Last year, the social media industry presented consumer preferences, new features and fabulous brand opportunities. Few who knew about the changes beforehand were able to better capitalize on them while others missed out.

Do you know the trends that will be dominating the world of social media in 2018? To stand apart from your competition, take a look below to know the trends that you need to incorporate in your existing social media campaign.

# Chatbots with a Personal Touch

Social media sites present themselves as a terrific platform for advertising products or services. Now, when you do that, you will also have to entertain incoming messages on your social media account. These incoming messages need to be answered because otherwise you can lose potential customers! As an alternative to responding manually, personalized chatbots are now available to answer queries and enhance consumer engagement. Over 100,000 chatbots are used by Facebook alone to gather information.

# Short Videos

The trend today is not just to post images or pictures related to your products or services. Modern consumers look towards connecting with a brand on a more personal level and this is why, short videos are growing in popularity and so is live streaming. To compete with Snapchat, Instagram has already rolled out Stories and Facebook isn’t too far behind with its Facebook Live and also stories. Sit with your marketing team to come up with interested ideas for stories and videos.

# Augmented Reality

This is definitely not the first time that you must have heard about Augmented Reality. AR has been a part of social media trends since 2016, but industry stalwarts are of the opinion that 2018 is the year when it will really take off. 5 years ago, Google had introduced a pair of glasses that promised to bring AR to the mainstream. Today, several companies are competing to enter the AR sector, such as Facebook and Snap. For AR, one of the best applications will be social media.

# Gamification will become a reality

Interacting with each other is what users love, but they also yearn for game-like experiences. Over the past couple of years, several companies have already generated a lot of revenue from immersive gaming experiences and micro-transactions. This has resulted in apps being developed to cohesively integrate gaming and social media for an enriching experience.

# Accelerated Ad Growth

During the early days of development, the primary concern of social media platforms was to build a strong user base. Now that they have established that, their focus has shifted on gaining revenue. More advertising will be the slogan for social media sites in 2018. They will be simplifying the process of advertising by which entrepreneurs to established businesses can gain.

The above-mentioned social media trends may not completely change how consumers and brands use social media, but they will definitely make 2018 an interesting year. You must make sure that your social media campaign is up-to-the-minute so that you do not lose out on any opportunity to grow your business to the next level.