The 5 Social Media Trends Ruling 2018

Posted on May 28th 2018 in Social Media

Social media is constantly evolving, and it’s crucial that your hotel’s marketing campaigns keep up or else risk falling flat. No matter what kind of technology you have in place, if the content you create isn’t resonating with your guests you’re not going to see the results you need in terms of website traffic and bookings.

The key to staying relevant on social media is to embrace modern trends while ensuring you always show the human side of your business to your followers. In today’s blog, we’ll look at the 5 biggest trends that have shaped social media marketing in the first half of 2018.

1. The Fall Of Automation

In 2018, automating your social campaigns and reusing the same content on each platform just won’t cut it. You need to be human.

The companies excelling at social media are those employing individuals with the skills and personality needed to bring a brand’s story to life and keep audiences glued across every channel.

2. The Rise and Rise of Mobile-Ready Content

Data from ComScore reveals that time spent on mobile represents 7 out of 10 digital media minutes, with Facebook emerging as the most used mobile app of 2017.

It’s not surprising then that this year has seen an upsurge in brands investing more time and money in creating easy to navigate content that can be accessed with little scrolling and minimal key presses, designed specifically with small screens in mind.

3. An Increase In Richer Content Types

“Rich” content which encourages user interaction continues to drive higher engagement rates than simple text and image based posts. This includes videos, contests and opinion polls – the latter being a great way to collect insights while simultaneously encouraging audience engagement.

4. A Turn Towards User Generated Content

It’s no secret that consumers trust the opinions of friends and family over messages from advertisers or celebrities.

Brands are capitalising on this fact by finding organic and interesting ways to integrate more user generated content into their social feeds and websites for a compelling form of “social proof” that drives bookings and engagement. One of the best ways to generate user generated content is to run a social contest – for example, asking your guests to share holiday and travel related photos around a theme with a discount or special package as an incentive.

5. An Ongoing Shift Towards Ephemeral Content

While marketers once strived to produce evergreen content which could be recycled and referred to over and over again, consumers now have an appetite for ephemeral content. Thanks largely to the popularity of Snapchat, content which offers brief, transient snapshots of a moment and then disappears has become increasingly popular, with both Instagram and Facebook launching their own ephemeral story features.

Perhaps customers are drawn to this kind of content because it feels exclusive, or simply because they know it won’t be around forever, but whatever the reason for its popularity, brands are rising to the task of developing engaging stories across all three platforms. Those that are doing so most successfully are keeping their audiences hooked and coming back for more.

What social media trends have you noticed emerging in the first half of 2018? Which do you still need to experiment with? Let us know in the comments below!