Improve Your Social Media in 2018

Turn 2018 Social Media Predictions into Actionable Items 

You’re probably taking this weekend to review your goals and plans for 2018. It’s likely that stepping up your social media game is the list if you’re a business. We know what Forbes, Entrepreneur and Inc are predicting will be the social media trends for 2018, let’s take these predictions a step further and help you put them to use for your business.

Carmella works hard to teach businesses how to incorporate storytelling into their social media. We have six suggestions to put the 2018 social media predictions into actionable tasks for your business.

As a business in an ever more increasing digital world, you need to step-up your digital game and channel your inner social media content creator.

Entrepreneur’s first prediction for 2018 is the Rise of augmented reality. We agree. The new iPhone 8 or iPhone X both incorporate a new chip that allows the phones to provide users with extraordinary augmented reality experiences. Social media platforms will find ways to incorporate the new technology through incorporating filters and overlays into user generated content.



Instagram is stealing Snapchats thunder in a big way through the introduction of Instagram Stories. Businesses should consider how to use Instagram and Instagram Stories to increase awareness, engagement, and build brand ambassadors. More than half of all Instagram users will have started using Instagram Stories in 2018.

How to use for your business?

Schedule your Instagram posts using a scheduler like Later, Planoly or Grum. Use this time saved to capture Instagram Stories throughout your day.

Live streaming and video

What was once a novel gimmick has become a mainstream part of social media. Brands big and small use live streaming to capture the attention of followers. Video is on the rise in all forms and will continue to be a major part of everyone’s marketing strategy.

Facebook has been working on a project called Spaces that is designed to allow friends to connect in virtual realty. Given that Facebook owns Oculus, a virtual reality hardware and software company, it is no surprise that the social media giant is developing a platform to make use of this new technology. You can test a version of it at Oculus. And who wouldn’t love to have goggles like these! Father John Misty called it, every night in the oculus rift. 

Video has become increasingly important on social media, and live video group hangouts are a natural next iteration of this trend. If you haven’t tried Houseparty yet, put it on your to do list. It’s likely that Facebook will introduce a similar fetaure that will win over users, just as Instagram’s introduction of Stories did.

How to use for your business?

Incorporate a video strategy in your marketing. Use Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, and all the great app’s and tools available to you.

Advertising is becoming increasingly complex

Facebook advertising is evolving, fast. When Facebook launched its mobile-only Collection ads feature, businesses took note. Now, instead of simply publishing a single image or video, brands could now pair this visual content with a product catalog (or similar).

One marketer spent $177, 843 and generated over 1 million dollars. Using Collection ads generated a lower cost per conversion and an increase in online sales for this particular marketer.



How to use for your business?

Watch the Facebook Blueprint video series to learn how to set up Collection Ads. The courses are free and you can watch them at your leisure.
Hootsuite provides a 2018 Ads Infosheet and toolkit to help you with your advertising.

AI and Automation

We’ve been building Facebook chat bots for about a year now. The future is in machine learning and AI and Facebook bots are just the beginning of integrating social media with this technology. A chat bot is an interactive facebook experience. It will guide your consumer on an educational journey that leads them to purchase your product, sign up for a course or enter a contest. This is not just for direct messages or messenger, this will bring people directly to you via the newsfeed.



How to use for your business?

Learn how you can use a Facebook chat bot to drive event registrations, newsletter sign-up’s or really whatever you like!



Carmella Social Takeaway

Most importantly, businesses should reflect on who their audience is and how to best speak to them. Businesses should start by planning their content in one to four month blocks. Content is best created to be snackable. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about three times as many leads.

When you take the time to lay out an editorial or content calendar you are providing the creative brain space to plan the content in advance. By creating a content calendar or social media plan, a business can ensure future promotions receive adequate sequencing and that any advertising dollars are well spent.

If you’ve got questions about the future of social media in 2018, reach out – we love to discuss social.