State of Social 2018: A #BufferChat Recap

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

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

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

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

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

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