Social Media Trends for 2020 and Beyond
We all have that familiar daily routine. We wake up in the morning and the first thing we do is check our social media feeds, starting with Whatsapp messages, facebook feed and then moving on to Instagram stories and updates.
Thus, there is no gainsaying that social media has penetrated our lives deeply. We are glued to our smartphone screen every waking minute. Considering this pedestal that social media sits on, there’s no doubt that social media is one of the primary sources of revenue for businesses and brands. Consumers watch their favorite brands in play while businesses connect with their target audience to establish their presence in the market.
However, despite this popularity of social media, information overload is a hindrance that could negatively affect the marketing efforts of any business. While being omnipresent, social media is also fickle, making it difficult for brands to maintain their position in the minds of the consumers. To overcome this loss of attention, brands need to keep abreast of the latest trends and formulate a strategy according to current developments. In this article, we will be reading about some of the biggest social media trends for the upcoming year 2020 that could transform the behavior of consumers and brands on different social networking platforms.
Social Media Trends of 2020
#1- Ephemeral Content Will Keep Grabbing Attention
Ephemeral content is referred to as the type of content that remains for a short duration and then disappears. The extremely popular Whatsapp status, Snapchat and Instagram Story are the best examples of ephemeral content.
The modern consumer leads busy lives so they do not have the time to consume content that is too long or old. Our super-fast lives do not allow us to leisurely read a piece of content, instead, we prefer to skim through it. This is why consumers look for fast, and minimalistic content that is engaging within a short period.
No wonder marketers are taking note of this trend and have started to adopt it widely in their strategies. According to a report by Hootsuite, 64% of marketers have already made use of Instagram stories in their marketing efforts.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Instagram or Snapchat stories have risen exponentially in the last year. This graph below depicts the widespread use of the medium.
#2- Influencer Marketing Will Maintain its Growth
Influencer marketing has gained traction in recent times and is going to maintain this pace well into 2020.
The major reason behind this growth is the weariness of social media users towards the continuous ads that disrupt their time online. Moreover, users are looking for more real-time content, especially one that has proof. This is the driving factor behind the need to seek reviews, updates from social media influencers who are paid exorbitant amounts for promotions.
Another reason is that influencer marketing is cheaper, in contrast to launching a paid advertising campaign that is a time-consuming, expensive process with unpredictable outcomes.
Influencers have grown in almost all industries ranging from sports, beauty, automobiles, and gadgets. Promoting products through influencers generates more leads while providing credibility to the brand in front of their existing and potential customers.
The extent of how lucrative influencer marketing is can be read from this survey conducted by Influencer Marketing Hub in 2019, which says that businesses make $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.
#3- Augmented Reality Will Enter Mainstream Marketing
Augmented reality is a technological phenomenon that enhances our actual reality by introducing physical components to it. Augmented Reality has gained increased applications in ecommerce, travel, product delivery, promotions, etc.
Social media has found a place for AR in many ways and brands have been leveraging this trend heavily in the past years. Instagram uses AR in its filters while clicking photos. Games such as Pokemon G have their foundations in Augmented Reality.
Many brands have used AR to promote their brands to their audience in a creative and eye-catching manner. For example, beauty brand Sephora is known to use AR in the form of ‘try before buy’ wherein they enable their customers to try on their products virtually before purchasing them.
IKEA, the mega-brand, launched its AR app to allow buyers a sneak peek into their homes and understand how new furniture will look in the same setting.
AR has also found use in the travel and tourism industry. Hotels can give guests a look into their properties, rooms, facilities through AR functionalities, right from the comfort of their homes.
Augmented reality has immense potential and will gradually become a part of mainstream social trends. Although there are certain budgetary and developmental concerns, however, a major shift can be expected in 2020.
#4- Chatbots Will be on the Rise
The first understanding of chatbots for consumers came when they were answered with pre-written answers to questions that were common. These answers were prepared by the use of certain keywords that were used to trigger the bot.
By 2019, chatbot technology has improved significantly. Now, organizations do not have to feed pre-prepared answers to the chatbots. Instead, bots can now answer questions by actually understanding what the consumer is saying. They can even find out answers by surfing the web.
Chatbots come in handy for improving customer service as well. Since they can talk to multiple at a time, they break the barrier of customer service agents who take time to deal with one query at a time.
There’s some hope that chatbot intelligence will continue to develop in the future, where consumers will be more accepting of them and brands will adopt this trend in their marketing plans too.
#5- Growth of Social Media Communities
Since social media is responsible for connecting even the farthest corners of the world, then obviously, it will also lead to the rise of social media communities.
Social media communities are social groups created mostly by businesses and brands to provide a common networking platform for their customers. Social media communities are used heavily in reaching a large section of the target audience in a single shot. These groups are private groups where like-minded people come together to share common interests.
A brilliant example of social media communities is Facebook groups. Countless brands bring together their existing and prospective customers under a single umbrella and engage with them in a meaningful way. Social media communities are an excellent medium to gain client feedback, answer questions, identify issues and challenges and provide effective solutions. They can also be used to launch new products, seek reviews and are a box of insights into consumer behavior.
An example of social media communities could be the Facebook group called ‘Women who Travel’ by Conde Nast. This group was created by the brand to connect women travelers to share their travel experiences, stories, and give and seek suggestions.
#6- Niche Platforms Will Show Better Performance
Social media consumers have long been active on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Yet in the past few years, people have been spending quality time on niche platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok.
TikTok came into inception in 2016 and has garnered a huge fan following among youth only in 3 years. Companies, businesses, the workforce prefer LinkedIn to keep updated with the professional environment, while gaming enthusiasts like Twitch.
Just like these, many other niche social media platforms that are making their mark on the social media landscape and will continue to show good performance in 2020.
#7- Video Content Will Dominate Your Screen
Video content is on its way to becoming the most preferred type of content on social media. More and more videos can be seen on every social media platform whether they are short-form videos on TikTok or long ones on Youtube.
In a study conducted by Cisco, it was stated that by 2020, almost 82% of all online content will be video content. A whopping statistic such as this is a mark of the importance and utilization of this form of content.
Videos can be used for a variety of purposes such as unboxing, tutorials, reviews, advertisements, live videos for events, and many more. It makes an excellent form of marketing material that is consumed by a large section of the audience. Videos keep viewers engaged since they include all elements such as visuals, sound, music, and speech. Hence, those who have not utilized videos as yet must ensure they are an essential part of their marketing strategy.
#8- Social Media as a Customer Service
Social media initially developed as a medium through which people were able to connect with their social networks. But now, it has become more than that. Social media has slowly emerged as a platform for providing customer service.
Be it retail, customer support or product discovery, social media has encouraged social commerce increasingly. Nowadays, brands are using social media to engage with customers and resolve their problems.
This shift was first seen when customers were trying to reach out to brands on social media. Triggered by a probable lack of response, social media was seen as a more direct way to reach the brands.
Moving on to 2019, brands are now engaging with their customers on social media, by responding to their messages, questions and even taking suggestions.
#9- Personalization Will Rule
Personalization emerged as a global customer trend several years ago and has seen adoption in social media in recent times.
Personalization on social media is now present everywhere, from Facebook feeds, to ecommerce product suggestions, personalized Google search and more. All in all, personalization is the key to success in social media marketing.
Social media is largely used by brands to leverage customized targeting of their customers to make their products more relevant to the viewer. Brands use personalization to reach the right audience at the right place at the right time.
Take a look at this infographic to understand how efficient personalization can be in channeling the correct customers to your brand.
#10- User-Generated Content Will Increase
The best way to target existing and potential customers is to use the voice of the consumer itself for anchorage. This is where user-generated content works its charms.
A good example of a brand using user-generated content is Daniel Wellington. They motivate their customers to create content and mention the brand for a chance to feature on the official website and page. This is a simple, yet effective campaign idea to increase engagement and visibility of the brand.
The best thing about user-generated content is that is completely free but reaps fantastic results. It provides authenticity and trust among the customers by providing an inside look into the brand’s message utility, persona, and relevance.
Regardless of how businesses might want to experiment with user-generated content, it is always a great idea to include it in the marketing mix as user-generated content can transform any brand image.
Final Thoughts
And that’s a wrap for the top 10 most noteworthy social media trends for the new year 2020. Some of these trends have been around for some time and are facing incremental use while others are new ideas and concepts that are fast gaining ground.
Social media is a dynamic, powerful and competitive space, open for brands to interact and convert customers who are ripe for the picking. Thus, brands must imbibe these trends and ideas into their advertising endeavors to fully grasp its potential.
