- Social Shopping. You will see millions of accounts on Instagram now, that allows their followers to swipe up to purchase, bloggers with their style shoppable and filled with affiliate links and while you might think that is as social as shopping gets – nowhere close. There are platforms dedicated to creating an online shopping experience like no other. As well as shopping, you will be taking part in votes, writing reviews, making friends and joining in with a community. Interesting because instead of having to check out many websites you’ll only need one and everything will be in one place – watch the growth on this in the next year or so.
- Live Video. This has blown up on Facebook and Instagram. Letting followers and audiences know what you’re doing, what you are selling and giving them a reason to engage with you. Putting a face and voice to the brands. Video has long been the way to get quick and easy engagement on social media platforms, but this takes it to a new level. Live music, talks, new products, shopping, discussion panels and more. Incredible, and a trend that can work for anyone who is brave enough to try it for the first time.
- Investing. Stocks, shares, bonds, cryptocurrency, gold, diamonds and waiting to hear about tangible assets like houses and buildings at auctions and new land release to snap up and expand your portfolio. The reason this has grown so much is that the information about how and why isn’t behind smoke and mirrors anymore, it is evident that if you’re good with finance, you have more than one income stream, some are passive, some are long-term, but all are smart and well researched.
- Getting some automated chats going. Customers got sick of waiting on hold for hours spending a lot of money to do so, introducing Chatbots. Not only speeding up your on hold times, but it allows you to help your customers 24/7 and that is worth its weight in gold.
- The rise of the freelancers. There are more articles on how to manage your freelance works, which websites to sign up for, how to land clients and so much more. At the same time companies all over the world are outsourcing work to an army of freelancers. Usually, with lower overheads, their prices are lower, and the work is more personal.
- Standing Desks. What looked to be a short fad turned out to be a much more significant trend. Unsurprisingly with the rise of people working from home, the need for this to also become healthier has arrived too. The saying “sitting is the new smoking” is common among employees and more and more people are requesting sit-to-stand desks. Where once all that you needed to be healthy while working in an office was back support, it has since moved on from that, and standing desks are all the rage. However, this one is likely to keep growing because health isn’t a trend – it is essential. You might have also seen standing desks with treadmills in walk mode, ensuring that you can get your 10k per day requirement and do your job – multitasking or a touch too far?
- Don’t have a degree but have some other certifications that have given you the knowledge to perform the job at hand? Well, 2018 appears to have been the year that employers are more accepting of non conventional learning credentials. The learning options grow year on year, from Google’s academy, Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity and a whole host of other options – it is no wonder that a degree isn’t the only way to say you know your stuff. However, it is important to note that this shift in education doesn’t mean that a degree isn’t worth getting, it is still the case that if you land a job in your degree specialty field you’ll be paid more than those without. It is also worth considering adding to your knowledge arsenal as often as possible.
So there you have it, just 7 of the trends that have been pulsing away through this first half of 2018 and show no signs of dying down as we soon head into the latter half of the year. As with all trends, work with what works for you – and leave the rest.
