What is the GDPR?
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the result of four years of work by the EU to bring data protection legislation into line with new, previously unforeseen ways that data is now used.

Currently, the UK relies on the Data Protection Act 1998, which was enacted following the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive, but this will be superseded by the new legislation. It introduces tougher fines for non-compliance and breaches, and gives people more say over what companies can do with their data. It also makes data protection rules more or less identical throughout the EU.

Why was the GDPR drafted?
The drivers behind the GDPR are twofold. Firstly, the EU wants to give people more control over how their personal data is used, bearing in mind that many companies like Facebook and Google swap access to people's data for use of their services. The current legislation was enacted before the internet and cloud technology created new ways of exploiting data, and the GDPR seeks to address that. By strengthening data protection legislation and introducing tougher enforcement measures, the EU hopes to improve trust in the emerging digital economy.

Secondly, the EU wants to give businesses a simpler, clearer legal environment in which to operate, making data protection law identical throughout the single market (the EU estimates this will save businesses a collective €2.3 billion a year).

When will the GDPR apply?
The GDPR will apply in all EU member states from 25 May 2018. Because GDPR is a regulation, not a directive, the UK does not need to draw up new legislation - instead, it will apply automatically.

So who does the GDPR apply to?
'Controllers' and 'processors' of data need to abide by the GDPR. A data controller states how and why personal data is processed, while a processor is the party doing the actual processing of the data. So the controller could be any organisation, from a profit-seeking company to a charity or government. A processor could be an IT firm doing the actual data processing.

Even if controllers and processors are based outside the EU, the GDPR will still apply to them so long as they're dealing with data belonging to EU residents.

It's the controller's responsibility to ensure their processor abides by data protection law and processors must themselves abide by rules to maintain records of their processing activities. If processors are involved in a data breach, they are far more liable under GDPR than they were under the Data Protection Act.
 
 When can I process data under the GDPR?
Once the legislation comes into effect, controllers must ensure personal data is processed lawfully, transparently, and for a specific purpose. Once that purpose is fulfilled and the data is no longer required, it should be deleted.

What do you mean by 'lawful'?
'Lawfully' has a range of alternative meanings, not all of which need apply. Firstly, it could be lawful if the subject has consented to their data being processed. Alternatively, lawful can mean to comply with a contract or legal obligation; to protect an interest that is "essential for the life of" the subject; if processing the data is in the public interest; or if doing so is in the controller's legitimate interest - such as preventing fraud.

How do I get consent under the GDPR?
Consent must be an active, affirmative action by the data subject, rather than the passive acceptance under some current models that allow for pre-ticked boxes or opt-outs.
Controllers must keep a record of how and when an individual gave consent, and that individual may withdraw their consent whenever they want. If your current model for obtaining consent doesn't meet these new rules, you'll have to bring it up to scratch or stop collecting data under that model when the GDPR applies in 2018.

What counts as personal data under the GDPR?
The EU has substantially expanded the definition of personal data under the GDPR. To reflect the types of data organisations now collect about people, online identifiers such as IP addresses now qualify as personal data. Other data, like economic, cultural or mental health information, are also considered personally identifiable information.
Pseudonymised personal data may also be subject to GDPR rules, depending on how easy or hard it is to identify whose data it is.

Anything that counted as personal data under the Data Protection Act also qualifies as personal data under the GDPR.

When can people access the data we store on them?
People can ask for access at "reasonable intervals", and controllers must generally respond within one month. The GDPR requires that controllers and processors must be transparent about how they collect data, what they do with it, and how they process it and must be clear (using plain language) in explaining these things to people.

What's the 'right to be forgotten'?
Individuals also have the right to demand that their data is deleted if it's no longer necessary to the purpose for which it was collected. This is known as the 'right to be forgotten'. Under this rule, they can also demand that their data is erased if they've withdrawn their consent for their data to be collected, or object to the way it is being processed.

The controller is responsible for telling other organisations (for instance, Google) to delete any links to copies of that data, as well as the copies themselves.
 
What if they want to move their data elsewhere?
Controllers must now store people's information in commonly used formats (like CSV files), so that they can move a person's data to another organisation (free of charge) if the person requests it. Controllers must do this within one month.

What if we suffer a data breach?
It's your responsibility to inform your data protection authority of any data breach that risks people's rights and freedoms within 72 hours of your organisation becoming aware of it. The UK authority is the Information Commissioner's Office. Information commissioner Elizabeth Denham believes the authority needs more resources to cope with policing GDPR, and responding to organisations who notify it of breaches. In March 2017, she told the EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee that more funding was necessary to recruit and retain skilled people.

That deadline is tight enough to mean that you probably won't know every detail of a breach after discovering it. However, your initial contact with your data protection authority should outline the nature of the data that's affected, roughly how many people are impacted, what the consequences could mean for them, and what measures you've already actioned or plan to action in response.

But even before you call the data protection authority, you should tell the people affected by the data breach. Those who fail to meet the 72-hour deadline could face a penalty of up to 2% of their annual worldwide revenue, or €10 million, whichever is higher.

If you don't follow the basic principles for processing data, such as having a legal basis for doing so, ignore individuals' rights over their data, or transfer data to another country, the fines are even worse. Your data protection authority could issue a penalty of up to €20 million or 4% of your global annual turnover, whichever is greater.

If you take recently issued fines issued by the ICO - which can hand out a maximum penalty of £500,000 - and scale them up under GDPR, you can see how much tougher the penalties for getting data protection wrong could soon become.

So under GDPR, TalkTalk's record £400,000 fine would actually total £59 million - that's a pretty big chunk of the telco's third quarter 2016 revenue, which was £435 million. Meanwhile, the ICO's total issued fines for 2016, which amounted to £880,500, would become £69 million from 25 May 2018, according to risk mitigation firm NCC Group - 79 times higher.

However, it's important to note that while the maximum fines that can be issued will become much higher under GDPR, the legislation stipulates that they must remain "proportionate" to the breach. Also, if you can demonstrate that you work hard to ensure your organisation is compliant with GDPR, the ICO would likely not issue as high a fine in the event of a breach as it would otherwise.

But what about Brexit?
Yes, the UK is leaving the EU - but because the UK government only triggered Article 50 in March, which sets in motion the act of leaving the EU within a two-year timeframe (though it could take longer), means the GDPR will take effect before the legal consequences of the Brexit vote, meaning the UK must still comply for the time being.

Does your organisation comply with the new data protection rules?

Do we need a data protection officer?
Any public body carrying out data processing needs to employ a data protection officer, as do companies whose core activities involve data processing that requires they regularly monitor individuals "on a large scale", according to the GDPR legislation, though public bodies are at an advantage, in that several can share the same data protection officer. Organisations should give the contact details of this person to their data protection authority.

Alright, so how do we go about meeting the GDPR requirements?
The best advice is to start preparing for it as early as possible - 25 May 2018 might sound far away, but there's a lot to get right. Immediately, you should seek to employ a data protection officer if necessary, and check the current state of your data protection rules and policies, particularly consent.

If you work with any third-party suppliers who would count as processors, check what their data protection policies are and whether they comply - if they don't, it might be time to tender again.
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It's also worth looking out for technology that will help you meet requirements around data deletion and data portability.

Every marketer knows social media is one of the most effective ways to expand your reach, connect with your target audience, and grow your business.  However, along with everything else in inbound, social media is constantly changing. Just look at 2017, for example.

In the past year alone, Facebook seduced Snapchat users to Instagram with the addition of stories, the president of the United States took to Twitter to communicate official policy positions in 140 characters (now he has 280, but we’ll get to that), and Apple announced plans to alter the way we interact with our mobile devices.

As more and more brands expand their reach with social media, the competition on these channels is increasing and people’s attention spans are decreasing.

So, how should marketers adjust their social media marketing in 2018?  They need to stay on top of the changes and be ready to pivot.

As we move into the next year, we are going to see an overall increased amount of time spent on social platforms, with big brands digging in and committing to a much larger investment in social media marketing. 2017 saw a 60% increase in social media budget over 2016, which is set to continue into 2018

You want to stay ahead of the curve and your competition, but you also don’t want to waste time and money on a something fleeting that won’t stick around. So how do you figure out what’s going to be worth your investment?

Well, we did the hard part for you and identified the hottest trends in the social media world for 2018, hopefully giving you enough time to get them implemented right after the new year.

Before we dig into it, however, here are some of the biggest challenges social media marketers are going to face in 2018.

Social Media Marketing Challenges in 2018
Less Organic Reach
As more and more businesses increase their presence on social media platforms, the organisations themselves have made big moves to combat spam. In most instances, this means marketers have to fight a decline in organic reach.

With less organic return, brands are likely to take a more selective approach to social media marketing. They will have to be very particular about where and what they post and invest more in paid ads to keep their numbers up.

Social Media Video Peaking
According to research done by Kenshoo, spending on social video advertising grew 130% this year, with no sign of stopping.

The problem with this is the market for social video is being saturated. Businesses are now going to be challenged with producing even more relevant video content and distributing it properly if they want to get noticed.

“New Tool” Fatigue
Hootsuite did some research and found a lot of their customers are fed up with the never-ending list of new tactics, tools, and formats for handling their social media marketing.

In 2018, there is going to be a shift back to the basics.

Marketers are going to have to try and prove the ROI of existing tactics. This means metric measurements will be more important than ever as brands try and identify what strategies are working and what isn’t.

Okay, so there are the challenges. So what can you do to overcome them? Onto the top social media marketing trends for 2018…

Social Media Trends for 2018
1. Instagram Stories
Yes, yes, Snapchat was first to let users share short videos that delete after 24 hours, but it worked! It worked so well Facebook decided to take a whack at it both on Instagram and in the app that bears its name.

With its huge audience, it should come as no surprise that within the first year of the Instagram story debut, it has surpassed Snapchat’s view count with 20 million views a day. At that same rate, nearly half of all Instagram users will be using Stories by the end of 2018.

This means brands trying to connect with their customers on Instagram must take the time to get on board with stories. Regardless of B2B or B2C, they are a great way to showcase your company culture or put your processes on display.

The stories are fun to use and to view, allowing you to add filters, tags, and text. One of the biggest brand benefits of Instagram stories is that they are discoverable, meaning that Instagram users can see your stories even if they are not your followers.

In addition, just like with any other post on the platform, you can hashtag relevant keywords to help users find you faster and easier. These tags are clickable, so brands can dive into their niche markets and target more effectively than ever. Brands are going to be trying new ways to engage with their story viewers by taking polls and asking questions with their posts. You can even tag your location

Now it’s definitely a long shot for most, but any account with 10,000 followers or more can also add links to their stories, which is a huge advantage considering Instagram doesn’t allow links in posts otherwise.

2. Social Media Influencers & Micro-Influencers
Not long ago, the fastest and easiest public relations tactic was hiring a celebrity to endorse or promote your brand or product, but that can come with a hefty price tag (and now Kyrie Irving is joining the flat-earthers).

Nowadays, a more reasonable solution is social media influencers (or micro-influencers), who are celebrities in their own circles.

Micro-influencers can have an incredible amount of reach, usually with followings in the hundreds of thousands or millions. Brands are shifting towards paying these influencers to promote their specific products because they deliver 11 times the ROI compared to traditional digital marketing, and 49% of people suggest that they depend on influencers for their purchase decisions.

This is not just a trend, but a billion-dollar emerging industry. Many of these influencers walk away with six-figure incomes, all from promoting brands to their massive followings. Take Ryan ToysReview for example. Ryan is an irresistible 6-year-old who is estimated by Forbes to have made $11 million this year through his YouTube channel. Ryan opens toys, plays with them and then offers his opinions. With 10 million subscribers, he is leading the charge for the social influencer industry for 2018.

Over 90% of marketers who employ an influencer marketing strategy believe it is successful. In 2017, brands struggled to connect with their audiences with traditional advertising tactics, so expect influencers to take off even more than they already have.

3. Augmented & Virtual Reality
While augmented reality’s initial impact will be on mobile gaming, it is likely that social media platforms will find more ways to incorporate the new technology as well.

Snapchat is already on board, teaming up with Bitmoji to allow users to project animated versions of themselves into the real world doing lots of random things. Not to mention Pokemon GO, which has let players catch the beloved pocket monsters in their real surroundings for a couple of years now.

Even the new iPhone 8 and Google’s Pixel 2 have incorporated augmented reality with talking emojis amongst other things.

Getting away from the novelty of it all, the potential of augmented reality for brands is immense.  Companies will be able to showcase their products in brand new ways to customers, like seeing how a piece of clothing looks on them or how a certain chair would fit in their living room.

Implementing AR into your marketing efforts can take some significant time and budget, but we expect a more manageable solution to AR customisation to come out this year through social media.

In terms of Virtual Reality, most technologies have at least another year of development before they hit mainstream markets.

There is some hope for 2018, however.

Facebook, for example, has been working on a project called Spaces that is designed to allow friends to connect in VR. Since Facebook owns Oculus, a VR headset retailer and software company, it’s no surprise that they are making this jump and it’s an exciting move for marketers.

Facebook wants to release Spaces in 2018 and when they do, it is probably going to be the first VR social media experience. While still a way off, marketers should start strategising around this ground-breaking opportunity.

4. More Live Streaming is Coming
While Facebook Live and other live streaming have been around for a while now, the way people and brands are going to use them is changing.

We are going to see a lot more of it in 2018, and the people who do it well will be revelling in the organic reach it will generate. The significance of live streaming is not from it gaining popularity, but rather the technology we have to do it, is improving.

We get better phones with better hardware every year, meaning better and more accessible video recording and processing.

In 2018, more brands will begin to harness the power of live streaming and will incorporate it into their monthly content plans. And like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and even LinkedIn even more social platforms are sure to follow as they try to capitalize on the trend.

5. Generation Z
What the heck is Generation Z? Gen Z are millennials’ little sibling, born in the late 90s / early 00s.

This generation is the first to grow up 100% online and their tech-savviness is unparalleled. According to RetailDive, Gen Z is 2-3 times more likely to be influenced by social media than they are by sales or discounts.

In other words, they value social media and what others are doing more than they do price itself. That’s a huge shift from the price conscious shoppers of the past.

Now, most marketers won’t worry about Gen Z for at least a few years, but the very first of them are about 22 years old now. A Gen Z workforce is on its way, and marketers should stay ahead of this curve on this one, especially B2B.

Goldman Sachs says that Gen Z is more valuable to marketers than millennials in 2018 because their buying power is only going to increase, and we need to shift social media strategies accordingly.

There will be a shift in social media investments to Gen Z-friendly platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, and away from those like Facebook.

6. Online Hangouts Become the Norm
Online hangouts are the perfect harmony between the live streaming trend and Gen Z. Houseparty, for example, is a free app where you can live video chat with multiple people that saw rapid growth last year and is starting to turn heads.

Because of this, yes, you guessed it, Facebook is reportedly investigating ways to create a similar functionality within their live streaming platform.

7. Twitter... is Still Here
And it probably doesn’t even know why.  For most businesses, it might be better to invest more time and money in increasingly popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram next year.

Twitter has been struggling in the past few years, and it needs to make some big changes in order to stay relevant in 2018.

It was the slowest growing major social media platform in 2017, despite the viral coverage of President Trump’s statements on the platform. Many users are leaving Twitter due to unfair code of conduct enforcement with regards to the President.

With this in mind, expect them to hit the drawing board in 2018 with any and all attempts to switch things up. They have already increased their character limit to 280 characters and experts predict they will soon fully launch their subscription model for advertisers, among other things. The bottomline is: stay on the lookout. They aren’t done yet.

8. Stricter Conduct Policies
Along the same lines as Twitter’s code of conduct issue, many platforms are rethinking how they govern their users.

After a series of controversial issues during the 2016 presidential election, social media platforms have embraced a more involved approach.

Facebook, for instance, recently turned over a ton of ads that seem to be connected to Russian hacking, and has invested in new AI and human forms of monitoring.

In the wake of several graphic live streams, some resulting in death, Facebook also had to hire more staff just for content monitoring.

At this point, it seems more like damage control than a proactive solution, but we expect platforms to implement more preventative and long-lasting measures when it comes to content monitoring.

As a marketer, you need to know and understand these guidelines to ensure you don’t get penalized.

Key Takeaways
The 8 social media trends above will impact users and brands significantly in 2018.  With these trends in mind, it’s time to reconsider your social media approach to maximize your ROI.
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Get your plans underway now so that you can stay ahead of the curve with these latest trends.

If you expect a great event, you need good pre-event promotion. While different organisers participate in different activities, there is a plethora of activities you can get involved with to maximise your results before the event.

Check out the show guides: A review of your exhibitor manual will normally highlight opportunities available for your particular show, and is normally a good starting point. Show guides, catalogues and preview guides should all carry your news and company information. In the majority of instances these are non-chargeable and a good way to get your name out in advance of the show.

Send invites: Ask for invitations which you can sometimes customise with your logo and send some to valued contacts; give hard copies to your sales team/agents/distributors to pass out and keep more in your reception area. VIP tickets are often a valuable way to entice more visitors to your stand.

Run adverts: In terms of advertising, find out the schedule (discounts) and channels the organisers are using - dovetail any advertising for your business with the places where they are running previews and/or features on the show. Use flashes and banners across your ad - "See us on stand no: 66". Be creative. Why not amend your social media profiles with the same info - and your email signatures too?

Make contact with the press: Do the organisers use a PR agency? If so, use their services and pick their professional brains (and contacts). Get a press list of contacts and deadlines. If you have a company newsletter, milk the opportunity. Do mail shots and e-shots to key clients, existing, potential and past customers. Make sure as well that you have information on your website and that the show site links to yours.

Pre-book appointments: Finally, remember many events will set up a diary or appointment system. Pre-book as many appointments as possible so you can predict traffic and busy periods. Not all will be adhered to, but at least a plan subject to change is better than none at all!