TREND REPORT: PREPARING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY FOR 2017

Over the course of the past seven years, social media marketing has gone from a necessary evil to just plain necessary for businesses. The social media landscape is ever-evolving, and it is imperative for companies of all sizes, within the majority of industries to establish an engaging presence in order to develop brand credibility and allow consumers to interact directly. As we begin to develop strategies for marketing in 2017, BPR looks to a variety of sources to pull its trend predictions and statistics for the upcoming year. One of our favorite sources, Buffer recently released their data-packed State of Social Media Report for 2016, and it highlights numerous takeaways for all brands to consider as we head into 2017.

  1. Contrary to popular belief, Facebook is still the leading platform for marketers (93 percent of businesses use the platform). Ninety-one percent of marketers surveyed are also utilizing Facebook ads to support their marketing needs. Interestingly, since the decline in organic reach began, 72 percent of marketers claim to use Facebook the same amount, if not more, than the previous year.
  2. Video will continue to grow. In fact, 30 percent of marketers plan to spend more time on Facebook video in 2017.
  3. Google+ will continue to decline. Twenty-seven percent of marketers feel they will invest less time in the platform in the coming year, followed closely by Twitter at 23 percent.
  4. We encourage reputation management, engagement and responding to messages in a timely manner on all platforms, so we found it particularly surprising that only one in five survey respondents currently use social media as a customer support platform. Consumers are increasingly turning to social media channels for support issues, so businesses can be ahead of the game by checking their profiles regularly for feedback and complaints.

You can view the complete report here. What platforms, if any, do you plan to add or eliminate from your marketing efforts in the upcoming year?