As if lightning-fast internet access, voice activated smart home technologies, and AI-run customer service weren’t enough, there are several technological developments going on these days that could transform marketing and social media as we know it.

To stay ahead of the curve, it’s important for marketers to not only be aware of these latest advancements but also be willing and able to implement these technologies into their marketing strategies. To give you an idea of what you can expect to explode in popularity within the next few years, here are the top 3 tech developments you should start looking into:

Virtual Reality

Virtual and augmented reality are already popular among gamers, but this tech is becoming more and more mainstream every year. From Facebook buying the VR developer Oculus to the latest immersive shopping experiences developed by Sixense, you might be surprised to learn just how popular VR already is among consumers.

Within the next few years, consumers might be able touch and try out holographic versions of products before deciding whether or not to buy – all from the comfort of their own homes. If your brand isn’t actively considering the possibility of implementing augmented reality and immersive, virtual shopping experiences into your marketing strategy, then now is the time to get onboard with the future of online shopping!

Voice Shopping

Thanks to smart devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, shopping with our voices has never been easier. We can already ask Alexa to re-order more dog food from Amazon or ask Google to find the lowest prices on gaming consoles in our local shopping area. How much further will this technology take us?

By some estimates, 50% of online shopping by 2020 will be conducted by voice. This is extremely valuable information for marketers who have not yet rewritten their product descriptions and blog posts to be optimized for voice search.

Since there doesn’t appear to be any slowdown in voice searches in the foreseeable future, it’s crucial that marketers optimize their content for voice searchers, which may include audible product descriptions for anyone searching without a screen in front of them.

Blockchain-Based Social Media Platforms

Do you know what blockchain is? Many social media startups are increasingly reliant on blockchain to support their websites.

In a nutshell, blockchain social media websites are also known as “decentralized social networks,” which refers to the fact that there’s no central database where all users’ information is stored. Instead, the information is highly protected and private because it’s spread out across an encrypted network (the blockchain). Websites such as Steemit, Minds and Mithril are good examples of early adopters of the blockchain technologies for social platforms.

On these websites, social mining – or content creation and engagement with other users – is key to earning money (in the form of cryptocurrency) and/or digital tokens that you can exchange for more views on your posts. This is the future of content marketing right here: publishing high-quality content that attracts a wide base of people upvoting, commenting and sharing that content, which can then earn you digital tokens to exchange for even more visibility among your target audience members.

When it comes to data analyses of posts with and without images, results appear to be mixed on whether or not an image truly increases engagement on social media. There are obviously multiple factors involved – the relevancy of your copy, the quantity and relevancy of your hashtags, timing of posts, etc. – but deciding whether or not to use an image in a promoted post is not as easy as some marketers might believe.

While some social media studies suggest the use of images isn’t always the best idea, a majority of studies lean in favor of using images in social media posts to increase engagement. Let’s unpack this further to see which route is the best path for your brand’s social strategy:

Twitter

Research conducted by Buffer on its Twitter account found that tweets with images performed 150% better in terms of retweets than tweets without images. The same study also found that tweets with images received 18x more clicks than tweets without images. Additional studies have found similar results, which suggests you should definitely use images in your tweets if you want to increase engagement.

Of course, it’s worth noting what works for Buffer and other marketing companies may not work for every other brand’s Twitter account. For best results, consider testing out different types of ads with the same copy to see for yourself if tweets with images drive up your follower engagement rates.

Facebook

Although research from Buffer and BuzzSumo suggest Facebook engagement rates are generally declining, posts with images are still more likely to get clicks and engagement in comparison to posts with just text. Posts with video also tend to perform significantly better than text-only posts, perhaps due to heightened user interest in viewing dynamic video content as opposed to plain text in a post.

Further research has confirmed that Facebook posts with images consistently outperform text-only ads, so the best way to prevent your followers and potential followers from scrolling past your content in their newsfeeds is by including a high-quality, relevant image in each of your posts.

Can Using an Image Decrease Engagement Rates?

Some of the few times an image might decrease your engagement rates on social media is when the image is low-quality resolution, completely irrelevant to what you’re describing in the text of the post, and/or the image is just…. boring. You can’t simply slap an image onto a post and expect stellar results; you need to carefully curate your images from high-quality photo databases if you want to maximize engagement!

You don’t need to be a graphic design extraordinaire to succeed in creating your own visual elements for social media, but there are nevertheless plenty of instances in which you might be making design mistakes without even realizing it. Worse still, these seemingly minor mistakes could be causing lower engagement rates with your ads or driving followers away from your social pages.

To make sure you aren’t distracting your followers with tacky images or poorly designed visual elements, here’s a nifty checklist to help you assess whether your visual marketing strategy needs a makeover:

Poor Color Choices

According to the marketing fundamentals color theory, consumers typically decide whether or not they like a product within 90 seconds, and 90% of those consumers typically base their decisions on the color. The same logic applies to social media images, visual advertising collateral, on-page elements like profile pictures and cover photos…and so on. If your images are more eyesores than they are eye-catching, then you may be inadvertently driving people away from your pages and ads.

Wrong Size Images

Unless you have a strong foundation in graphic design, you might not realize just how big of a difference image sizing can make in the appearance of photos and ad visuals on social media. If you use the wrong sized image for a profile photo or mobile ad, then you might be accidentally frustrating your followers and potential customers who expect high-quality images for everything they might spend time and money on. To make sure you’re using the appropriate sizing for every image you post to social media, this image sizing cheatsheet can help you cover your bases.

Unreadable Cover Photos

Speaking of image sizing: do you presently include text in your Facebook cover photo and/or Twitter banner? If so, then the text might not be as readable as you might imagine. Cover photos may appear differently on a desktop versus a mobile app. A common mistake some marketers make with their brand’s cover photos is pasting the full logo or text about a new promotional offer without testing to see whether page visitors will be able to view it properly. For best results, avoid using text in your cover photos as much as possible unless the image is specifically designed (and sized) for a cover photo.

Too Much Text Overlaying Images

Perhaps your profile pictures and cover photos are fine, but what about your actual posts? If there is text on 20% or more of an image included in your post, Facebook and Instagram’s ad managers will reject it. Even if the image is intended for organic engagement with followers, plastering too much text on your visual elements can be distracting and unpleasing to look at. For best results, keep your social images text-free and save your message for the actual text area of the post, not the image itself.

Blatantly Obvious Stock Photos

A final design mistake you should watch out for while working on your marketing collateral is using images that are so clearly stock photos that the people, animals, food, drinks and other elements don’t even look real. The goal for images – particularly on social media – is to capture your audience’s attention, and the best way to accomplish this is by incorporating high-quality, realistic photos into your visual toolbox.

People relate best to images when the people/places/things look similar to themselves and other things in their lives. Although it would be difficult for most brands to produce all of their own photography, it’s important to at least balance your occasional use of stock photos with realistic imagery that reflects your target audience’s personalities, wants, needs and lifestyles.

All too often, marketers overlook minor but nevertheless important segments of their target audience without even realizing it. For instance, if you sell informational products only in text form, how could someone who is blind access your information? In a similar sense, how can deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals access your video or podcast if you never publish audio transcripts or include subtitles?

According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are over 3.4 million Americans who are legally blind or significantly visually impaired (note: these figures only account for adults 40 years and older). Meanwhile the U.S. National Library of Medicine reports that over one million American adults are functionally deaf and an additional 10 million adults are classified as hard-of-hearing.

If your marketing strategy doesn’t account for individuals with visual or hearing disabilities, then you could be unintentionally excluding part of your target audience, not to mention alienating those individuals’ friends and family members who might’ve otherwise shared your content with each other. To make your content more accessible to individual with disabilities, here’s what you need to do:

Create Text and Audio Versions of All Content

If you primarily advertise your products/services with the help of podcasts and videos, then make sure each one is accompanied by a full text transcript and/or subtitles. On the flip side, if you only have written content on your brand’s blog, don’t forget to include text alternatives for images because screen readers are not yet advanced enough to describe visual imagery to their visually impaired users.

Here’s a good example of text alternatives for images: “purple bowl containing three scoops of chocolate ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry on top.” It’s important to be descriptive with your text alternative (not just “ice cream sundae”) and include relevant keywords without going overboard into keyword stuffing territory.

Follow the Accessible Social Media Guidelines

The American Foundation for the Blind published an excellent list of strategies for marketers and content producers to implement in their campaigns to create more accessible content for visually impaired audience members. This list includes:

• Making hashtags screen reader-friendly. (#CapitalizeEachIndividualWord, #dontdoitlikethis)
• Include verbal descriptions of actions going on in a video, inserted during pauses in which there is no dialogue.
• Include alternative texts in every social media post. Quirky captions that don’t describe the photo at all can be frustrating for visually impaired followers.

For more strategies to increase the accessibility of your social media and blog content for audience members with disabilities, be sure to follow the Golden Rules of Social Media Accessibility.

Representation Matters

A final way you can optimize your social content for people with disabilities is by representing them in your advertisements. For example, you may include images of people in wheelchairs or wearing hearing aids in your advertisements while explicitly mentioning how individuals with disabilities can benefit from your products/services on your website.

Every little action you take to make your brand more accessible to a wider variety of audience members truly matters. Unless you personally know someone who is hearing or visually impaired, it’s admittedly difficult to remember how much representation and accessibility matters.

Appropriate hashtag use is more of a skill than a guessing game. But all too often, marketers underestimate the importance of hashtags and simply slap a few relevant words onto their Instagram posts and hope for the best. If you’re marketing your business on Instagram, here are four hashtag strategies you’ll want to avoid:

1. Using Too Many Hashtags (or too few)

Using just one or two hashtags is woefully inadequate for brands trying to build their following on Instagram, but using 25-30 hashtags is also unpopular with users. Generally speaking, you’ll want to use more than 6 or 7 but fewer than 25. Better yet, be sure to separate your hashtags from the caption by inserting a few lines or several period points to push your hashtags out of the immediate caption area of your post. That’s what viewers see while scrolling through a feed before actually clicking on your post to read the remainder of the caption, where your hashtags will be hiding.

2. Repeating the Same Hashtags for Every Post

Perhaps you’re not using the maximum 30 hashtags but you’re still not getting the results you were hoping for with your Instagram campaigns. If that’s the case, then you might not be diversifying your hashtags enough. If you’re using the same bulk of hashtags for a majority of your posts, then you’re really limiting yourself to Instagrammers who search only for those specific hashtags. Instead, consider casting a wider net by incorporating at least 4-5 new hashtags into each post to help make sure you’re getting new eyeballs on your photos each time.

3. Not Creating Your Own Hashtag

Why settle for pre-made hashtags when you could get a leg up on your competitors by creating your own hashtags that audience members can use in their own posts? User-generated content campaigns are enormously valuable for brands because they give you access to free, word-of-mouth marketing. Instead of simply using your brand’s name as a hashtag, create unique and fun hashtags that will stand out and encourage other Instagram users to participate. This is particularly useful for running contests and giveaways on Instagram.

4. Forgetting Daily or Seasonal Events and Themes

There are tons of hashtags geared towards individual days of the week – #ThrowbackThursday (#tbt) or #WoofWednesday – as well as seasons and holidays. If you’re not creating specific marketing campaigns targeted to these different dates, then you could be missing out on valuable opportunities to score more viewers for your Instagram content. To avoid this mistake, be sure to research which daily hashtags are relevant to your brand and discover which seasonal or holiday-themed hashtags would be useful for adding more variety to your posts and building a greater following as a result of this diverse approach.