These are the 5 most important trends for social marketing in 2017

Micro-influencers, 360 degree videos and temporary content. Content marketers who want to stay relevant in 2017 should follow these trends closely.

1. The Rise of Micro-influencers

Influencer marketing could establish itself as a requirement for many organizations, both B2C as well as B2B, in a few years’ time. Traditional’ influencers, celebrities with hundreds of thousands of followers, already know this and are getting their slice of the pie. No wonder they have been upping their rates. But despite their large groups of followers, they often do not know how to prompt them into action. Research on Instagram shows a negative relationship between the number of followers and the amount of commitment the person brings about.

In 2017 it would be good to shift attention to what we call ‘micro-influencers’. I’m talking about bloggers, journalists or people who live for their profession. They don’t have the large amounts of followers’ traditional celebrity- influencers have with approximately maximum 10,000 followers, but they do have a relevant niche where your message will resonate. The niche provides qualitative interaction and a much higher percentage of likes, retweets and shares as opposed to traditional influencers.

2. Organic social reach has become trickier

A lot of social media struggled with their revenue model in the past few years. But they seem to have found one. A large part of their revenue is generated from social advertising, particularly sponsored updates. Various social media channels have adjusted their algorithms in such a way that paid updates are more than just a fun bonus. Postings no longer have the organic reach they used to have. Those who want to reach a large audience, will have to pay to ‘boost’ messages. If you want to remain visible for your target group, you can’t escape this.

Algorithms on social media are increasingly getting better at recognizing quality. Qualitative updates have a larger organic reach. A well thought out content marketing strategy is indispensable for reaching a large group of people on social media. Those who stand in the limelight with excellent content, will have a higher chance of success without having to pay extra.

3. Only the best content scores

Once upon a time postings of 500 to 600 words were prime candidates for good rankings in search results. This is no longer the case: it has become more difficult to score with these types of articles simply because of increased ‘content competition’.

Longer articles of more than 2000 words with a lot of depth and a multimedia approach will gain more terrain in 2017. We have a growing need for quality and interpretation. In 2017 content marketers will have to concentrate more than ever on quality as opposed to quantity. Do you write a blog about a specific topic? Do you check beforehand what your competition has already written about it and what they are doing better? This is the only way to stand out from the crowd.

4. Temporary available content

Snapchat’s success is partially explained by one noticeable feature: content is only temporarily available and then disappears forever. Namely younger target groups have become very used to this concept and various other social media have integrated it. Instagram is also jumping on the bandwagon with Instagram Stories and their recently launched app Boomerang.

Temporary content offers unique chances for content marketers. When your target group knows that certain photos, stories and videos will only be online for a limited time, its appeal and urgency will increase. And you can boost people’s interest with teasers and pique their curiosity even more. This way, your target group will be ready en masse to not miss the moment.

5. More than video: focus on experience

Video already played a large role in 2016, an unavoidable fact for any content marketer. That role isn’t finished yet. YouTube has no trouble maintaining its second position behind Google as the largest search engine in the world with 3 billion searches per month. According to predictions, 74% of all content is in video format. Video will remain important in 2017 and this medium may even become more important that it already was. It is nevertheless important that content marketers not only focus on this format.

We expect brands to give us more experiences, and this should be present in the content. Think of 360 degree videos. Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat can technically offer these now. Live video streams will also become more popular next year. Let’s not forget Facebook acquired Oculus. I believe this is a prelude to the rise of virtual reality on social media. 

Have I missed any important trends in this regard? Do you see other focus points for 2017? Let me know!