4 Biggest Social Media Trends of 2017

2017 was a big year for social media; what was once predictable is being shaken up with new algorithms and trends that are growing every day. Now that we’re nearly 2 weeks (2 weeks?!) into 2018, we thought it would be a good time to reflect on what the biggest social media trends of 2017 were, as these will be the trends that continue to grow into this year and we feel all marketers should know about them! A quick statistic before we jump in… the total social network ad spending in 2016 was a massive $32.97 billion (YES – BILLION!) according to The Social Network Ad Revenue Share Worldwide by Company, 2016. So, what were these massive trends we need to keep our eye on this year?

Facebook Is Becoming Mobile

We don’t quite mean that Facebook is on the move, but what we do mean is that Facebook have concentrated their efforts on transitioning from desktop to mobile, and this transition is almost complete! In fact, eMarketer predicted that 59.4% of US Facebook users will only use their mobile phones to access the Facebook app. Mobiles are dominating the social media world now, so whilst mobile ad spending continues to increase, Facebook will continue to profit. So, what does this mean for you? Ensure that you are keeping on top of your paid mobile ads on Facebook, if not now, perhaps later this year as the trend grows. After all, eMarketer suggested that the amount of media ad spending for mobile will rise from 24% of total spending to a massive 37% by 2021.

Social Media Has A Huge Market

The audience on social media isn’t just millennials – people who were brought up with social media in their teens are growing, and eMarketer has predicted that by 2020 (which sounds ages away but is only in 2 years…) 54.1% of social network users will be at least 35 years old. So you cannot be aiming for the young millennials as the older demographics are now taking charge! However, this is only true for Facebook; Instagram and Snapchat still have a young audience as 69% and 82% respectively of users are under 35. These platforms are only getting older, however, so ensure that your ads are catering for that.

Next week we’ll reveal the final two social media trends that dominated last year.