If you're reading this, you made it through 2016. Congratulations.

Welcome to our inaugural social and digital predictions. In this first part, we'll look at trends we're witnessing within the tech/social industry. In the next part, we'll look at school-specific predictions.

Firstly, let's revisit 2016... Gulp.

Our 2016 predictions - how did we do?

1. More Twitter characters [CORRECT]
2. Moving further away from television [CORRECT]
3. Periscope inside Twitter, and the real launch of live streaming [CORRECT]
4. 360° videos and 360°live streaming [CORRECT]
5. One-click purchasing on social media [INCORRECT]
6. Snapchat to be sold [INCORRECT]
7. Battle for news [CORRECT]
8. Vertical video [CORRECT]
9. Messaging apps = The new OS [CORRECT]

To read more about last year's predictions, and an analysis of each, take a look at our recap of 2016.

What does 2017 have in store for us?

[1] (More) Live Streaming

We called it last year, and it’s becoming clearer that live video on social platforms is the trend for 2017. We’ll start to see live-streaming move way beyond just early-adopters and into the hands of the mainstream users.

How many Facebook ads have you ever seen on TV, billboards, etc.? None, unless you remember the awkward TV advert back in 2012, when Facebook said ‘Chairs are like Facebook’. Yes, that really happened.

Yet, we’re constantly seeing the new Facebook Live adverts. Why? Well, Facebook know how important it is to win the live-streaming battle.

Hey, what’s up? I’m sure you have heard all about Facebook’s recent purchase of WhatsApp for $19 billion (£11.4bn). It sounds a little crazy, right?

WhatsApp is a free (for the first year, $0.99 per year after that) messaging service. It is a mobile only service, that replaces the need for SMS. So really, WhatsApp doesn’t make much money, if any at all. Why then would Facebook pay $19 billion for it? That’s $42 for each of the app’s 450 million users. And the cost of running this service isn’t cheap.

The reason Facebook has bought it is primarily for two reasons:

1. It has a huge number of young users
2. It is mobile only

With Facebook’s recent pursue of Snapchat for $3 billion, it is clear that they are trying to own young people’s smartphone usage.

Facebook know that can’t be the number one social utility on people’s smartphones, without the help from other startups. It isn’t like Facebook cannot develop WhatsApp, or Snapchat, or Instagram - they can (and have tried!).

The problem Facebook has is that people, and in particular young people, will always be on the look out for new, cooler ways to socialise with their friends.

Another problem Facebook has is that adults tend to follow young people. Often, teens are often the early adopters, and adults are the late adopters.

This means that there is almost a cycle with social media usage:

1. Young people adopt
2. Adults adopt
3. Young people find something new
4. Adult usage plateaus
5. Overall usage declines

What does this all mean for schools and their marketing?

Simply put, schools need to think similar to Facebook when it comes to their marketing. This means being alert to new social channels, and reacting quickly to trends.

It also means to always look to the future. Facebook has a huge number of users - bigger than any other social media platform, by far. But that doesn’t mean it will always be the case.

Kids move rapidly when it comes to social utilities. That will never change. And we also know that adults will often follow teens when it comes to social channels.

What kids use today, adults will use tomorrow.

Are you using it as part of your schools’ communication strategy? Let us know in the comments. Or tweet us @intSchools.

Augmented reality is the current buzzword floating around the mobile marketing world. Many marketers are excited by the prospect of using augmented reality in their campaigns. If you are not familiar with augmented reality then carry on reading. If you are then jump to the next section!

What is augmented reality?

Augmented reality is a view of a real, physical environment that has been augmented by a computer-generated overlay. Make sense? Hmmm. It’s probably better if you see it in action!