2020 Social Media Trends

While it is difficult to predict the future direction of social media platforms, it is important to stay up to date on the new trends. Here is a breakdown of some of the biggest trends we expect to see in 2020.

 

Video is King and Always Will Be

Video continues to be one of the most important trends in the social media world. It is predicted video will make up 82 percent of all internet traffic in 2020, according to Social Media Today. When adapting your overall strategy, you will want to prioritize video content and how you can use it to target specific markets. There will be more emphasis on creative, engaging storytelling that captures user attention in seconds. Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are already pushing brands to produce video content through story ads. They are seeing higher click-through rates than traditional newsfeed ads. If you are not currently creating videos, you will want to include them in your 2020 content strategy.

 

Vanity Metrics are Out and Actionable Metrics are Key

You will no longer want to focus on likes, comments, and followers as a measure of popularity and brand recognition. Instagram is already seeking to make likes less important by no longer showing how many likes a post received. This change is happening to combat fake likes and followers, which can make brands and influencers appear to have a wider reach than they actually do. If “likes” go away, marketers, brands, and influencers will need to adapt to these changes. You will want to focus on digging deeper into actionable metrics like the rate and quality of user engagement, which can help you better understand how to target potential customers.

 

Segmentation of Your Audience

The big focus will be crafting your content with your audience in mind. This will require brands to always have a grasp on who is within their niche. The one-size-fits all approach will no longer cut it. Segmentation goes beyond basic demographic and digs deeper into creating a sense of community with specific audience members. Local targeting needs to be more of a focus when segmenting your audience. Marketers will want to make better use of location-based targeting to reach out to and attract people from specific geographic locations.

 

Shopping More on Social Media

Social shopping has become a new retail avenue for brands and this trend is only growing stronger. There is more emphasis on creating a frictionless shopping experience where customers will not need to leave the social media site to buy products. Social media is evolving to become a much bigger retail platform than before.

 

Influencers will dominate social media

Influencers have been around for a while, but their numbers are on the rise. Investing in influencers is much cheaper than running paid ads and it delivers good results. Influencers can help marketers achieve a variety of marketing goals and not just generate leads. When using this strategy, it is best to consider working with multiple smaller influencers instead of one celebrity.

 

Social Communities are on the Rise

Social media communities are small groups of people with similar interests. Brands can create groups to provide a networking platform for their customers. They are usually private groups like-minded people join to talk about their shared interest. Many brands use their communities to bring together their existing customers and prospective customers to engage with them in a meaningful way.

 

There are many other trends that will be gaining momentum in 2020 and beyond that can be leveraged to create a greater social media presence. Marketers can leverage these trends to their advantage and stay ahead of their competition. Social media has always been a competitive space and staying on top of current trends is very important to create a stronger social media strategy.