BYE BYE SNAPCHAT I tried, I really tried, but Snapchat got the better of me and I gave it up completely this year. Although it's incredibly popular with some, for most it became a clunky channel that was incredibly hard to grow without constant promotion (why on earth didn't they introduce a search function") I loved the rawness and realness, but as soon as Insta-Stories launched I put down my Snapchat filter for the very last time - like many others around me. With zero effort required and an existing audience ready and waiting, it's no surprise I was receiving four times the amount of views on Instagram (even without the fancy face-swap filters.) As Instagram continue to evolve the instantaneous element of their 'stories' function, I'm sure it will be the nail in the coffin of their snappy competitor; we simply don't have the time (or storage) for more apps and Snapchat is just another thing to cause us stress. Give it a year and it'll be as dead as the Bakerloo line on tube strike day - while Instagram, on the other hand, is bound to fly.
MICRO-BLOGGING  Feeding into the trend of influencers spending less time focusing on their blogs and more time just uploading cracking Instagram content, the rise of micro-blogging will undoubtedly play a big role. I'm seeing more and more of my feed curating great grids and telling stories in their captions, rather than mindlessly chucking up any old tosh just to keep their feed fresh. With the launch of Insta-Sto...