Demi JenkinsLet me ask you a very simple question. What is your worst fear as a business owner?
- The fear of getting judged by others.
- Not being good enough to sell products to your customers.
- Failing to send the correct message among audiences.
These are some of the common fears that I am sure surrounds you when it comes to marketing your business. In a day and age where everything we do is digitalized, overcoming these fears can be easily challenged. If you take a look, there is just so much competition in the evergrowing business market that one can easily get overwhelmed. Someone is always doing something extraordinary out there.
Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year, let me ask you one more question, where would you find an average individual commonly engaged? You will find them surfing social media platforms.
Don’t just buy my word for it, take a look at the interactions and engagement in your Live Feed.
If those aren’t convincing enough, here are the 2019 global statistics posted by Smart Insight.
Just take a look at those numbers aren’t they breathtaking?!
With so much traffic scourging around social media, one must often wonder what is the best way to reach out to these individuals or cash them in favor of their own business? My answer is…
Understand the Developing Trends in Social Media
Today, social media is a highly competitive space. Many businesses have realized the power of running social media campaigns; however, only a few actually realize how to use it in the best interest.
Every day, you see a new brand emerge on your ad screen offering you something special in a tantalizing manner. People are always trying to market themselves as a brand or marketing a product/service which they have recently invested in creating. One way or the other, the market is hyped. And if you want to grasp the attention of your audience, you have to beat that hype somehow.
The only way you will be able to do something like that is by doing what no other is doing right now. And to do something exquisite, what you need to do is look outside the box, or in our case, beyond!
Here are 12 social media marketing trends to look up at in the year 2020.
- Alternative Social Platforms Will Take the Spotlight
- Instagram Will Drop the Like Option Possibly
- Deeper Regulatory Control and Stringent Legal Scrutiny
- Augmented Reality Will be Largely Adopted by Brands
- Social Media Will Enhance Customer Care Experience
- Personalization Will Take a Step Forward in the Future
- Local Targeting is Going to Become More Common
- Brands Will Incorporate Social Listening to their Strategies
- More User-Generated Content Will see the Light in 2020
- Social Media Communities will Become the New Crunch
- The Rise of Chatbots and It’s Impact on Social Media
- Future Innovations will Emerge in the Mobile Market
1. Alternative Social Platforms Will Take the Spotlight
Without a doubt, two of the major social media giants, Facebook and Instagram have long dominated the market. But this trend is now about to change. They are one of the largest platforms which makes them now a very clouded space. The youth of today and the people of tomorrow are more interested in populating other social media platforms. With the rise of platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn, the marketing sphere is rapidly changing. Future brands who do understand are a step ahead of the curve.
2. Instagram Will Drop the Like Option Possibly
Instagram is one of the largest social media networks and it has gained significant popularity in time. As an active user on Instagram, I just came across a recent update that there is a chance Instagram is more likely going to drop its LIKE option. Instagram feels people posting on the platform are often seeking likes and engagement which is causing them some form of mental stress. Instagram feels it is deterimental to their mental well-being as well as their health motivating the platform to remove it.
3. Deeper Regulatory Control and Stringent Legal Scrutiny
Even though we want to get past the Facebook debacle, we just can’t forget how data of millions of individuals were lost. Despite the number of benefits platforms like Facebook has to offer, it has come to light in recent years that data privacy and security are issues that just can’t be ignored. We are now sure of it that social media is a place where anybody can easily pull up the social information of others. At the same time, we have seen a surge in concerns where people worry data is getting sold. In light of all these events, social media and regulatory bodies are expected to tighten their controls.
4. Augmented Reality Will be Largely Adopted by Brands
Augmented Reality changes the way we see reality in our daily lives. It superimposes virtual elements in real life making virtual elements appear as if they are already there. Recently businesses have found out interesting ways to leverage the power of Augmented Reality in social media effectively. For example, Instagram uses AR as a photo filtering option which makes the app highly interactive for users. You can add bunny ears or a crystal tiara on your head and take a snap before sending it. But it isn’t just the Instagram alone, brands are also making use of AR these days. For example, Sephora allows its buyers to try on their makeup first before they make a decision to purchase a certain product.
5. Social Media Will Enhance Customer Care Experience
Social Media is a great platform for sharing photos and videos. But long gone are the days when social media was merely used to just share traditional images and videos. It has grown from just an entertainment platform to a product discovery platform, a retail platform, and even a customer service channel. Today, a lot of brands have their own specific facebook pages through which they can resolve the queries of their customers. It is a well-recognized platform for delivering customer service.
6. Personalization Will Take a Step Forward in the Future
Personalization has been around for over a decade now and its adoption has populated interactively. It has made its mark on social media as well. When it comes to personalization, some marketeers may claim that they cannot customize content for different customer segments but they can still customize ad campaigns to target as many customer segments as they want. Plus, social media platforms have enabled advanced targeting and deep customization options for businesses to grow.
7. Local Targeting is Going to Become More Common
Just like Local SEO is great for attracting local traffic to your online website, local targeting is the counterpart for social media. With effective local targeting strategy in place, brands can show their ad campaigns to geo-specific locations on the map. A way to attract an audience to your campaign is by geo-tagging your marketing campaign which marketers abundantly perform. For example, if you boost a post on social media, you have the option to select the locations which you want to target. Once you select these locations Facebook will then show your ads only in the specified locations alone. If you happen to be living in the UK, here’s a guide to their Facebook advertising cost.
8. Brands Will Incorporate Social Listening to their Strategies
Today, social media has become a gold mine of information. One can find all sorts of data and information on different social media platforms. Future brands are going to redefine their social media strategy by incorporating more effective social listening tools as they will help access insights. With different social listening tools, marketers will become capable of tapping into the social conversation of others and draw more meaningful insights. By knowing what customers seek, target marketing will become easier for different marketers and to reach out to the desired audience within no time.
9. More User-Generated Content Will see the Light in 2020
It is not a new trend as brands have been utilizing user-generated content for quite some time. The only thing which has massively changed over time is at what rate the content is being generally adopted. For example, certain brands such as Daniel Wellington motivate customers with their product experiences. It enables them to create remarkable UGC content which later comes in handy for the business. This content is later featured on their brand pages and in return creates traction. Other brands that leverage UGC in their marketing campaigns are Olay and Dove.
10. Social Media Communities will Become the New Crunch
Just like UGC, Social communities is not a new trend. It is definitely something that has been around for quite some time. Social communities are basically social media groups that are formed by different audiences. These are usually private groups where like-minded individuals share things with a common interest. Group members often seek solutions and discuss different challenges. As a brand, you can use social communities to help solve those problems for them. At the same time, you can also promote your product, assimilate feedbacks and work on building up your brand image.
11. The Rise of Chatbots and It’s Impact on Social Media
Are you in the mood for some window shopping? How about going through catalogs? Today, brands have complete detailed catalogs on platforms such as Instagram. Besides, Facebook Live is another great place through which people are massively selling their products and services worldwide. Such is the power of content which has enabled many brands to reach out to an expanding base of customers. In the midst of it all, chatbots are serving the purposes far greater than any customer service agent on the block. They have streamlined consumer transitions to social commerce. In the future, we are more likely going to see more effective use of chatbots and their implementations. The future bots will become more conversational and will use deep learning to help their customers.
12. Future Innovations will Emerge in the Mobile Market
Do you know that social media giant Facebook predicts that by the year 2020, there will be more individuals with smartphones then there will be individuals with running water or a home with running electricity? At an estimate, 3 billion people will have access to mobile phones by the year 2020. For customers, the only way to connect with the Internet world will be their smartphone devices. With such high usage, future brands will focus more on optimizing campaigns to be mobile-friendly. Social platforms will also play a major role in the financial lives of mobile-first customers in the future.
So here they are. These are the top 12 social media trends which I believe will play a vital role in future marketing. I hope these social media trends will also help you market your campaigns in the future.
