Issa Asad Says These Are the 3 Hottest Social Media Trends in 2017
Issa Asad Florida
It is not easy to pinpoint the social media trends nowadays. Due to the nature of these social media trends, you might find that they are no longer relevant as early as tomorrow. A good example is the Vine, which sparked a lot of excitement that was short-lived.
“Consumers are constantly depicting fickle behaviors of and different platforms are releasing new updates almost daily,” said Issa Asad Florida entrepreneur, businessman, and CEO since 1996. Mr. Asad is the CEO of Quadrant Holdings and Q Link Wireless, located in South Florida. “This makes it hard to display with certainty anything to do with social media’s future.”
As you take a closer look at the social performance of your company for the first quarter of this year and make budgets for the rest of the year, there are important industry shifts and trends you ought to consider. Issa Asad Says These Are the 3 Hottest Social Media Trends in 2017:
1. Live Video Rise
All platforms are united by a common denominator and that is reaching the top levels of audience engagement. This is the key reason why YouTube, Twitter, Snap (formerly SnapChat) and Facebook are competing for user engagement as without it they become irrelevant. The tool that is helping platforms today to become more engaging with users is the use of live video. Snap stories have managed to remain relevant from 2013 but when Facebook launched its live-streaming in 2016 enabling people to go live, it became a game changer. Both brands and audiences noticed the potential of live video. This prompted the release of live stories by Instagram a few months later. In February this year, YouTube made the announcement that it was launching a live-streaming TV service of its own.
Live videos craze started in 2016 via funny videos and conflicts that went viral and the live-streaming of various events in the world. The same craze will pour into 2017 and as the live videos are used by all platforms, marketers should take note of them. Live videos are proving to be a great magnet as they pull massive user engagement numbers. Lesson here: users love experiencing the live content as it enables them to feel connected to an event as well as break the perfection pressure previously seen in social networks. The videos been streamed live are real and consumers today crave for authenticity in all the social content.
2. Platform Crossover
A few years back, all the major social networks were easy to classify into their different categories. Facebook used to connect friends, life snippets and artistic curations were shared on Instagram, Twitter was meant for micro-blogging while Snap was used for sharing unfiltered and playful moments. Last year saw a shift of this trend as different platforms are morphing into the zones of others. Facebook has introduced recent stories feature and Snap redesigned in order to offer their audiences with a more holistic experience. Brands have to choose the most worthwhile networks to them and budget for them appropriately.
3. Virtual Reality Integration
Virtual reality remains to be one of the key buzz words in the world of marketing. Facebook acquired the Oculus Rift (LINK), the 360 app was launched and Snap has Spectacles. All these platforms are all moving towards exploiting the potential of virtual reality. VR technology gives brands the opportunity to tell interactive and innovative stories. The rise in more brands experimenting with VR technology as well as gamified features will see expectations among the audiences rising. In the near future, brands that will not have invested in the VR technology will be left lagging behind. The time to adopt VR technology is now as huge brands like CNN have already adopted the technology in their CNNVR immersive journalism unit.
