As 2019 comes to a near end and 2020 is on its way, new trends can already be seen in the Internet’s social media platforms.
What is social media?
People all over the globe are using social media. These are websites and applications that enable its users to create and share content into a social network.
These networks or platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google My Business, Snapchat, Tiktok, and Reddit among others. There are so many social networking platforms but the listed above are the giant brands when it comes to the Internet’s social community.
Due to the fact that most people are already using their mobile phones to check the web, these giants have already produced mobile applications for their platforms. In this way, their users can easily open their accounts every time with just a tap on their phones.
Because of these innovations and the fact that most people are using these platforms, marketers, and businesses are also using these to increase their brand awareness and even sales.
You most probably have seen brands create business accounts for these platforms or you may have built one yourself.
By carefully associating social media into your marketing strategy, there’s a guarantee that it will help you meet your goals. You only have to choose the right platform and manage it well. In this article, we will share with you social media trends that may or may not help you with your social media management but they are sure what’s trendy this 2020.
Review on our social media trends 2019 and hop on the list below to get a full perspective of the 2020 social media trends.
Social Media Trends 2020
To really know what’s the plan that you can use in your marketing approach, here are the trends that you can expect in 2020:
Social Media Videos
People love to watch videos. They even prefer it more than other types of content as it is more engaging and entertaining to watch.
You see, people watch videos rather than read a very long blog post. Scrolling up and down in your phone or any devices is much more time-consuming than just sitting and watching the whole video come to its end, right?
And if you haven’t noticed yet, videos are taking the Internet over.
According to this year’s Cisco Visual Networking Index Complete Forecast, nearly 1.9 billion Web video users will be watching 3 trillion minutes of videos per month in 2021. Thus, video marketing will be dominating Internet traffic by 80% that year.
Because of these, social networking giants are already giving away of involving videos in their platforms. Even before, you can easily upload videos on these sites and now, as part of their upgrade, they have involved live streaming. Thus, sharing current events is easier.
Moreover, you should really be making videos as part of your digital marketing strategy. According to the GlobalWebIndex Social Video Trends Report, 1 out of 3 social media users watch videos created by brands every month.
As long as you know what your prospects want and as long as you can create engaging and good quality videos, you can get a shot at riding the trend and get something out of it.
Image from MoEngage
Social Media E-commerce
Social networking platforms do not only cater to individual users but also businesses.
This is why more commercial transactions will really happen next year.
According to Instagram, 60% of its users said that they have discovered new products on the platform and in a Pinterest survey, 70% said that the platform helped them find new products.
This process from product discovery up until the payment process is happening and is expected to rise next year because social media sites are already letting businesses sell on their platforms.
Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest let companies build business pages, post their products and interact with their target customers.
Facebook even made a Marketplace for its users to discover, buy and sell items without going out of the platform.
Although other platforms don’t have this feature, brands can still publish a shoppable post that may either be about the products, services or the brand overall.
Social Media Stories
From Snapchat into Instagram and Facebook, you really cannot deny the fact that people who view Stories on a daily basis really increase. Although this is already a trend, the usage of this feature will continue to grow more next year.
Battenhall even found that 98% of the biggest brands on Instagram used Stories that 400 million active daily users consume.
If that number didn’t impress you; well, here’s a simple reason why people love Stories.
It is because Stories lets a person share a video or a picture that will vanish after 24 hours. Since these contents cannot be seen afterward, people are eager to see what the content is.
You see people love to know what’s the latest information from people or brands that they are following. If someone sees that a brand posted a Story, the need to really view that information is really high because the content only lasts 24 hours.
This is why businesses use this feature as it is one way of providing content and engaging with their prospects.
Social Media Chatbots
Brands are aiming to increase more of their brand awareness and sales. Because they want to achieve this goal, businesses are already using or are still considering this technology for their marketing strategy.
According to a survey by Oracle, 80 percent of businesses want chatbots in 2020.
If you haven’t known yet, brands use a chatbot which is a piece of automated program to stimulate conversation with their prospects and customers.
You see because of the rise of social media users, making sure that you can still provide customer service if you don’t have a lot of manpower is really a plus.
Imagine if a prospect messages you on Facebook but it took you two days to reply, you will surely lose the chance to convert that person into a customer. However, if you used a chatbot to take in control when you are not online, a conversation will somehow happen.
This is why thousands of businesses worldwide are using chatbots.
Although not all social media platforms have already adopted this, it is safe to say that by next year, an increase of chatbots usage will surely happen as these platforms open up to this new trend.
Live Streaming
As videos are taking the Internet by storm, live streaming will surely be a trend.
According to Livestream, 82% of people prefer to watch live streams rather than read a social media post.
Moreover, Go-Globe found that 57% of people who watch these kinds of videos would even post something on social media if it is on-demand.
These kinds of content that are produced at the moment it is captured are really taking off.
In fact, due to this high number of live streaming viewers, the biggest social networking platforms are already letting its users post live videos for everyone to see real-time.
You see, live streaming is really a great way to share current events, whether it is for personal purposes or for your brand because people don’t want to be left behind, especially if it is the newest events.
By live streaming content, people can connect with you even the video is still ongoing. Commenting on your video and sharing thoughts while you’re live, and you answering or mentioning them in your live video could go a long way. It’s another level of engagement. Thus, there is more interaction with you and the audience.
AR and VR on Social Media
As Internet giants continue to give its users the newest technology, it is predicted that by next year, people will see more of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) features in social media platforms.
To give you an overview of what these are:
AR is a feature where a view of the current world is placed over with a computer-generated graphics that is creating an interaction between the two. The best example of this one, although it is not considered a social platform, is the Pokémon Go.
VR, on the other hand, provides an immersive experience with an artificial and three-dimensional environment as if it is real.
Because of the increase in these technologies, social media giants have already built these features on their platforms. Facebook has built the Spark AR Studio and Oculus Rift Glasses. Snapchat has its Scan for the AR feature and Geofilters and Lens for the VR element.
Although, there are not a lot of people who have known these features it is predicted that because of the continued rise of people who are using these, there will be more AR and VR technologies that social networking giant will produce next year.
Social Media Advertisements / Ads
As social networking platforms are not only home to their users but also for businesses, you will really see more advertisements on these platforms.
According to Hootsuite, 2 million businesses use Facebook for their advertising and these kinds of strategy is the most relevant for 50% of Generation Z and 42% of millennials.
You see, advertising has been around for years already but as social networking platforms give more space for brands, normal users will really see more of these.
Facebook had been letting advertisements in the feed of their users and now, people can already see it even on the platform’s Messenger. Even on Instagram, people who view Stories have also seen advertisements while using the feature.
This only says that this trend will still increase in 2020.
Social Media as Main Source of News
Social media is becoming the world’s main source of news and information as it slowly replaces the traditional media.
In a “News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2018” survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 68% of American adults say that they at least occasionally get news on social media.
Also, in a recent survey by Social Weather Stations, 1 out of 5 adult Filipinos use Facebook as a daily source of news.
Because of this transition of people’s consumption of news, publishers are also using these platforms to share news and other information to its consumers. Besides, it was also seen in the research that 57 percent increase in traffic from these platforms.
By doing these, users can easily see breaking stories on their social media feed. Then, it is up to them whether to continue scrolling other posts on their feeds or go onto the site and learn more about the news.
Conclusion
The number of social media users worldwide in 2019 is 3.484 billion and these people use these platforms to communicate every single day. Business owners, on the other hand, use these platforms for their marketing strategy.
Because of this, take note of these trends that will continue to happen up until 2020 which you can use in your marketing strategy:
- Videos
- Social e-commerce
- Stories
- Chatbots
- Live Streaming
- AR and VR
- Advertisements
- Main Source of News
Knowing these trends will help you catch up with what people are into, help you innovate and not only help you in your brand awareness but will also increase the sales of your business.
A social media marketing company for you!
As a business owner, we understand that you don’t have time to learn the latest social media trends, strategies, and techniques in making social media marketing a potent tool for you and your business.
It is best preferred that you outsource your social media marketing needs to internationally-awarded and recognized Digital Marketing Agency whose major strength is in delivering output based on your need.
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