Social Media 2018: What to expect

Following on from our Social Media Trend predictions post, we are super excited to share what we predict will be the highlights for the social media industry this New Year. 2018 is looking to be quite an exciting year…!

An even bigger focus on video content:

With the increasing rise of 24-hour shelf life content as originally championed by Snapchat which inspired social media behemoths like Facebook and Instagram quickly jumping on the bandwagon, it’s clear that snappy, raw content is more popular than ever. Brands have latched onto this feature, using geo-tagging and snappy vids to display content in a way that at first had many scratching their heads – 24 hours and you can’t see it again? What’s the point? Well, we’ll save the debate around the validity of content with limited lifespans for another blog post. The point is, amongst us social nerd and tech geeks, the stats all point to the fact that this feature is only going to continue growing in relevance – and now YouTube joins the trend with the reveal of its new Stories-inspired “Reel” feature. Read more about it out here: https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/29/youtube-is-launching-its-own-take-stories-with-a-new-video-format-called-reels/

Last year we had the opportunity to integrate live video formats across some of our marketing strategies here at Truffle - and the results were amazing. During our work with Julien Macdonald SS18 Fashion Week, we incorporated live videos which allowed third parties to get involved and react to our content, resulting in a trending hashtag on the day and achieving verification on the fashion designer’s 135k followers-strong Insta account. We took a similar approach with London Design Festival in 2017, gaining a whopping 75k engagement. Our use of the boomerang tool on Instagram during the BRGR.CO re-launch was also incredibly successful, with ensuing posts maintaining visual consistency mimicking the restaurant’s interiors (which, as part of our branding recommendations, we had a hand in contributing to).

Our team of Trufflers will continue hunting for ways to imaginatively use animated aesthetics in 2018, alongside glossy still images.

Embracing agency-to-agency collaborations:

The rise of influencers was perhaps one of the biggest movements within social over the last couple of years and we love seeing brands such as Nike collaborating with influencers and ambassadors to laterally promote their brands and what they stand for - and it’s certainly no secret that joining forces is a popular and effective approach to getting one’s name out there. But what about brands partnering with other brands…or agencies partnering with other agencies…?

Yep. We’ve said it. There’s no point in being jack of all trades and master of none so the sooner agencies realise that it’s wiser to welcome partner agencies with different skillsets into the mix, the better! At Truffle we know what we’re good at, we stick to it and we do our best not to stray away. So we don’t offer SEO and we don’t dally in AR when we know that it’s far better for us to do our thing, and to bring other specialist agencies on board to work alongside us and collaborate to deliver exceptional campaigns.

Agencies finding compatible potential partnerships can produce stronger campaigns and attract new relevant, tailored audiences.

YouTube channels demonstrate the effectiveness of collaborating with similar content creators, as they thrive as follower counts increase. These ‘YouTubers’ can have authentic discussions and an active interaction with their audiences through Q&A’s and within their comments section. Part of our agency’s agenda for 2018 will be to continue to utilise similar collaborations to increase visibility for our clients.

The power of micro-influencers:

We’ve discovered the power of influencers with a medium level follower count, and have harnessed the potential of teaming up with them. Identifying those influencers with a specific following and inviting them to get involved has had a positive impact on maximising brand awareness. We targeted some of these micro-influencers in our Models Own campaign, which led to a reach of 1.8 million people, many of whom we feel would trust the credibility of the influencers recommendations, versus other sources. During the re-launch of BRGR.CO, we invited influencers (with multiple connections to various eclectic audiences) to the launch event to create an exciting buzz online. We also organised scheduled blogger/influencer visits and posts to boost exposure and maintain hype, which was beneficial - we are proudly celebrating having a 9.5 million potential total reach due to our creative approaches!

Do let us know if there are any trends you’ve heard about! We’re curious to see what 2018 will bring.