What’s upcoming for social media in the next year? We sat down with Brian Fanzo of iSocialFanz, to talk trends and to get his predictions for 2018!
2017 was the year of video. Really bad video, according to Brian Fanzo.
“That’s partially just because we didn’t know how this whole live streaming would work,” he explained. “Snapchat started this dynamic video storytelling concept and then once Instagram embraced it I think we all thought we could tell stories and we didn’t put much thought into them.”
Brian Fanzo is a public speaker and founder of iSocialFanz LLC, a social strategy consulting agency. He talks fast and tweets faster and has powered storytelling campaigns for many Fortune 50 enterprise companies leveraging Periscope, Snapchat, and Facebook Live.
“We spent 2017 realizing, yes this exists, yes we can all do it, the power in it is everyone can do it. The reason it’s not great is because everyone can do it,” he said.
But all that’s about to change in 2018. Video is large and in charge, but it’s about to get better.
“One of the trends we will probably talk about going into 2018, is now that we know video is here (video is one of the most powerful ways to shrink the distance between online and offline conversations), what does that mean in our business?” Fanzo said. “How do we start using this, not only strategically, but let’s do it to not waste people’s time.”
In 2017, we hit a bubble, Fanzo pointed out. We had previously used social media as a means to distance ourselves from people. Now, we’re using it to actually build relationships. And consumers can see this and are proving that it matters. “Brand loyalty will be at its highest next year,” Fanzo said. “It’s because we’re going to stop focusing on 100,000 followers and start focusing on 100 great followers.”
Video is a great tool for that. It’s exposing those who have been selling rainbows and unicorns, Fanzo said. They are getting scared of new trends, including live video. And that’s because it allows people to showcase the good; good products, great employees, they are standing out now thanks to social media.
“Video is going to strengthen a lot of other places,” Fanzo said. “Probably one of the weirdest to say is more podcasts. I wouldn’t even say it’s a resurgence, but people remember that podcasting is powerful and I think podcasting will be even more powerful in 2018.”
Video is important for brands and businesses to get into now, according to Fanzo, especially if they wish to have a foot in the door for augmented and virtual reality, which are quickly becoming more mainstream. While VR for the masses may still be a couple years away, video is the gateway. “It’s disrupting email marketing, it’s disrupting a lot of stuff, and I think it’s a good disruption,” he said.
Fanzo said he is excited to see this merging of 2017 and 2018 in regards to video. In the last year, everyone has started created video content. But, in the next year, we will begin to see some real strategy behind content creation. “Let’s connect our video strategy to our email marketing, to our SEO plan, to all of these things,” Fanzo said. “We neglected that in 2017.”
This will go hand in hand with growing brand loyalty, Fanzo says. While social media will never replace a handshake, it can be the key to growing how many people you shake hands with. Furthermore, it can turn handshakes into hugs, and turn ambivalent customers into dedicated brand followers.
“I want you to treat every digital interaction as if I’m coming into your place of business,” Fanzo said. “If you want the loyalty that you gain by me coming in, start treating me that way when I’m on your website.”
Virtual reality and augmented reality
In the last year, we’ve begun to see some major changes in the ways people are interacting online and through apps in their day to day lives. Once such way is how location-based apps are enhancing how people meet up with people, and it could be a predictor of how augmented reality will begin to creep into our everyday lives.
For instance, Snapchat has added a feature called Snap Map where you can see your friend’s real-time location. Facebook allows you to know when friends are in the same venue.
Looking ahead, people are going to become more aware of augmented and virtual reality, said Fanzo. The hardware may take a little more time to catch up, but by 2019 AR will be a part of our daily lives.
“Focus your business on where your customers are today, kind of where video is, but make sure you’re planning and setting your foot for where they will be tomorrow, which will be AR, VR, and artificial intelligence,” Fanzo explained.
Prefer to watch video over reading? We sat down with Brian during our live episode of #MagnetMarketers for #TrainingTuesday. Watch here!
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