The importance of content can never be undermined by any marketing tool, be it a search engine or social media. Everybody requires top-of-the-line content to meet their exact requirements, most of which are related to user experience. It doesn’t matter what technology or which platform you use to put forth your message if your message itself is unclear. User engagement is directly proportional to the type of content you publish. Above all, it should be human enough to drive engagement. Users should feel connected to the message, all the more if it is on a social media network.

You may have come across content that has gone viral on social media. What all of the viral content has in common is the human element. People should be able to relate themselves and their problems with your content. Only then will they share, like or comment. You can even drive your sales with the right social media marketing tactics. However, content will serve as the backbone of any such plan.
Let us now shed some light on the social media content marketing trends that have been popular this year and how they will find their way into 2018:

The Trend of Ephemeral Content

First, Snapchat created the Story, where you can post any picture, status or video to describe a particular moment in your life. The story will not be there forever; it will be automatically deleted after some time. This ephemeral content concept was then taken up by Facebook, and Instagram popularized it further. Today, there are about 250 million daily users of Instagram Stories, more than that of Snapchat, which is at 166 million daily users. This trend is going to continue rampantly in 2018, with more and more social media platforms taking up ephemeral content as their user-engagement tool.

Popularizing User-Generated Content

Consumers trust consumers more than anyone else. This is why they feel a sense of attachment to user-generated content on social media. Gone are those days when a few reviews and testimonials did the tricks and you had your sales booming. Today, people have more faith in real-time content generated by real consumers of any product or service. Therefore, social media marketers work really hard to gather authentic reviews and content (e.g., images and videos) from consumers to invoke trust and loyalty. This trend will continue to flourish in 2018, so it is better to be prepared in advance and make the most of it.

Hiring More Talented Content Developers

Social media marketing experts understand the value of eligible content developers. Specialists have proved to be indispensable to any marketing department. Cross-promotion of content has become almost obsolete, rendering all repetition of content on different social media platforms invalid. This trend will continue to grow in 2018, with more and more companies investing in expert content developers.

Developing Mobile-Ready Content

Almost half of the internet population has turned to mobile devices. Be it shopping, browsing the web, or reading or watching content, most people prefer their mobile phones over desktops. That is the reason content marketers have developed strategies that encourage the creation of mobile-ready content for easy engagement. The year 2018 will witness a rise in this trend, with more mobile-ready content developed to enhance chances of going viral.

Video Content Marketing

The last two years have been crazy with social media videos that drove user-engagement. Video content marketing will reach its apex in 2018, with more and more marketers developing content that can be represented through video. Thus, video content will become more popular in the coming year.
Some other social media trends will follow suit soon. It is advisable for any marketer to keep track of all these trends to ensure a seamless content experience for users. As the digital industry is evolving with each passing moment, you should have the tools ready to leverage its unending power to drive sales and improve the conversion scenario.