Social Media Trends to Check-Out Before 2020
August 8, 2019
The year has flown by so quickly. It’s hard to believe that soon summer will come to an end and in a few short months it will be 2020. With September looming in the near distance, that leaves only a short 4 months to do everything you want to complete in 2019. So, what should businesses be focusing on in social media before 2020?
There’s nothing worse than getting left behind in business, especially digital marketing trends which change so quickly. If you’re wondering where you should be spending your social media marketing time, we’ve compiled a list to answer this question, offering a glimpse of the hottest trends of the year. Get involved before the year ends and new trends take over.
Longer Posts (long-form content) for Greater Visibility
SEO has always played a big role in social media. In fact, for businesses, it’s one of the main reasons to get involved in social media. While social media sites tend to have their own set of rules and algorithms where rankings are concerned, your placement in Google searches is still impacted by overall engagement and popularity. Your social media presence makes a difference here.
Long-form content has been deemed most desirable for all types of marketing, but what about social media? Facebook users want to scroll quickly through posts, Instagram users want to look at photos, while Twitter caps the word count. The key is linking your blog posts, or hiding long posts behind a tag for user preference reading. What do we mean by this exactly? Here’s an example:
Social media users are scrolling through your company’s Facebook page when they notice a compelling headline. The headline offers a short sentence and the standard “…”, implying there’s more beneath the link. This tag allows your followers to choose whether they read a lengthy post or scroll past it. It also offers the chance at simply liking or sharing the post based on the headline alone. Meanwhile, your long post shows sites like Google, and even Facebook, that you’re serious about what you’re saying, and you’re invested in your profile and followers.
Using the “Buyer’s Journey” Model for Marketing
There are many marketing models available to modern advertisers. For a long time, the sales funnel was the most prominently used method. Now, however, times have changed. Consumers have become far more educated on selling practices, products, and more. They aren’t buying blindly or purchasing based on sales pitches alone. Consumers want to see videos of these products in use, read reviews, and check ratings left by current customers. In other words, the marketing structure has changed from sales-focused to buyer-focused. This is important to note as a social media trend, because it seems to be sticking around and may even transfer into the next year.
The buyer journey differs from the traditional sales model by focusing less on advertising and more on customer interaction. You want to cater to the consumer, interact with the consumer, follow-up with the consumer, and take your customer’s comments to heart when changing or updating your marketing plans.
Paid Social Media Ads
Social media is free to use and post with, but that doesn’t necessarily mean businesses will be able to market without paying. You can post as many ads as you want on your company’s profile page, but will they transfer to the public without delay? This is where things get foggy. Like any other social media post, it takes interaction and attentive consumers to have the content shared. Sharing equals more users and more followers. If you try to do this 100% organically it could leave you putting in more effort than you get back in ROI. So, what can you do to expand your exposure?
This is where paid ads come in. Paid advertising got extremely popular this year on social media, but you must be smart about it. As mentioned before, this is a consumer world, which means they don’t want to see cheesy sales jargon on their social media feeds. Ads, even paid ads, need to be construed as social posts. Instead of posting a photo of a new product with a price sticker or sales announcement, add a personal story or a link to a blog post. Share your ad with a video, or a photo of your sales team. Personalizing your ads makes them human, and consumers love human interaction online.
Short Snackable Clips for Easier Video Consumption
Videos have always been a trend on social media, but lately it seems like the shorter the video the better. Some social media platforms have even created the ability to use these clips as your profile photo now. Whatever you want to call them, these clips are the perfect bite sized visual for your audience and they make any social media post seem fun and just a bit more whimsical.
A great example of this is the boomerang clips on Instagram. It’s a very short few-seconds of feed which loops. Essentially, you press play and then the video goes forward and backward in a flash, boomeranging through the content. These are the perfect vessels for marketers because you can add text or sound to convey the message without making the ad too salesy.
If you’ve already tried these trends, then good for you! Staying on top of social media is tough in an ever-changing digital landscape. Keep watching your followers and influencers for the latest and greatest ways to reach your customers online.