A Review of Communication Trends in 2017 and What to Expect in 2018

We reviewed many industry leading sources to identify key developments in 2017 and look at predictions affecting the communications and marketing industry in the coming year. Here is what we found.

Fake News

• There was a huge surge of fake news and disinformation campaigns in 2017. There was a reported 365% increase in the word’s usage since 2016 and the Collins Dictionary appointed ‘fake news’ as its Word of the Year.
• Fake news is not going away anytime soon and experts warn that fake news and disinformation could get worse in 2018.
• In 2017, it was realized that social media does not do a good job in separating fact from fiction compared to the traditional media. This could mean an onus for the traditional media to debunk disinformation and restore public trust going forward.
• Some readers have already shown signs of news fatigue in 2017; this could grow next year.
• Expect more media literacy initiatives to come in 2018. This will link people with teaching experience to: a) experts on the current information environment, and b) people that most closely model target competencies such as fact checkers.
• It is widely predicted that 2018 might see the development of a large-scale automated response to online misinformation. A number of developers across the globe have already begun looking at the possibilities of acquiring such technologies which probably will impact news consumption habits.
• In 2018, it is expected that consumers will be given more tools to customize their news feeds. Users will be able to subscribe to filters and trusted curators which overlay onto the standard feed-filtering algorithms.

Social Media

• Organic reach is steadily declining and brands must face this reality by building sustainable content strategies. This means a pivot to paid advertising as well as influencer and/or advocacy strategies, if this hasn’t happened already.
• Organizations have struggled in the past with proving ROI. According to a Hootsuite survey, that is now in the past as the company predicts a revolution of social ROI measurement in 2018. In the survey, 56% of respondents said that not being able to prove a return on investment makes it difficult for them to be successful on social media.
• According to Cisco, 86% of all web traffic will be claimed by video by 2019. In 2017, 90% of all content shared by users on social media was video. The biggest challenge now is how to capture an audience’s attention in the first 3 seconds. As more consumers watch videos on mobile devices, social networks will therefore offer new opportunities to augment traditional TV and create new forms of entertainment as well as news programming.
• Trust in traditional figures of authority continue to decline while peer influencers gain in importance. Real customer communities, micro influencers and ‘people like me’ will take center stage and influencer marketing will continue to grow in 2018.
• About 38% of enterprise organizations used AI in 2017 and this will increase to 62% in 2018. Brands need to make sure artificial intelligence strategies stay focused on the being human and remain helpful & relevant at scale.
• According to Brandwatch, 96% of online conversations are unbranded. Social data can help marketing gain new influence and recognition in the enterprise, even though there’s still more to be achieved.
• Ephemeral content will provide the best engagement rate. Brands are now creating content for their social channels as well as having a separate strategy for their ephemeral content marketing. Because story content is lost within hours, ephemeral content makes your followers take fast action and marketers gain from this.
• There will be a rise of augmented reality in 2018. The use of augmented reality on mobile devices provides a niche and is an engaging way for marketers to reach their target audience; it’s quick, easy and very interactive.
• Chatbots will make customer service faster. According to Gartner, 20% of business content could be machine-generated by 2018. If machines can be taught to create stories that are genuine and relatable, the advertising and marketing potential is worth investigating. The quickest adaptors to chatbots are currently millennials, with nearly 60% having already used chatbots and 71% saying they would like to try a chatbot experience from a major brand.
• You cannot deny that users trust each other more than any influencer or marketing campaign and UGC (user-generated content) is an authentic marketing venture. According to one study, 83% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know and 66% trust other consumer opinions posted online. Those are substantially higher numbers than the 46% of consumers who trust ads on social networks
• A recent comScore report shows that mobile now represents almost seven in 10 digital media minutes, with smartphone applications alone accounting for one-half of all time spent engaging with digital media. With more and more users indulging every passing minute on social media with their smartphones, the content available on websites and social media in 2018 should also be highly mobile friendly.
• In 2018, mobile video consumption is expected to grow by 25%, so get ahead of the competition by planning a mobile video strategy that includes live video. It offers a way to connect with your audience on a more intimate level because live video allows them to interact with your business in real-time. This creates seamless trust and loyalty between brand and consumer.
• If we take into consideration that more than 2.5 billion people globally use messaging apps, it’s easy to conclude they deserve their own status as a separate type of social media. Most companies still stick to connecting with consumers through posts they publish, but we can expect brands to invest more time and money to interact with consumers via messaging apps.
• In 2017, voice searches accounted for 20% of searches on mobile. Experts project that this will increase to 50% of searches by 2020. It is therefore advisable to include voice search in your strategy.
• Most studies are predicting businesses to focus more on Generation Z in 2018. Brands will begin to recognize this and will shift their social media strategies accordingly. This means investment directed to platforms loved by generation Zers like Instagram and Snapchat.
• Facebook Spaces will go mainstream in 2018. Facebook isn’t just interested in live video streaming; they’ve been working on a project called Spaces that is designed to allow friends to connect in VR. Facebook is poised to scale Spaces in 2018 and it could become the first successful VR social media product at scale.

Branding and Marketing

• You should create data driven marketing strategies. With about 59% of decision making executives relying on human judgment, it is time that companies adopt insight driven judgment drawn from consumer data.
• Own your brand’s customer experience since it will be the primary differentiator for brands next year. Be intentional with the message your marketing activities are giving your customers and use your marketing assets to influence the emotions your customers experience.
• React faster to opportunities with real time marketing. “Consumers now want brands to respond in seconds… this is the reality of real-time-marketing,” argues Tim Hughes, Co-Founder of Digital Leadership Associates.
• Seek to improve your marketing RoI going forward. A business can go about that by simply using social data to target the ideal audience, taking time in planning the process of activities, and utilizing the right influencers at the right time.
• Even though virtual reality is still in its early stages, it is expected to trend for brands in 2018. One major advantage for customers is that they can try out products in a virtual marketplace, thereby decreasing the number of refunds made each year. Furthermore, virtual reality is convenient and inexpensive to use.

Retail

• “Chore” shopping will become easier, but the demand for cherished retail experiences will be stronger than ever. Players like Amazon and subscription businesses will make this part of retail easier through offerings such as auto-renewals, one-tap purchases, and same-day delivery.
• Chat and voice will change the way we interact with products and retailers. We could easily say that 2017 was the year of the voice interface. Alexa and Google Home saw amazing growth over the year, with the Amazon Echo selling over 15 million units. Voice as a platform has the potential to change how we interact with our everyday items and also change the way we shop.
• Expect the implosion of crypto currencies in 2018. In the crypto world, Bitcoin reigns supreme, rising to over $12 thousand this past month. While there is no doubt that this asset class is not a fad and is growing more relevant every day, it could also be just another bubble about to burst.
• Personalization will still be a key retail trend in 2018 and beyond. Personalization that enables shoppers to build products and customize them to the very last detail increase customer satisfaction and also makes shopping a lot more exciting.
• Retailers will increasingly rely on robots come 2018. As more consumers embrace instant messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, expect retailers to use these platforms to talk to customers and streamline communications.
• Augmented Reality (AR) has been around for quite some time now, but expect it to get even more sophisticated in 2018. Shortly after iOS 11 was released, IKEA Place, an app that leverages Apple’s AR kit, hit the App Store. Expect more apps like IKEA Place to grow in popularity as AR technology matures.