What Can You Expect in Social Media Marketing in 2020 – Stats, Facts, and Tips
Since inception, social media has been in constant change. Algorithms for organic reach in marketing have nearly disappeared, new platforms have arisen, old platforms have lost user attention, and more. What’s ahead for social media marketing in 2020 – we’ve got stats, facts, predictions, and strategies we think are worth paying attention to as we welcome in a new year.
Segmentation between platforms
Only so much time on a person’s hands, expect social media platforms in 2020 to become increasingly segmented with demographics exclusively held by certain networks. As a brand, targeting specific audiences will become easier although this could also bring in increased competition as well.
Easier eCommerce social purchasing functions
Do you use social media marketing to sell eCommerce products and reach new audience? Social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook are fully aware that eCommerce businesses use them to connect with new customers. Facebook, in particular, has become extremely eCommerce-friendly and other platforms are expected to follow. Expect 2020 to continue in the trend of it being easier than ever to shop and buy products right off a social platform.
Small, short time-sensitive video content
More brands are investing in producing short-form video content of 10 seconds or less to share across Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter. This trend is expected to continue, as campaigns like these produce higher click-through rates than traditional News Feed ads or extended video content.
A shift away from likes and to ‘real’ engagement
There have been rumours this year of Instagram soon making ‘like counts’ private for users. Assuming this rolls out in the new year, measuring a social post’s success is going to shift more towards comments, reactions, and engagement beyond a click. To protect against this engagement shift, brands must become more critical with social media marketing KPIs.
More direct messaging
A survey conducted in 2018 found that 69 percent of Facebook users felt that direct messaging with a company helped them feel more confident about a brand purchase. There are many opportunities for brands to connect directly with their followers on Facebook, Instagram, and elsewhere. Those who build meaningful connections are cultivating a level of loyalty that can pay off in dividends.
Chatbots and conversational AI
In an effort to keep engagement up and satisfy customers, expect more use of social media chatbots and AIs. In customer service, the integration of this tech is already generating strong results. It’s estimated that up to 85 percent of customer interactions will be either in part or fully automated by end of year 2020. If you’re looking to future-proof your social media marketing presence, chatbots and AI are a strong area to focus on.
Minimalist design
If you’re looking to re-design your social presence in 2020, focus on minimalism. More users are viewing social media on their smartphones, with limited screen space. Think ‘less is more’. Impactful, short visual messaging that doesn’t appear busy or cluttered will win the day. While you’re at it, ensure these same minimalist designs are held across all platforms and on your website. This will help maintain a sense of unity in visual marketing that you want especially with new clientele.
Say goodbye to macro-influencers and hello to micro!
Influencer marketing will be increasingly specialized, with influencers carrying large audiences unfortunately becoming a little less useful. In their place are the rise of micro-influencers, with engaged but smaller audiences and oftentimes with a more targeted reach. This means digital marketing strategies can spend less to potentially earn more in return.
User-generated content
A big battle in 2020 for brands looking to outperform the year prior on social media will be generating engagement. If you’re struggling to get enough content out there to really inspire conversation numbers to soar, think of user-generated content as a means of achieving that. Promotional contests, share giveaways, encouraging reviews and ratings, sharing or publishing testimonials, featuring social media shares and mentions, and more. These are all ways to deliver content that you don’t need to spend hours creating.
Users are sharing less
Between 2015 and 2017, social sharing dropped on nearly all platforms by almost 50 percent. Brands are will find it more difficult to post content on social media, under a digital marketing strategy, and get it shared. This continues the pattern of it being harder for brands to reach audiences organically, with more emphasis on paid advertising in social media than anything else.
An increased emphasis on data privacy
The way social media handles user data has been under heavy scrutiny these past three years and this isn’t set to change in 2020. Millions of profiles on platforms like Facebook have had personal data mined and sold commercially. Similar privacy policies exist on sites like YouTube. Brands and small businesses using social media are going to have to do so carefully and be conscious a lot of consumers are now very cautious about who they follow or what brands they connect with.
The slow death of vanity metrics
Brands who don’t sell well rely on social media KPIs to show their digital marketing’s helping generate success. Things like like counts, follower counts, and similar metrics may hold a social meaning publicly but in establishing business success, it’s all about engagement – that’s comments and conversation. We mentioned Instagram was thinking about phasing out the ‘like’ button. We’re moving closer to world where vanity metrics become less and less important overall.
Authenticity over viral posts
Though it’s fine to have a massively popular viral video or post go viral, the effects of this are predominantly short-term. Brands are coming to realize that ‘going viral’ isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. Instead, in 2020, social media marketing winners will focus on delivering a consistently clear, clever, and authentic tone that supports a long-term strategy and which shows the human side of your company.
Choose video as your content priority
This year, video will make up approximately 82 percent of all Internet traffic. On social media platforms, video content should be prioritized. The brands who deliver creative storytelling that captures the user’s attention in a matter of seconds will be the ones who close out 2020 with success in their pocketbooks.
A new private-led social media marketing
When we think social media marketing, sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn probably come to mind. Underneath these very public-driven platforms are social messaging apps like WhatsApp, Viber, and WeChat. The growth rates on these chat apps outperforms social networks, identifying major social media marketing opportunities in 2020 businesses and brands can exploit.
The welcoming of new social media platforms
No different to prior years, there’s always new social platforms on the uptick. This year, the most popular is perhaps TikTok, currently the #1 most downloaded social media app in the world. TikTok’s growth is predicted to continue into the new year, though it’s still at an early stage. Snapchat’s sudden rise is perhaps an example of what happens when brands get in early on a platform – they build audience quickly, appear trendy, and reach some of the most engaged users on social media.
More social listening
Here’s why we think it’s extremely important to monitor the conversation around your brand on social media.
90 percent of social media users contact brands on social media.
78 percent of people that complain to brands on Twitter expect a response within 1 hour.
29 percent of people will share a negative brand-related social media experience with friends and family, when a brand doesn’t respond to a complaint.
When you don’t know what people are saying about you on social media, you’re potentially opening the door for a lot of unhappy customers, lost leads you would have otherwise had, negative publicity, and a possible sinking of all efforts to produce a high quality social media marketing result.
In 2020, get social media marketing from brand building experts at Unlimited Exposure. Garner returns you know you can achieve! Let’s go!
