5 Social Media Trends That Will Dominate 2017

Social media is one of the fastest changing industries out there. Sometimes a cutting-edge technology changes the social game, or an old idea (e.g. virtual reality) gains viral popularly. Either way, the results always have a huge impact and 2017 will be no different. Here are five social media trends that will dominate 2017.

1. Social messaging

When people discuss social media, there always seems to be more focus on social networks than social networking. That’s pretty strange, considering that messaging apps have a much wider community of users than social networks. In fact, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber and WeChat together have more users than the big networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Over-the-top (OTT) messaging and SMS messaging are millennials’ preferred form of communication. Sixty-two percent of millennials are more loyal to brands that engage them via those channels and an estimated two billion users will be messaging through OTT apps by 2018. Why is this so? Millennials want the personal touch, transparency and collaboration that the one-on-one communication allows.

Businesses are already taking advantage of the huge audience base on social messaging platforms -- on Facebook, you can click on an ad and it takes you directly to a chat window with the brand. As more brands start to realize the value of social messaging compared to regular social networks, they’ll make even more efforts to have a presence there.

2. The fight against fake news

Every year, more and more people, especially millennials, are turning to the internet as their main news source instead of TV, newspaper, or radio. As a result, there’s been a rise in “fake news” from sites that deliberately publish and circulate inaccurate information about current events.

We saw the worst of it during the 2016 presidential election -- fake news about both candidates was shared widely across Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms. Now, Facebook is already taking steps to curb fake news appearing on the site. These “news outlets” are no longer allowed to advertise on the platform.

But the fight against fake news isn’t likely to stop there. Germany is already considering legislation to fine social media sites that let fake news proliferate. That’s bound to catch the attention of all the major platforms. Millennials are tech-savvy, get their news predominantly from social media and value honesty, so they’re likely to investigate and verify news they see, push for more transparency from media outlets and reward factual reportage by sharing such content.

3. Authentic content (a.k.a. live video)

YouTube was built on a foundation of videos that capture real, unfiltered moments. Now social media is taking it to the next level by offering the content in real-time. Live streaming video was first made popular by Twitter’s Periscope. Now Facebook Live has launched. Social videos have much more engagement than any other content format, and have been responsible for a lot of growth on Facebook. Even news sources are citing Facebook Live videos when covering major events. The world of media is changing thanks to live video.

Instagram is now testing their own live video option, and they won’t be the last platform to implement live streaming video. Social media is becoming fascinated with live, authentic content. Millennials love video content and are the most active video viewers of any age group in the U.S. in 2016 and they're not likely to slow down in 2017.

Some digital marketing techniques for 2017

In our Digital Channel Essentials Toolkits within our members' area and our Digital Marketing Skills report we simplify digital marketing down to just 8 key techniques which are essential for businesses to manage today AND for individual marketers to develop skills. This visual shows the core techniques which will drive more leads and sales for you, but within some sectors, techniques like using AI, IoT, Wearables will be more important. 

Some marketing techniques in 2017 are:

1. Content marketing trends

Content marketing has been in the top 3 for the last 3 years we have run this post, so we focus a lot on how to create an integrated content marketing strategy through advice in our content marketing toolkit.

Our research with HubSpot, illustrated in the Competing on Content infographic, shows that more businesses are now using a strategic approach (40%), so this is a trend we can expect to see continuing in 2017. We can also expect that there will be more focus on Measuring Content Marketing ROI as the cost and competition within content marketing increases.

At a practical level, Martech Guru Scott Brinker has talked about the 4th Wave of Content Marketing and I'm seeing more and more examples of interactive marketing apps - like our capability graders and also personalisation tools recommending content. Read his article, introducing it, a great read and you can check out the ionInteractive examples of interactive content marketing.

2. Big Data

As defined in our question, Big Data marketing applications include market and customer insight and predictive analytics.

The 3Vs of Big Data show why this is a key trend selected by many, who have experienced the increase in volume, real-time data and data formats in their business and want to exploit the value to increase sales through personalisation on websites and through email marketing through predictive analytics - a topic we have covered many times on our blog.  It's also closely tied into machine learning where Big Data is mined to identify propensity to convert given different customer characteristics and behaviour.

3. Marketing Automation (including CRM, behavioural email marketing and web personalisation)

Like content marketing, marketing automation has been in the top 3 for the last 5 years we have asked this question. Many businesses still have potential for improving their automation as our research on the State of Marketing Automation shows.

To help with this knowledge gap, I think I have given more webinars and talks on Marketing Automation than on any other topic in 2016. The most common questions at the end are 'where do we start' and 'how do we get to the next level'. These questions are answered in our Email marketing and marketing automation toolkit which includes a free interactive capability review to score your use of email marketing automation. As businesses progress up the learning curve I expect more businesses to be putting lead scoring in place, or refining it and learning the best places on the journey to feature content through predictive analytics.

Esports Revenues in Europe to Reach $346 Million in 2018

Over the past few years, esports have taken the gaming world by storm. Although China accounts for 57% of worldwide esports viewership, according to IHS Markit, the market in Europe has gained a lot of attention recently for its rapid growth.

In the run-up to this week’s Wargaming.net 2017 World of Tanks Grand Finals in Moscow, one of the event’s sponsors, PayPal, commissioned SuperData Research to investigate the esports marketplace in 12 countries in Europe. The May 2017 study found that revenues derived from esports in the region totaled $301 million in 2016, and are expected to reach nearly $346 million in 2018.

Sweden was Europe’s largest market last year, with $40.8 million in esports revenues, followed by Russia ($35.4 million), France ($22.5 million) and the UK ($16.8 million).

Greater interest in esports is helping drive up revenues. At the end of 2016, there were more than 22.6 million esports viewers in Europe, a number SuperData Research projects will pass 27 million this year and 30 million in 2018.

As with other digital activities, millennials dominate esports media consumption. In 2017, 62% of esports viewers in Europe will be ages 18 to 34, with Sweden and the Netherlands having the highest share of fans (71%) from that demographic, according to SuperData Research.

It is important to note that esports is still a male-dominated pastime, with males accounting for 84% of viewers in Europe as a whole. Countries such as Israel and Italy skew even further in that direction, with males making up 90% and 88% of esports viewers, respectively.

However, viewership among females is growing, and there are some countries with already sizeable female audiences. Sweden (24%), France (22%), the UK (22%) and Poland (19%) will all be above the regional average in 2017, according to SuperData. And other studies have found even higher figures. An August 2016 study by Newzoo, for example, found that 33% of the UK’s esports enthusiast community was female.

While females’ audience share grows, esports’ mostly male, millennial fandom offers advertisers an opportunity to reach a demographic segment more difficult to connect with via traditional media than in the past.

“The rapid growth of esports audiences has attracted some of the industry’s largest media and technology companies to the genre,” said Ted Hall, research director at IHS Markit. “Investment in esports will pay off for its big-name backers, as the genre expands both within its target demographic and outside it, with increasing exposure on linear TV set to bring in casual and new fans.”

IHS Markit expects esports ad spending will be worth $1 billion worldwide by 2021, up from $280 million last year—driven primarily by video ads, influencer marketing and sponsorships.

While sizeable, digital ad spending in this segment will account for less than 1% of the more than $360 billion in worldwide digital ad spending eMarketer expects to occur in 2021.

Trump is Hiring Lobbyists and Top Ethics Official Says ‘There’s No Transparency’

President Trump has stocked his administration with a small army of former lobbyists and corporate consultants who are now in the vanguard of the effort to roll back government regulations at the agencies they once sought to influence, according to an analysis of government records by the New York Times in collaboration with ProPublica.

The Times adds new details to our previous reporting on Trump's weakening of ethics rules and former lobbyists working on regulations they opposed on behalf of private clients just months ago.The Times scrutinized financial disclosures of top White House staffers and found that the lobbyists and consultants in their ranks had more than 300 recent corporate clients and employers, including Apple and Anthem, the insurance company.

One striking case involves Michael Catanzaro, an appointee on the National Economic Council whose portfolio includes energy and environmental issues. Catanzaro was formerly a lobbyist for oil and coal companies that strenuously opposed the Obama administration's clean power regulation. Three industry sources told the Times that Catanzaro is now working on that same issue in the Trump administration.

Even under Trump's weakened ethics rules, former lobbyists like Catanzaro are not supposed to work on issues that they formerly had lobbied on. Still, under Trump's executive order, he can issue waivers at any time to staffers, Catanzaro included, for any reason, and never disclose it.

Even the federal government's top ethics official, Walter Shaub, who runs the Office of Government Ethics, is being kept in the dark."There's no transparency, and I have no idea how many waivers have been issued," Shaub told the Times.

At the Labor Department, there are at least two former lobbyists appointed by Trump who previously sought to influence agency regulations. One worked for a financial service firm fighting attempts to regulate financial advisers who manage retirement investments. Another, Geoff Burr, was the top government affairs official for the construction industry trade association, lobbying the agency on matters related to wages and workplace safety.

The hiring of dozens of lobbyists represents a reversal from Trump's statements during the campaign, when he said he would have "no problem" banning lobbyists from his administration.

The White House did not respond to specific questions from the Times. Instead, it offered this statement: "The White House requires all of its employees to work closely with ethics counsel to ensure compliance and has aggressively required employees to recuse or divest where the law requires."

We've also reached out to the White House for comment.

In another blow to transparency, the administration announced Friday it will keep White House visitor logs secret, dropping the Obama-era practice of regularly posting that information.

Those logs offered the public a window into who was getting face time with the president and his staff. They were also used by journalists in countless stories: ProPublica, for example, used the visitor logs for a story last year about a lobbying campaign to push through a controversial airline merger. The logs showed that Rahm Emanuel visited the White House after meeting with airline executives who recruited him to push for the merger.

Sensex breaches 31,000: What should be the next move of investors?

BSE Sensex closed the week at an all-time of 31,028.21, on the same day when Modi-led government completed its three years in the office. NSE Nifty too followed the suit and closed at 9,595.10. In the last three years, the benchmark index has soared from 24,400 to 31,000 and delivered an absolute return of 27 per cent.

According to Vaibhav Agrawal, Head of Research and ARQ, Angel Broking, the continued MF and FII inflows in the Indian equities have taken the Indian equities to fresh highs. He says, "Coincidently this has come on the occasion of 3rd anniversary of the Modi government. This indicates that faith shown by investors in the government and its policies has been rewarded so far. While global economy remains in good shape, at the current juncture, we believe that domestic factors life GST, affordable housing, etc. are weighing more than the global factors. We continued to believe that Indian markets are likely to do well going ahead owing to the strong monsoon, reforms, low interest rates and strong consumption trends".

So what should be the next move of investors? Find out here

Stay cautious: Do not time markets

It is a known fact that investments into equities swell when the market is at its high and investments contract when market is at lows. Ideally, it should be vice-versa. Now, when the benchmark index has reached its life-time high, this creates a sense of excitement among investors. However, experts advise investors not to be swayed too much by the market movements.

Mihir Vora- Director and Chief Investment Officer, Max Life Insurance says, "The equity markets are being driven by strong liquidity flows and expectations of acceleration in economic activity post-monsoon. However, valuations are in the expensive zone, especially given the lack of earnings acceleration in the past quarters. We see markets consolidating at these levels.

Jatin Khemani, CFA, Founder & CEO of Stalwart Advisors, a SEBI Registered Independent Equity Research Firm based out of New Delhi too alerts investors of any near term volatility. "Even a bull market can have multiple 20 per cent  (approx) corrections from top, don't get scared and let your SIPs benefit from those corrections. Given the valuations are a bit stretched there could be some time correction in the short term. Also, it would be prudent to keep a realistic expectation in terms of returns."

Remain invested

Do not make any hasty decisions just on the basis of market movements. If your goal is far away, say five years or more, there is no need to move out of equity. Bhavana Acharya, Analyst, Mutual Fund Research, FundsIndia.com says, "Over the long term such as 6-8 years, equity delivers superior returns. At all times, make investments with the timeframe in mind and stick to it. Shifting around investments based on market movement will simply lead to needless and excessive churn in the portfolio"

You may sell If...

Cheers to investors whose goals are approaching. If your goal is one to two years away, you may start to redeem in tranches and freeze returns in the ongoing bull market.

Jatin of Stalwart Advisors recommends to redeem if you were invested in small and mid-caps. "If you were invested in some small-cap and mid-cap fund, you would have made some really good money and it may not be a bad idea to take some gains off the table and keep it in fixed income or deploy into large-cap or multi-cap funds. Otherwise let the money stay at work".

Also, this is right time to revisit your portfolio and check on the equity to debt allocation and rebalance if required. "Once a year, investors can run a check on the equity to debt allocation of the portfolio. If it is more than 5 percentage points away from the original allocation, bring the allocation back in line by booking some profits. For example, when a 75 to 25 per cent equity debt allocation moves to an 80 to 20 per cent allocation. This rebalancing will be enough to ensure that some profits are booked when it is necessary," says Bhavana of FundsIndia.com

What Are the Different Types of Digital Media Advertising?

One of the primary devices for digital media advertising is the Internet, which offers advertising options such as search engine marketing (SEM), content ads, display ads, search engine optimization (SEO), social marketing and email marketing. Another widely utilized type digital media advertising is with the use of a cell phone device, for text message ads or mobile marketing.

Search engine marketing is also referred to as pay-per-click advertising. These are the text ads that run along the top,side and bottom of the page when someone conducts a search using their favorite search engine. When an Internet surfer clicks on the text ad, the company placing the ad is charged a fee, which is why it is referred to as pay-per-click.

Content ads are digital ads, which may be text or banners, that are on the same page as relevant content. For example, if the Internet searcher is reading an article on how to start a business website, a content ad may include a web host company and a website designer text ad. Since the reader of the ad is interested in the topic that the content contains, the ads correlate with the topic because the items complement the content.

Display ads are usually graphic banners or buttons on a web page. Some of the banners are static, while others are animated or dynamic. Banners or display ads tend to be relevant to the content on the web page on which they sit as well. For example, a marketing consultant website may include a banner or display ad that promotes a contact management system to manage email campaigns and online marketing efforts.

Search engine optimization is digital media advertising that focuses on using relevant keywords in the content that a business shares. The keywords should be words, terms and phrases that an Internet searcher would use to find the product or service that the company is selling. Companies can use SEO efforts in the text on the business website, in pay-per-click ads, articles the company publishes online, online press releases the company publishes and any other content the company publishes online. SEO helps the business website to rank higher in the search engines, which also tends to increase traffic to the business website.

Social media is another form of digital advertising. There are several subsets of social media advertising. Companies have the option of placing text or display ads on social media networks, or businesses can use the update and sharing features on social media networks to help promote their products and services. Companies can even enlist their fans and followers to help them promote the business and spread the word — turning word-of-mouth advertising into digital media advertising.

Email marketing is another form of digital advertising. When someone subscribes to receive email communications from a company, the company has the right to send emails to the subscribers. The emails may share content or relevant information, or the emails may promote a product or service.

With more and more consumers carrying and using cell phones, especially smartphones, companies are also turning to mobile marketing as a form of digital media advertising. This type of advertising sends text messages as advertisements and promotions to the person’s cell phone. Some mobile ads even appear alongside the phone applications the users of the phone are using. For example, if a consumer is playing a game on their cell phone, a digital ad may appear at the top or bottom of the game board or on the screen in between game turns.

Google dominating digital ad market: Report

NEW YORK: Google will maintain its dominance and account for 40.7 per cent of US digital ad revenues in 2017 -- more than double Facebooks share, market research company eMarketer said. 

According to eMarketer's forecast, the US digital ad spending will reach $83 billion in 2017, representing an increase of 15.9 per cent. eMarketer expects Google's share of the search market to grow 16.1 per cent to $28.55 billion in 2017 and the search giant will claim roughly 78 per cent of total US search ad revenues this year. 

"Google's dominance in search, especially mobile search, is largely coming from the growing tendency of consumers to turn to their smartphones to look up everything from the details of a product to directions," Monica Peart, Forecasting Analyst, eMarketer, said in a statement. 

As Google dominates search, Facebook rules display. The social network's US display business will jump 32.1 per cent to $16.33 billion, capturing 39.1 per cent of the US display market, taking share away from Google, Yahoo, and Twitter, the findings showed. 

Facebook's revenue growth can be attributed to growth in both usage and time spent, which continues to draw advertisers in greater numbers. 

Instagram is also helping to drive Facebook's revenue growth. In fact, Instagram will make up 20 per cent of Facebook's US mobile revenue this year, up from 15 per cent last year. 

"Facebook users are increasingly captivated by videos on the platform -- not just on Facebook, but on Instagram as well. Video, both live and recorded, is a key driver of growing user engagement and advertiser enthusiasm," added Peart. 

Meanwhile, Google's display business will rise to $5.24 billion, but its share of the display market will drop to 12.5 per cent, the report noted. 

In 2017, Snapchat's ad revenue will grow 157.8 per cent to $770 million in the US. That's slightly lower than the $800 million previously projected, due to higher-than-estimated revenue sharing with partners. 

Snapchat's ad business, which is made up entirely of mobile display, is still small. Snapchat will account for 1.3 per cent of the mobile ad market this year. By 2019, that will grow to 2.7 per cent, the report added. 

These Indian CEOs Tell Why Digital Is All The Rage In India

The digital world is fast undergoing major transformations, boosting its viewership and this has become a major cause of concern for TV channel operators.     

The 2017 Accenture Digital Consumer survey reveals that television viewership in India has plummeted by 78 per cent in the past one year.

CEO of India’s leading digital agency iProspect India Rubeena Singh explained to the Entrepreneur India the reasons behind her sudden change of track to digital marketing after working for 12 years with renowned media channels. Sriram Manoharan, founder and MD of Contus, too, shared his views in this regard.     

 ‘Digital is Changing People’s Habits’

“The digital wing was very small when I entered it. But today, if we talk about the most consumer-focused space, it is undoubtedly digital,” said Singh.

On what made her shift focus from traditional media marketing to digital, Singh said, “When you’re in an agency, you are at the center of an ecosystem. You see things from a different point of view and understand what will dominate the market in future. I could spot the transition towards digitization. ”

“Today the government is playing an active role in promoting apps like Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based BHIM and other e-payment initiatives. Through these initiatives, the government is pushing for a change in people’s habits,” she said.

“The way Indians are adopting digital medium especially since Narendra Modi-led BJP came to power, there is a huge tectonic shift in micro-trends changing the digital space. Considering the rise in mobile and internet penetration in India, I believe it’s going to be phenomenal in the next five years,” opined Singh.

‘Percentage of Digital Consumption is Getting Doubled’

Digital viewership has now penetrated deep into the country. Earlier, it was a phenomenon of the Metro cities. The aggressive war of telecom players in serving low-data plans has led to the increase in digital viewership in a mass scale.

As per the 2017 Accenture Digital Consumer report, “The number of people preferring to watch TV has declined to just 10 per cent from 47 per cent a year earlier.”

Singh told the Entrepreneur India, “Even the telecom players have changed the dynamics in the past few months. Today, the penetration of mobile and internet in India is humongous as we see a noticeable growth in viewership of digital video content than TV. Soon people will see automated digital content rolling on their TV screens as well."

“I see most people today access their mobile internet to watch digital content or videos on their cell phone screens. A ‘Coffee with Karan’ episode or ‘IPL series’ is no longer watched in the comfort of homes, but while on the move, mobile screens replacing the TV LCD ones,” she opined.  

In fact, media reports state that Hot star has reportedly clocked a viewership of 36.4 million compared to 34.9 million on television in the first two weeks of the Indian Premiere League (IPL).

“Companies will soon shift focus to digital branding, investing in brand awareness here, instead of roping in traditional media,” she pointed out.   

“Today digital has a larger reach than TV. Companies are generating huge amount of Return of Investments (ROIs) while investing in digital branding,” asserted Singh.

What Is Attracting Entrepreneurs To Digital Space?

“I believe, minimal cost of creating and launching products that is attracting more entrepreneurs to take the digital route. Moreover, it goes without saying that innumerable Saas-based software tools help in the smooth running of digital business,” said Sriram Manoharan.

How Will Digital Industry Change Parameters In Marketing?

“You, me or any average person spends more time online than watching TV or any other media. This habitual change has been altering business marketing ways in the recent past and the same will determine brand promotional activities in future,” he said and added, “The marketing spend in the digital medium will increase substantially to overshadow the spend on outdoor marketing.” 

“We don’t see many billboards today. But, we see more numbers of display adverts on websites and eCommerce sites than ever before. The industry verticals and businesses that adopt the digital medium will increase substantially in the coming years as customers would want everything to be served online, including marketing materials,” he said.

Digital marketing

Digital marketing (also known as data-driven marketing) is an umbrella term for the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.

Digital marketing's development since the 1990s and 2000s has changed the way brands and businesses utilize technology for marketing. As digital platforms are increasingly incorporated into marketing plans and everyday life, and as people use digital devices instead of visiting physical shops digital marketing campaigns are becoming more prevalent and efficient.

Digital marketing techniques such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, content automation, campaign marketing, data-driven marketing  and e-commerce marketing, social media marketing, social media optimization, e-mail direct marketing, display advertising, e–books, and optical disks and games are becoming more common in our advancing technology. In fact, digital marketing now extends to non-Internet channels that provide digital media, such as mobile phones (SMS and MMS), callback, and on-hold mobile ring tones.

History

The term digital marketing was first used in the 1990s, but digital marketing has roots in the mid-1980s, when the SoftAd Group, now ChannelNet, developed advertising campaigns for automobile companies: People sent in reader reply cards found in magazines and received in return floppy disks that contained multimedia content promoting various cars and free test drives.In 2000 a survey in the United Kingdom found that most retailers had not registered their own domain address. 

Digital marketing became more sophisticated in the 2000s and the 2010s, when the proliferation of devices' capability to access digital media at almost any given time led to great growth. Statistics produced in 2012 and 2013 showed that digital marketing was still a growing field.

Digital marketing is often referred to as 'online marketing', 'internet marketing' or 'web marketing'. The term digital marketing has grown in popularity over time, particularly in certain countries. In the USA online marketing is still prevalent. In Italy, digital marketing is referred to as web marketing. In the UK and worldwide, however, digital marketing has become the most common term, especially after the year 2013.

Digital media growth is estimated at 4.5 trillion online ads served annually with digital media spend at 48% growth in 2010. An increasing portion of advertising stems from businesses employing Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) to tailor advertising for internet users, but OBA raises concern of consumer privacy and data protection.