Digital and Social Media Trends Report for 2018

Digital Complexity continues to grow at an exhausting pace

Marketing Technology Landscape 2017 (click on the image to view the high resolution version)

As you can see from the above, the digital marketing landscape is very complex and continues to evolve rapidly. Not only do products evolve in existing categories, but new categories are coming on track faster than we as humans are able to understand and embrace them. The challenge for marketers and businesses owners is therefore compounding as we speak and keeping up will remain a daunting task as time progresses.

This digital and social media trends report is now available and covers 2 distinct trend categories:

1. Digital Trends for 2018 – the summary results of Econsultancy’s 2018 Digital Trends report, published in association with Adobe, and
2. Top 10 social media trends for 2018 – the summary results of a report by Buffer Social that will shed some light on the social media landscape as it stands today.

The trend information contained herein should always be weighed against other potential marketing tools and data in order for it to be of maximum benefit. Using these trends blindly to create a strategy is not recommended, nor is using the individual tactics without a well thought out, holistic strategy. All these trends may not be relevant for every business, market, audience or channel, so it is best to think this through very carefully. The best use for this information is to assist with decision-making and help you to weigh up options for future strategy in a holistic review of your marketing strategy.

The high level summary of the 2 reports are as follows – to get further details, and a better understanding of the implications of the trends, please download the report here

Summary of Digital Trends for 2018

1. Companies continue to focus on the customer experience (CX), as well as the content required to facilitate this. Organisations committed to CX are shown to outperform their peers.
2. We are entering a ‘design and creativity renaissance’, with top-performing companies recognising the importance of these capabilities to complement data and technology excellence.
3. Investment in technology and related skills is paying dividends, with integrated platforms fast-becoming a prerequisite for success.
4. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to play a growing role in helping marketers to deliver more compelling real-time experiences.

Summary of Top 10 social media trends for 2018

1. There are now almost 2.5 billion social media users
2. Social media is going mobile
3. Social messaging overtook social media – this is probably one of the more meaningful shifts in the industry. It will transform how we have been looking at social media for the last 3-4 years.
4. Social messaging will greatly benefit businesses
5. Chatbots are becoming the norm
6. Businesses can no longer afford to ignore social customer service
7. Social organic reach and referral traffic are plummeting
8. Video is still the most popular content type
9. User-generated content can help drive reach and engagement
10. Businesses are pouring more money into social ads

One of the digital areas missed here is the advent of search using voice commands. This trend has been happening for a while, and with the growing appetite for search bots (i.e., Alexa, Cortana), the transition to a voice-search world is gaining momentum every day. Voice search will continue to explode as more predictive machine learning technologies advance this particular AI evolution. Looking forward, the voice search market is wide open and it’s possible that the strongest user group hasn’t even been born. While it is a neat advancement, time will tell how this will impact the market as a whole.

If you would like a presentation for your team on these issues, please feel free to contact me.

For the  more comprehensive Digital Trends Report for 2018, download the report here

Acknowledgments:
Econsultancy’s 2018 Digital Trends report, published in association with Adobe.
Buffer Social for their take on the Top 10 social media trends for 2018.

Good luck, Neville Pokroy, Mastermind Solutions Inc.

Article By Neville Pokroy

Neville Pokroy has over 30 years of experience in all aspects of business growth, strategy and marketing, from big business to sole proprietorships. His hands-on experience spans the most basic to the most strategic, and everything in between. This has provided him with tremendous insight at all levels of the marketing discipline, and in particular, how it impacts on the ability of businesses to leverage marketing as a prerequisite for growth in a changing world.

Digital and social media will be crucial to the success of organizations going forward.  The challenge, given the complexity of the market, is how to use these digital tools in a smart way.  Ensuring they are part of a holistic marketing strategy is the key element.

If you are interested in finding out how this can be done cost effectively and efficiently: Call me today 905-886-2235 or complete the form on the right and we can chat further.