Blogging Trends to Watch For in 2018
One trend we all need to remember for 2018 is Fake me Not!!
The more you fake, the less you make. Be it whatever! In the last few years, there has been a lot of content, fake and real. Don’t pretend that you are big if you are not because your followers can spot the difference. If your engagement is not in proportion to the quality of your content or if your content subject is not in line with who you are as a person, then probably you are faking it. As a result, your followers and subscribers will lose interest and walk away.
Think of why do you blog or the reason that prompted you to initiated the blog, most probably because you love the experience, and you are not afraid of sharing your real stories, however good or bad. Who says that the reader only wants to read about a good experience, they are equally or perhaps more interested in knowing about your bad experience with a product, so that they can avoid it.
The different aspects of this blogging trend can be summarised in many different ways and here are a few I wanted to share.
Creativity in Storytelling
Video Blogging, Live streaming, Creativity in Images and Graphic, these are all different ways of storytelling and these trends will evolve even further. You need to dive deep into the ocean of creativity and work your magic from there. Today’s audience is more informed than ever, and they want to get more for every second spent on your page. Show them what you are doing in real time, i.e. give them a video they can fall in love with or a graphic they can bookmark and save.
True Engagement will Matter More
We can all see and analyse audience reaction and engagement on posts, over last few years and most people can now tell the difference between real engagement vs Fake one. Especially, brands can see the quality of engagement before approaching you. So don’t build a castle of fake bricks, it won’t last. We will see a growing trend towards Real content and authentic experience, not staged. Even if it is sponsored, don’t force it.
Less will be More
Internet is exploding with content, there are millions of articles posted daily and you can’t beat it by posting more. No, there is no point in adding clutter. The trend is moving towards Quality. It’s the quality that will win. Give less, but enjoy the experience and the journey through it. Write a little or less often, post a less if you need to, but enjoy doing it. Do not dilute your content by doing three posts, when you only have the energy for one.
Lengthy Articles
Google is a reality of life, and as much as we deny the fact we do need our blogs to attract organic ranking and search engine traffic. Long, informative posts are capable of generating more traffic and higher rankings as compared to the shorter write-ups. It can be challenging, but why not try a few short write-ups and weave them together to create a compelling, long-length read for your audience. My best guess is, it’s not easy to write 2000 words if you are not enjoying it. As a result, you will see less content hitting the shores which is not a bad thing, it will be well thought and have quality. So indirectly only real storytellers will survive!!
Design Makeover
Time is of the essence, and your audience wants to get straight to what they are looking for. Better website layout will win, create a cleaner feel and appeal to draw attention to the point of interest. Where do you position your images, graphics and videos, how is the user’s experience of navigating through them, will decide if they enjoyed the experience of using your blog page or not.
As the number of blog readers and bloggers across the globe is going up phenomenally, blogging is here to stay. Bloggers, however, have to make sure that they have the right content available at the right time for their target audience.
