers of content marketing in social media has often referred to this disrupting method as awareness programme. While native messages have more impact, a study finds that ads made in colloquial speech or languages will grow to USD 21 billion by 2018.

Organic sharing, personalised native messages, figuring the right automation tool, and using audiovisuals as the primary system to reach your audience would define your success in 2017 as far as social media is concerned. And yes, try to have more micro-influencers in your team who would be the best people to take your message to the world.

What are your plans for 2017? We, at Asiacom, are waiting to indulge in a chat very soon. Get in touch…