It is the new year! And with the new year comes new trends in online marketing.

Most online marketing websites would suggest optimizing your social media accounts. And why not? Every platform is now a big thing in online marketing.

Instagram has grown and has become one of the most influential platforms to many users especially to generations X and Z.

Facebook is still in since most mobile users are on Facebook.

While Twitter has set a decline, LinkedIn is skyrocketing lately.

With this info in mind, what should you do for your online marketing efforts this 2018? Brace yourself for the new year and map out your social media marketing plan with these tips in mind.

The rise of Instagram stories.

We’ve mentioned this in one of our previous posts that Instagram stories are becoming more popular these days – and so it will continue to rise in popularity this 2018.

With more than 200 million Instagram users to date, companies would love to reach out to most of them to get their message across and bring their brands to the pedestal.

That’s why it’s important to learn more and study on how you can invest on Instagram stories to boost your business.

Invest in influencers.

Just like the rise of Instagram stories, social media influencers – especially on IG – would continue to be effective for companies.

Since word-of-mouth is still one of the most effective marketing strategies, and everything is now done online, influencers can be your online “word-of-mouth”.

(Read: Become an Influencer with Rocket Social)

Invest in influencers who can stand for your brand. Look at how many followers they have and if their followers would be interested in your products or services.

If you have enough budget, you can go for known influencers (like celebrities) to represent your brand.

(Also read: Why Fashion Brands Are Investing On Instagram)

Nowadays, people follow people – not much of brands. So if they follow your influencers, these people are like following your brand as well.

Go for videos.

Gone were the days when companies question the power of videos because devices and internet bandwidth can’t handle heavy content yet.

But now, online platforms – especially social media – have optimized to make videos more accessible. The file size is much lesser but not the quality. This, then, gives anybody more opportunity to post videos online.

Publish how-to videos, tips, and other interesting stuff about your brand and product. Let loose sometimes and show how your everyday grind in the office looks like.

After all, creating and uploading a video has made easy through mobile phones. No need for fancy set-ups and big production budgets.

(Read: How to Create a Successful Online Video Marketing Campaign)

Personalized content is in.

We mentioned this on our previous blog, Online Marketing Resolutions for 2018, to do less automation and more personalization.

Make your target feel like they are important to you by taking time to create content made especially for them.

If this seems too tasking, behavioral AI can help you with detecting a potential market’s recent search on your online shop, or on what their interests are. Then, you can tailor your content to that.

Doing more mobile marketing.

Mobile is definitely in for the past few years now. Every business is switching to either having a mobile app or making their websites mobile-friendly.

To your users, their mobile phones are now more accessible than any mode of communication. Makes sure that your websites are easily accessed on a mobile browser. If you have an online store, make sure you’ve enabled mobile payments. Make it easier for an individual to do all things in your business – products or services – in just one tap.