The influence social media has on the world of digital marketing is astonishing. There are over 2.8 billion active users across the globe, making social media strategies more important than ever. But with the social media landscape in constant flux, what trends can we expect to see for the remainder of 2017?

Resisting fake news
The rise of fake news has truly taken the world by storm.  As more and more people turn to social media as their main source of news, we’ve seen a consistent rise in the circulation of fake news on social media platforms.

The influence that fake news has had on swaying elections in the US and France is no secret, and many of us have already started to question whether fake news will influence opinion in the general election in June.

Facebook has already started to combat the problem, and even the German government has enforced strict measures in an attempt to curb fake news by threatening to fine social networks up to €50m if they fail to remove hate speech.

The rise of chatbots
A chatbot is a service that functions on artificial intelligence and allows users to interact via a chat interface. Facebook recently announced its intention to connect businesses with their customers through chatbot features. This means that in the future we will no longer need to pick up a phone to order a takeaway – we could do it via Facebook Messenger instead!

Chatbots could also be vital for brands in terms of improving the customer experience, and businesses will no doubt take advantage of the rise of chatbots in order to develop their relationship with consumers.

Live streaming
We’ve increasingly seen social media platforms offer live video streaming. Facebook recently introduced this feature, as did YouTube and Instagram. There’s no doubt that videos get higher engagement than other content formats, and cutting-edge brands will certainly see this as an opportunity going forward.

Live video streaming can be a great way to keep your followers engaged and there are endless possibilities here in terms of live streaming events to create a social media buzz.

Expiring content
It’s safe to say that Snapchat popularised the expiring content trend, which was then introduced by Facebook, Instragram and Whatsapp. In fact, Snapchat has experienced huge success and now has over 150 million daily active users!

Brands have increasingly turned towards Snapchat to market themselves in inventive and dynamic ways and we expect to see more brands using expiring content as part of their digital marketing strategy.

Interested in speaking to a professional? Our Jammers are on hand to help. Give us a shout on 0161 850 0565 and we’ll show you what we can do.