Recently, I attended a conference dedicated to Social Media. A whole week of experts talking about the latest trends, the best strategies and sharing their experience as Social Media professionals. I learned a lot and taught people a few things too, so I thought I’d share my big take-aways with you. (Rhyming was not intentional!)

Overall Trends in Social Media

Facebook is still King. With almost 2B monthly active users on Facebook, it has the volume and that is where businesses are spending their dollars. As one advertiser put it “I put my money where the eyeballs are. That’s Facebook.”

But there are some not-so-new kids it town gaining more and more traction. See: Instagram and Snapchat. Instagram has 600 million active monthly users and is growing fast. Since advertising for Instagram is now integrated with Facebook, it makes it that much easier for businesses to expand their audience with similar messaging. Not to be deterred, Snapchat is holding it’s own with 150 million people using it every day. With new Snapchat advertising, brands are clamoring to be the first ads in their industry on Snapchat. With Snapchat Discover ads, Sponsored GeoFilters or Sponsored Lenses, there is a Snapchat ad for every business. However, the upfront investment for making Snapchat ads is substantially bigger then with Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Not surprisingly, the statistics on Twitter do not look so good. With relatively flat growth on users, Twitter was the platform most experts see on the decline.

Messenger Advertising

Social Media users are looking for personal service and connection from businesses that advertise in their social media feeds. With the introduction of Facebook’s messenger ads, businesses can create a personal conversation with a potential customer right inside Facebook. With a messenger ad, the user clicks to connect with your business on Messenger through the ad, creating a conversation or delivering a promotion straight to their messenger app.

Downside to Messenger Advertising? You need a person dedicated to handling those messages with a very quick reply time or you need to invest in a “ChatBot”, which can handle them automatically.

Live Video

Although streaming Live is not new to Social Media, businesses are getting into it in a big way now. Hosting weekly “shows”, Live Streaming Philanthropy events and using it to recognize stellar employees, businesses are using streaming to tell a story about their business, not just advertise. This new trend is resonating with users who want to connect online and spend their money with companies they feel a personal connection with.

So, there you have it, straight from Social Media Week 2017. Have you upgraded your Social Media strategy lately?