1. Micro-influencers Influencers are a great way to advertise your brand. Statistics show that a recommendation from an influencer carries a lot more weight with consumers than a regular advertisement and 95% of marketers who use influencers in their marketing strategy believe it’s effective, but are consumers becoming wary of them? Rather than utilizing influencers with millions of followers, expect marketers to spend more money on “micro-influencers”, that is, influencers who have a following of 1,000-100,000 people. The data shows that they are around 4 times more likely to get a comment on a post than someone who has 10 million followers, and as well as having more consumer trust they are often focused on a niche topic enabling marketers to target a specific audience. 2. Transparency & Authenticity Younger generations are becoming a lot better at identifying marketing tricks used by advertisers and they’re generally a lot more cynical than their parents about advertising, but they’re not the only generation unconvinced by “cause marketing”. As brands try to attach themselves to charitable or political causes, consumers are becoming more cynical about the reasons behind it. This means that marketers are going to have to be a lot more authentic in their messaging, and only attach themselves to causes and charities that are actually relevant to their business or have been a part of the business since it’s inception. 3. Live Video Statistics show that live videos get a lot more views and engagement than pre recorded ones, but not many marketers are utilizing this in their social media feeds. According to Facebook research people spend around 3x more time watching a Facebook live video than they would one that was uploaded normally, and are 10x more likely to comment on a live video. With this kind of reach expect to see more marketers utilizing this feature across all social media platforms. 4.Instagram Takeover Instagram is constantly growing, and with an estimated 800 million monthly users it has become one of the most important tools a marketer has. Incorporating “Stories” into the platform has been a massive success for the company, with an estimated 250 million people using the feature daily, compared to Snapchat’s 166 million daily users. Combine the massive numbers with Instagram’s high engagement rate, you can expect to see marketers focusing on Instagram to market their products, rather than Facebook or Twitter.