The Week in Social: Trend Reports, Blockchain Messenger, and Alexa Skills

Trending trends that are trending

Who do you like for your 2018 market predictions? Ogilvy? Contagious? Forrester? Sparks & Honey? With so many prognosticators to choose from, what’s really needed is a trend-report-report. Thankfully, Matt Klein has done the dirty work, distilling the top 12 most-read trend reports for you. Matt provides the 20 most overlapping and talked about predictions for 2018.

What took the top three spots? Society will demand clarity and transparency from industry. Meditation and mindfulness will become vogue as we cut through the clutter of digital chaos. Widespread inclusivity; all races, creeds, and capabilities will be invited to the table.

Read more on Medium

BeeChat – the blockchain messenger

Your 2018 New Year’s resolution should be to get serious about Blockchain. To do so, you’ll also need to resolve to learn what Blockchain is. BeeChat is a messenger app that focuses on Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies. While the app launched in October, its had tremendous traction since. Today, the app boasts more than 100 Key Opinion Leaders on the platform, 10 digital currencies, and millions of users across the globe. The app site states their intention to educate the public about the benefits of blockchain.

Read more at BusinessWire

Facebook AR Studio

Developers creating camera effects with Facebook’s toolkit are about to get a holiday gift. AR Studio is being released as a public beta. The toolkit enables familiar “selfie” effects. However, it can also be used to create 3D objects to placed onto surfaces and spaces. Marketers and developers will be racing to see who can utilize the tech effectively and relevantly in the new year.

Read more at Facebook Developers

Alexa Skills in Content Marketing

While we’re looking at the future, let’s also note some feats from last year. Alexa Skills are apps you install on your Amazon digital assistant. Amazon sold millions of Alexa/Echo devices over the holiday, which means a demand for useful Skills is coming fast. Here are 4 companies who are consequently ahead of the game of providing consumers with relevant, useful apps.

Read more at VentureBeat

Facebook creating more ad inventory

Facebook ad inventory is at an all-time low. Consequently, the platform is creating more options on Instagram and WhatsApp. The “Recommended for You” Instagram beta was spotted earlier last month. Now, the feature is publicly available. Ads will appear in your native Instagram feed based on who they follow, and the content they engage. Marketers will almost certainly reap the benefits of added exposure in 2018.

Using apps to keep resolutions

Working on your resolutions for 2018? There’s an app for that.

Read more at TechCrunch