This week on #bufferchat, in conjunction with our State of Social 2018 report, our community chatted all about the latest trends and where social media is heading this year! Read on to discover all of the awesome insights shared during the chat!
Catch our weekly Twitter chat, #bufferchat, at TWO times every Wednesday for valuable industry insights and to meet hundreds of other smart marketers and social media enthusiasts. Same topic, same place, just at different times – feel free to join whichever chat time works best for you!
4 pm AEDT (Sydney time)
9 am PT (San Francisco time)
This week’s stats:
Bufferchat #1 (4 pm AEDT): 28 participants; reach of 1,014,224
Bufferchat #2 (9 am PT): 91 participants; reach of 1,245,130
Q1: What social media platforms are you utilizing in 2018?
From the community:
A1: We are still focused on the main social platforms (FB, Twitter) and we are still hanging on to G+. This year, we intend to add in more Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube … and maybe a bit of @FlipBoard as well. #BufferChat
— Warfare Plugins (@warfareplugins) January 17, 2018
A1 I’m most excited about working towards my Instagram Certification! I think that Instagram is going to be a major player for some time. #bufferchat @instagram
— Michael Isom (@mikeicem_io) January 17, 2018
A1 For us, LI and blogs are still the biggest influencers. #B2B #BufferChat
— Katie Bromley (@KatieRBromley) January 17, 2018
A1 #bufferchat my thought is that it’s important to use a combination of all the social platforms, depending on what type of content you’re sharing. I’ll be using @instagram the most. Then– Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and LinkedIn (in that order).
— JessGoFish (@JessGoFish) January 17, 2018
See all the great answers to question 1 here!
Q2: How does video fit into your 2018 social media strategy?
From the community:
A2 Boosting video use by 20% compared to 5 last year.
It’s giving great ROI and according to stats is trending up. #bufferchat #videomarketing https://t.co/aLItnBp64O
— Musolé Kambinda ? (@Musolek) January 17, 2018
A2. I just catalogued every one of our Youtube videos in a gsheet so I can easily see, search and share more of them this year. Especially ❤️ our customer story videos! #bufferchat
— Laura Wilkinson (@solaurawaslike) January 17, 2018
A2 This year I’ll start live streaming on Facebook. I’ve tested it out on Instagram & I didn’t die! I’d also like to start a YouTube channel, but I absolutely don’t want to learn to edit videos. #bufferchat
— Stephanie Perry ? Grown Up Gap Year (@vaycarious) January 17, 2018
A2: For us it’s a huge focus, as we have found many users will take the time to watch short videos (Snap/Insta stories train us in this) vs read a legitimate social post. Vine 2, Instagram Live, and FB Live are all on the agenda. #bufferchat pic.twitter.com/9Kum18MyEA
— Ben Campbell ❄️ ☃️ (@Ben_Soup) January 17, 2018
See all the great answers to question 2 here!
Q3: What do you think of live video? Will you be implementing it in 2018?
From the community:
A3: I think it’s all about providing value. If you’re going live + demanding I smash the like button but you’re not really providing me w/any value, why the heck am I watching? At the end of the day it’s about providing valuable info w/the best tools available #bufferchat pic.twitter.com/HlCXAdsOyT
— Pippa ? (@PippaRogers82) January 17, 2018
A3: Live video sounds like a relief compared to having to edit a video, film b-roll, choose music, etc.
I’m sure it has it’s own difficulties, but the pressure for perfection seems less.
I definitely want to experiment with live video!#bufferchat
— Dera Luce (@DeraLuce) January 17, 2018
A3 of #bufferchat I LOVE live videos! If the content is right people will eat it up. Make sure your setting on your phone is to upload a high res version when you are done or it will look fuzzy
— Rachael Maas (@RachaelMaas) January 17, 2018
A3: Live video is great when it makes sense. Impromptu training sessions. Saying hello from a conference. Announcing a big change. But a lot of people use it way too often & without purpose. #bufferchat
— Jennifer Wright (@jenfwright) January 17, 2018
See all the great answers to question 3 here!
Q4: Do you use messaging for marketing? How could use it in 2018?
From the community:
A4: Yes. It’s a great way to catch your audience’s attention! (Personally, don’t HMU with your messaging tactics!)
I think brands using messenger in ANY way to reach their audience: answering questions, making sales, etc. allows you to grow & really make it personal. #bufferchat pic.twitter.com/yU22TSDTJN
— Geneva Hayward (@gen10hay) January 17, 2018
A4: I don’t use messaging because for me it seems spammy. I prefer to have conversations with people and do email marketing for group messages. #bufferchat
— Jenn Baker Blog (@jennbakerblog) January 17, 2018
A4: I LOVE the @LaddersHQ chatbot. It sends helpful articles every morning and you can even type in a search word and they’ll send you articles about that topic. I’d love to see more content based brands using it. #bufferchat
— StacyZeal (@StacyZeal) January 17, 2018
A4 We utilize messaging (at least FB Messenger) as a customer service tool rather than marketing per se. It’s great because we can simply and easily be reached and diagnose issues in platforms that customers are already familiar with #bufferchat
— Benjamin Gold (@benjaminrgold) January 17, 2018
See all the great answers to question 4 here!
Q5: How do you measure ROI from social media marketing? Will this change in 2018?
From the community:
A5: Personally, my two priorities are attracting clients and driving website traffic.
So, I’m most interested in leads that come via social media and click-through rates to my website. #bufferchat
— Felicity Wild (@flickwild) January 17, 2018
A5: I’m not sure social media is solely for ROI, or going to be ROI positive in the short term. You need to look at it from a brand perspective and where your brand would be if you had no social media. What could you lose if you didn’t do social media marketing? #bufferchat
— James McKinven (@jmckinven) January 17, 2018
A5: #socialmedia ROI is an engima wrapped in a puzzle for some.People need to understand it’s about trust, value, community & engagement. #smm is not a sales channel. #bufferchat https://t.co/d4XTHXLPWy
— Joe Gill (@joegill88) January 17, 2018
A5 #BufferChat We’ll be doing a lot more conversion tracking from paid social in 2018. We’re lucky as an organisation because we’re got a diverse range of tangible KPIs that social feeds into from conversion, to visitor numbers. So I can measure against that pic.twitter.com/cHmKIBhrsI
— Elizabeth Somerville (@ElizabethKF) January 17, 2018
See all the great answers to question 5 here!
Q6: What are your predictions for social media in 2018?
From the community:
A6 analytics will continue to be a vital tool that informs the overall strategy.
More changes will come to timelines/ feeds forcing marketers, brands to get smart.There might be a curveball that will change the landscape. Influencer marketing will still be ? #bufferchat https://t.co/L1goUqM77b
— Musolé Kambinda ? (@Musolek) January 17, 2018
A6: People expect more from their social media these days. As such, I think brands will start to publish less but when they do it will have more value and purpose. This is especially true for a platform like Facebook. #bufferchat
— Ashley Cardwell (@TheAshleyDale) January 17, 2018
A6: Social Media is becoming a bigger and bigger source of news, especially local/community (all types of community) up-to-the-minute news. Integrating this ‘just-in-time’ knowledge w/business avenues will require continued agility. #bufferchat
— Amy.M.Anderson (@snippetsbyAmy) January 17, 2018
A6: I think companies will post LESS often but share more valuable content in 2018.
And more founders & CEOs (& even employees!) will come out from behind the shadows and will start sharing the majority of the content for the company. #bufferchat
— Jennifer Wright (@jenfwright) January 17, 2018
See all the great answers to question 6 here!
Thank you so much to our awesome community for sharing such great insights in this chat!
Do you have any comments or answers to these questions? Leave your thoughts in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!
Image sources: UnSplash
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