Eighteen things to think about in 2018

The world moves quickly and what we thought was relevant in a social media context in 2017 might be completely different in 2018. The challenge for businesses is to stay current and embrace new ideas and new tools quickly so that you get first responder advantage as well as staying nimble and aggressive with your outreach activities. You need to jump to new platforms and tools at the same time that your customers do, so you don’t get left behind by them using outdated platforms and tools to reach dwindling audiences.

Think about some of these developments and then talk to us here at Elevate and we can work with you to leverage the newest platforms for you to reach your key stakeholders.

1. Social messaging is predicted to grow with company’s responding to customers in a more human manner. WhatsApp has 1.2 billion monthly users. Facebook has 1 billion. What is your online customer journey like? Have you mapped it out? Are you thinking about chatbots? Do you know what they are and are you able to talk to your customers using these new tools?
2. Companies need to be social around the clock in response to customers’ needs. Are you able to do this? Can you respond to customers when they seek information? At the very least, can you capture this information and provide tools for your customers to engage with you when they so chose? Is this a core part of your business or are your customers happy to contact you during working hours?
3. Branded messages within messaging. Think about your micro-messaging within your branded content and your messages when using instant messaging tools. 
4. Real news will continue to be delivered on social media platforms as a way of retaining ownership and managing the response. It is also an increasingly viable way to reach audiences. What does your online footprint look like and are you keeping it fresh and current with insights and engagement? Are you engaging with media? And providing content for all of them in the way that they want to receive it?
5. The more interesting and engaging the platforms the more the appeal and pull especially for millennials. Are you having conversations that are capturing different demographics? Are these conversation simply pushing out content or are you looking to create relationships that turn interest into agreement, agreement into endorsement and endorsement into ambassadors?
6. Live streaming will be come more mainstream. Are you livestreaming events, conferences, openings? Have you thought about it?
7. Virtual reality – there are very big benefits in virtual reality for those ready to take the plunge with high levels of engagement and virality on the cards. Is this a possibility for your brand?
8. Growth of ephemeral content i.e. raw, native and unscripted content. Are you confident in your marketing and communications team to deal with tagged, doodled content? How about  geo filters or geo tagged content? You need to ensure that your brand message grabs attention in 2018 as more and more brands are engaging aggressively with their customers in increasingly creative manners. Are you telling a story, and is it an interesting tale that you are telling?
9. Content is increasingly personalised especially when senior staff personalise your brand message? Are you still in lockdown? Or you opening the communications channels so that your staff can reach out across different channels and portals?
10. Word of Mouth versus Brand influencers. Do you know the difference and can you identify yours?
11. Shopping through social media. Whilst we have many B2C brands, we also have B2B brands here at Elevate and, for these clients, social media shopping may not be relevant. If you are a B2C brand though you need to think long and hard about your customer touchpoints. Did you know that Twitter has tested a buy button and Snapchat is testing ecommerce features? Are you ready?
12. Augmented reality (AR) will be worth $120 Billion by 2020 and has enormous applications for the way that consumers will engage with brands. Think creatively about the implications of AR and factor these sorts of options into your risk register. Do you know that you can already use these tools? Easily? And cheaply?
13. Employees have 561% greater reach than brand. Are you leveraging your broader staff to make sure that they know what to say, clearly articulate it and are helped and equipped to tell your brand story across a range of mediums?
14. Changes in social media algorithms mean you needs to stay nimble as a marketer. Make sure that you stay up to date and, if you can’t do this, then let us do it for you.
15. Brands and companies need to think more about content creation as news desks become more stretched for time. There are a myriad of options for content and your creation needs to include images, videos and any other applications that are relevant in 2018 and beyond. Make your brand sticky so that people come back to you on a regular basis.
16. Fitbits are the beginning of cognitive messaging and this will continue to grow. Are you using these new tools and the platforms that support them?
17. Rapid response groups for brands. Do you have a rapid response group for your brand? Social media has many benefits but it can also destroy your brand if used by those who do not know the implications of wording, images or themes.  What will you do if a mistake is made online? Do you have an action plan or crisis communications plan in place?
18. Have you called us here at Elevate? We can help you think nimbly, aggressively and creatively to grow your brand using the tools that exist now, and in the future.