We cannot assume that target audiences are interested in the same topic as they were a month ago. Dynamic personalization will focus on three areas: being timely, relevant, and engaging. Not so long ago, brands were still debating how much effort, time, and financial investment they should put into social media marketing; today, marketers acknowledge that social media is unavoidable, if not central to any digital marketing strategy. Social media marketing has matured, and the conversation here has changed. The discussions are no longer about value, but about maximizing the results of social media marketing and finding a path to success in an environment where the demand for ad space has increased, capturing the attention of the target audience. Today, the degree of content consumption holds an unrivaled position, and social media is advancing to a central stage here. Hosting more than a third of the world's population, social media means mass communication marketing. However, if brands want to get ahead in talking to their target audiences, they must be ready to open their wallets. Accelerated advertising costs, which will increase the trend towards Social Media Optimization (SMO) next year, rose by 35 percent in Facebook alone last quarter.
Interest in SMO is growing
The trend in SMO has grown much more, just as search engine optimization (SEO) took over the marketing agenda a few years ago. At one point, marketers focused all their efforts on getting their websites to appear on the first page of search results, but they realized they had to pay to continue playing this game. Today, the rapid shift from organic search to paid social search has increased interest in SMO, and this trend is reaching its peak. Instead of competing to be at the top of search results right now, we are competing to get into the target audience's News Feed. SMO actually reflects SEO. Both are multi-step processes and allow marketers to leverage machine learning to get more out of the same budget. The SMO process begins with collecting target audience insights from social media channels and creating content that resonates with users. AI suggestions are required to eliminate assumptions when publishing and promoting content. Results are valuable if measured in a competitive context as true proof of social success, both vertically and by region. Marketers who fall behind the trend in 2018 and stick to traditional social media marketing methods will find their revenues decreasing and their competitive advantage disappearing. The increasing trend is not that surprising. Demand for audience attention is higher than ever, which is driving up advertising prices and leaving room in the News Feed only for high performers. There is very little room for error, and SMO is the cure for the stress of marketers who are under pressure to succeed and will show their contribution to their business. As we enter 2018, SMO is inevitable to be a key investment for brands worldwide. Marketers know that trends rarely come alone. While SMO brings marketing agendas to the forefront in meeting rooms, it actually feeds on the primary trends such as taking shortcuts, accelerating growth, reaching the target audience, and achieving business results faster.
Automation will take over indispensable parts of social media
Using machine learning to make strategic investments has solved the problem of achieving results based on assumptions day by day for many marketers. The advancements provided by AI have made it easier for marketers to discover which content truly captures the interest of the target audience. AI has helped them achieve greater value return from their social media investments with efficiency. We should see automation taking over indispensable parts of social media next year, especially in audience segmentation and creating the right target audience identity for brands. As we enter 2018, we predict that we will see innovations in real-time AI-driven personalization on social media. This is a dynamic element of personalization and an integral part of marketing to customers. We cannot assume that target audiences are interested in the same topic as they were a month ago. Dynamic personalization will focus on three areas: being timely, relevant, and engaging. Social media has monopolized our time. Users are increasingly dedicating their free time to mobile devices and messaging every year. A study commissioned by Facebook to Nielsen found that 63 percent said they message businesses more than they did two years ago. This means that the 1.3 billion strong Facebook Messenger platform is becoming more differentiated in reaching audiences on the go, but brands will be asked to rethink their content to make the most of Messenger.
Attention to the rise of automation in influencer marketing
Let others amplify the impact of your message when it's hard to be heard. This is advice many marketers should consider if they want to cut through the noise in an oversaturated News Feed and reduce rising advertising costs. Some brands have successfully used the influencer marketing trend. Sponsored content on celebrity pages has 14 times more engagement on Facebook than unpaid content posted directly to brand timelines. While the added value is impossible to ignore, the significant move we will see in 2018 will not be the upward trend in influencer marketing, but in the automation of how brands find influencers and how they run their campaigns. When audience segmentation with machine learning, audience interests, the language influencers speak, and the insights gained from this are brought together, this will open doors for brands to join conversations they haven't had before.
The social media marketing discipline has now emerged from its infancy, and there is a seriousness among marketers we haven't seen before. The strategies brands are building on social media today are much more comprehensive than what we saw a few years ago. This is a time when brands need to rethink how they approach social media marketing, and if they want to scale to remain competitive, there is only one direction to follow: Optimize social media marketing, make it smarter with AI-driven decisions, keep costs at predictable levels, and make social media investment returns feasible. Achieving this will help many marketers on their everyday tasks by quickly and securely answering the critical questions they should be asking themselves: Who, what, when, where, how, and why? SOURCE:
http://digitalage.com.tr/sosyal-medya-optimizasyonu-cagina-giriyoruz-2018den-neler-beklemeliyiz/ 
