In this deck, Arik Hanson talks about 8 realistic social media trends to watch carefully in the year ahead.

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8 Social MediaTrends
to Watch in 2018
Arik C. Hanson
ACH Communications
December 19, 2017
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ABOUT ARIK
• 20+ years experience;
solo since 2009;
@arikhanson
• Blogger, podcaster,
e-newsletter maker, board
member, event organizer
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SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS!!!!
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THEY’RE NOT ALL OBVIOUS
Just 95% of them.
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TODAY:
• Hit on 8 obvious trends
• Suggest 8 “trends within the trends” that are far
more apt to impact your work in the year ahead
• Ideas on action steps to take as a result
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Obvious Trend #1:
More brands are investing in influencer
marketing
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But really…
Corporate blogging is primed to
re-stake its claim at the heart of
social storytelling
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Consider:
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And:
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Corporate blogging = storytelling +
media opportunities
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For now:
• Think holistically about your corporate blog.
Storytelling + Brand + Promotion + Media.
o Repurpose blog posts as media pitches/bylines.
• Remember: It’s OK to talk about your company,
what you do and why you do it. Storytelling can and
should focus on YOU!
o Think about your blog like a newspaper—hold
editorial board meetings, assign “beat reporters.”
• Also remember: There’s no excuse for your blog
NOT to look great (visually) in 2017!
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Obvious Trend #2:
2018 is the year video explodes!
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But the trend within this trend is…
The scrutiny around video metrics on social
media channels is what will explode.
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Why?
• First: Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.
• Second: Current view metrics on Facebook are very
soft
o Like, 3 seconds soft (on Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram)
o Auto-play is in play
• The pressure for social ROI will increase
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Case in point:
12,000
views =
.001
engagement
rate
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Case in point:
9,000 views =
.0006
engagement
rate
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For now:
• Consider: Is the cost to produce more video in 2018
worth it? Are short view metrics enough?
• Focus on more meaningful video metrics:
o 10-second views
o Average watch time
o Post engagements (likes+comments+shares)
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Obvious Trend #3:
Jump on the voice tech bandwagon!
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There is steam here…
• 24 MILLION speakers are projected to ship in 2017.
o Compared with just 6 million shipped in all of 2016
• More than 15,000 Alexa skills exist (um, that’s a LOT)
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But really, voice tech is still a few years
away. For now, you just need to
understand how it works
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Consider:
• The top 8 things people are using voice tech for in
their homes:
o 1 — Setting a timer (85%)
o 2 — Playing a song (82%)
o 3 — Reading the news (66%)
o 4 — Setting alarms (64%)
o 5 — Checking the time (62%)
o 6 — Telling a joke (60%)
o 7 — Controlling lights (46%)
o 8 — Adds to shopping list (45%)
o Notice anything missing?
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This sums it up.

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Add to that:
• According to a Recode article from earlier this year,
“69 percent of the 7,000-plus Alexa “Skills” have
zero or one customer review, signaling low usage.”
• And, more importantly: “When developers for Alexa
and its competitor, Google Assistant, do get
someone to enable a voice app, there’s only a 3
percent chance, on average, that the person will be
an active user by week 2.”
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Dig in:
• Go buy an Alexa Dot – just $30
• Experiment more with Siri and Google Assistant
• Try 3-5 new “skills” each week
• My favorites:
o “Alexa sing your favorite Christmas Carol”
o ”Alexa, use One Minute Mindfulness”
o “Alexa, talk to Best Buy.”
o “Alexa, sound like a cat.”
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The real trend here is…
It’s corporate podcasting that’s primed to
blow up
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Consider the facts:
• 40% of Americans have listened to a podcast
• 24% of Americans listen to a podcast monthly
(up from 21% last year)
• 15% of Americans have listened to a podcast in
the last week
• 58% of those weekly listeners spent up to FIVE
HOURS listening to podcasts
• 41% of those weekly listeners listen to up to 11
podcasts each week
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What’s more:

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Case in point:
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Case in point:
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For now:
• Do you/your company have the tech know-how to
pull a podcast off (or, budget)?
• Could a podcast help further your thought
leadership or awareness goals?
• Could a podcast build off existing content like a
corporate blog or LinkedIn published posts?
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Obvious Trend #4:
Organic reach is dead!
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And, the numbers certainly back that up.
• U.S. social network ad spending will surpass $21
billion, accounting for 25.5% of all digital ad
spending
• Currently, a brand’s organic social content is getting
2-4% reach on Facebook on a good day.
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But, I would argue…
Organic social media is poised to make a
big comeback!
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WHY?
• Instagram stories
o No algorithm yet. Brands are seeing big
engagement numbers here.
o “Stories” has 300 million daily active users
(1/3 of all users)
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WHY?
• Facebook Live video
o With video getting more placement in the
Facebook newsfeed (especially LIVE video),
you’re starting to see more of this show up.
o STAT: People spend three times
longer watching live video as opposed to
prerecorded
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Case in point
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Why?
• Facebook “Stories”
o No cost
o Seriously low competition (right now)
o More potential viewers!
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Case in point

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Why?
• LinkedIn Published posts
o STAT: 36 percent of LinkedIn members now
read interesting articles they find in their feed, an
increase of 20 percent since 2014.
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Case in point
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Why?
• LinkedIn video.
o Again, the algorithm may be prioritizing these
videos in an attempt to promote usage of
LinkedIn’s new video feature. Opportunity for
brands!
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Obvious Trend #5:
Fake news will continue to clutter our
lives.
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But also consider…
The opportunity: More brands will move
into social issue and political activism via
social media
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One brand is leading the way.
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Consider this research:
• 67 percent will buy your brand for the first time
solely based on your position on a political issue
• 57 percent of consumers buy or boycott brands
based on a brand’s position on a social issue or
political issue

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Obvious Trend #6:
More companies will launch Employee
Social Advocacy Programs
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Maybe it does make sense.
• 25% growth in employee advocacy program
adoption over the last year.
• 30% growth in social selling in the past year.
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But, more realistically…
The proliferation of executives using
LinkedIn Publishing + new native video
will be more impactful
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Benefits include:
• Access to the largest professional network on the
web (500 million users)
• Not the widest reach, but the RIGHT reach
(employees, vendors, customers)
• Perceived as more personal than other executive
comms platforms
• Ease of publishing—essentially the easiest
WYSIWYG in history
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Plus, LinkedIn video may explode
• Videos from the limited release for individuals are
getting shared 20+ times more than any other
content.
• LinkedIn plans to roll out native video for brands in
early 2018 (according to rumors)
• Video > text on other platforms—will LinkedIn be
any different?
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For now:
• Start by updating executive LinkedIn profiles (you
might be surprised how many aren’t—or how many
aren’t even ON LinkedIn!)
• Consider a pilot publishing program with one key
executive
• Consider possible use cases for native video on
LinkedIn in the meantime:
o Executives expounding on their LinkedIn
Published Posts?
o Employees sharing personal perspectives from
brand events or milestone moments?
o Q&A fireside chats with key executives?

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Obvious Trend #7:
Twitter will die (or, be acquired).
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What’s much more realistic is…
Twitter becoming completely
irrelevant to brands from an
engagement perspective
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4 big reasons
• It’s increasingly not a safe place for users.
o See slew of events and backlash in 2017.
• It’s not an easy place for new users.
o Twitter growth has stagnated in recent years.
Instagram’s numbers now dwarf it.
• It’s not why people are going to Twitter
o News, politics, sports--these are the reasons
people are spending time on Twitter in 2017.
• It’s not a traffic driver
o A 2014 Shareaholic survey claimed that Twitter
drove just 1/15 the amount of referrals to
publishers as Facebook

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For now:
• Revisit your approach—maybe Twitter isn’t a part
of your social media strategy AT ALL in 2018.
• Twitter is still an EXCELLENT research tool
(think media and influencers)
• Twitter is still a great way to connect with, and
keep tabs on, media.
• Twitter is still a great way to serve customers
(and watch and observe behaviors).

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Obvious Trend #8:
Our chatbot overlords will rule the world
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And yeah, they probably will
eventually…
• After all, more than 100 million Messenger bots are now
active on Facebook -- a 233 percent YOY growth over
last year’s 33,000.

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But think about this…
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The trend within the trend here:
more brands will pursue private
social media marketing
• Consider the facts:
o Open rate for email: 20 percent; open rate for
private messages: 98 percent
o Notifications: More likely to be turned on for
messaging apps than for email, Facebook
o Organic reach for social at all-time lows
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How will this happen?
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How will this happen?
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Example: Solo PR Pro Private
Facebook Group
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8 Social Media Trends
• #1: Corporate blogging resumes role as storytelling hub
• #2: Increased scrutiny on social video metrics
• #3: Corporate podcasting primed to explode
• #4: The organic reach comeback
• #5: More political/social issues activism via social media
• #6: More executives will use LinkedIn Publishing + native
video
• #7: Twitter will cease to be an awareness/engagement
tool for brands
• #8: Brands start to figure out private social networking
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72. ACHACH
@arikhanson
arik@arikhanson.com
arikhanson.com (sign up for Talking Points)
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