What are the new social media trends? What experiences are we expected to have?
BY Nariman Azzam – Content Dream Team
It won’t be an exaggeration to say that people spend a good portion of their time on social media during the day. Social media has become an essential part of people’s lives and routines. Some of us are addicted to social media platforms, to the extent that the first thing we do is check our platforms, comments, news feed, stories, and status. They provide the importance of social media in our lives as marketers and businesses to social media performance, hoping to connect with target customers. Staying updated on the newest social media trends can fuel your strategy and make you gain audience and traffic on your platforms.
Below is CDT’s breakdown of 2020 social media trends and happenings. No matter what your business is, these trends should be kept in the back of your mind.
- Brands are reevaluating their metrics:
Marketers are questing for numerous metrics to determine what is working and not working on social media. Therefore, removing Facebook and Instagram likes can force the likes to shift away from the measuring sticks used for content performance. Even if likes don’t disappear, this trend will signal the brands’ need beyond the surface-level data. Almost 50% of marketers listed that social listening will be essential in the coming years, which means that the likes will turn into conversation analysis allowing marketers to grow and spread wider on social media platforms. Long term and engagement mean that more than short term spike in likes and attention. Rather than having viral moments, brands try their best to understand what drives the conversations with clients.
- The growth of private communities:
Piggybacking is the latest trend where marketers focus on making meaningful connections with the required target audience versus everybody else. Brands want to reach as many clients as possible, making the importance of marketing to the groups that define similar passions and interests and speaking to the brands’ needs to directly talk to individuals instead of speaking to the wide range for demographics. It is visible that brands are wanting to target younger audiences. For instance, brands are more in power to reply to the customers, similar to the clients, and speak their language through the brand voice. It is essential to consider that community is affecting how modern consumers approach social media platforms. For example, Instagram updated its threads to allow users to share their stories with a selected group of friends only. They are providing a more intimate and friendly feel of the platform. Furthermore, Marketing on Facebook groups continues to be the most practical way to market private communities as an organic reach for most of the brands selling on Facebook.
- More advanced social media ads
Brands are always trying their best to have massive investments in ads for excellent reasons because consumers are becoming more comfortable with social shopping in general. They are because online ads have become more advanced and more straightforward for brands to encourage businesses to be visible on social media. For instance, Facebook’s recent rollout ad experiences can deliver products directly to customers and calls to action according to who the products are being served to. The current introduction to Instagram shopping can also highlight social selling growth without funneling the followers back to the bio link. Linkedin platforms evolved to help B2B brands to get their products in front of customers.
- Brands are putting the influencers in the microscope.
The popularity of influence marketing gained an authentic way to advertise well-documented products. Although influencers were not going anywhere in 2020, brands are rightfully looking at influencer relationships with a scrutinized sense. The rising of fake influencers emphasize the likes as an engagement metrics signals needing to back up the price tags with data. The marketers who are building relationships with influencers should not avoid doing that.
Last but not least, social media is continuously changing. The good news is that these trends start the social presence over the scratch. These findings help you reflect on what is working and what isn’t and what avenues you will explore to make 2020 and 2021 your successful years.
