Social media marketing trends change quickly. As a business owner, it’s important to stay on top of the best marketing practices for your business. As challenging as it can be, using social media can truly help you boost your business.

From using live video to Instagram stories, there are many new features and some that we’re even waiting to see in 2018. To help you discover what’s best to try for your business, here are the social media trends you should know.

Social media is a great way to generate new leads, but a lead generation service can help you find even more. Call us today at 866-456-6977 to start receiving leads from homeowners in your area.

Why Use Social Media

If you’re not already using social media for your business, you’re missing out on leads in your area. Social media presents an opportunity for you to meet and connect with potential customers who are in need of your services.

If you already have your business on social media, that’s great! Make a new year’s resolution to make it even better. In 2017, we saw more businesses take advantage of live videos and find new ways to have conversations with customers. Here’s what’s trending in 2018:

• Video Creation
• Instagram & Facebook Stories
• Influencer Marketing
• Facebook Chat
• Live Video
• Shoppable Posts

1. Video Creation

At the top of the list, video creation is key. According to Forbes, 80% of video traffic will be all consumer internet traffic in four years. So if you haven’t started creating videos yet, you may be falling behind.

Consider creating videos talking about a few tips for homeowners related to your trade. Or, maybe some testimonial videos from happy customers.

2. Instagram & Facebook Stories

If you use Facebook and Instagram, it’s likely you’ve seen the “stories” feature. At the top of your feed sits a row of people you follow who are posting photos, videos and announcements that disappear after 24 hours. These little snapshots are meant to give viewers a further glimpse into daily life, beyond just a photo. According to Tech Crunch, Instagram stories has more daily use than their competitor Snapchat.

Stories is a great tool for small business owners to use to tell the story of their business. Use them to show clips of your day or special promotions. It will give your customers and potential customers a behind the scenes look of your business and make them feel more connected to you.

3. Influencer Marketing

A hot topic among social media marketers in 2018 is influencers. These are people or businesses that work with another business or service to promote them through their network. You’ve likely seen this before with high-profile celebrities, but you can use this as a tool to help move your business forward.

As customers turn to focus their spending and support on locally-owned businesses, you may want to consider collaborating with businesses in your area. Maybe do an exchange of services or simply offer to help promote their business on social media, in hopes they will do the same in return. Influencer marketing doesn’t have to be high profile; it just has to be effective within your customer base.

4. Social Media Messaging

You may not have considered messaging as a part of your social media strategy, but you might want to in 2018. According to Social Media Today, 1.3 billion users are active on Facebook Messenger with 2 billion messages being exchanged with businesses in a single month. This is a direct connection with potential customers that you don’t want to miss out on.

In your social media posts, encourage your users to direct message you with any questions or if they are interested in an estimate. This is a way to start instantly connecting with a potential lead!

5. Live Video

While video is a must, creating live videos is fairly new but becoming more common for those who want to boost their business. This can be done through both Instagram and Facebook. According to LiveStream, 80% of people would rather watch a live video than read a blog from a business. The amount of people engaging with live video is only expected to grow.

For small business owners and contractors, it can be hard to decide what the best way is to use live video for your business. Before even determining what you will film, determine when you will film by looking at your analytics. Next, see what resonates most with your audience. Maybe a live Q&A where people can tune in and ask questions about their homes. Or, maybe a live tutorial specific to your trade. Keep in mind, Facebook live videos can stick around on your page while Instagram live videos will disappear.

6. Shoppable Posts

A newer feature slowly being released to businesses on Instagram is shoppable posts. Through setting up a “shop” on Facebook, you can add a button to your Instagram post showing the price of an item in the photo. It takes a bit of time to set up, but it can help connect users to a website or other feature.

Shoppable posts can be trickier for contractors to use, but it might come in handy if you want to try an average cost estimate of a job or promoting specific products.

Conclusion

It’s likely we’ll see many new social media features appear as the new year begins. See what you can use to better boost your business on social media and measure what works the best.