If you want to be one step ahead of your competitors,
the first thing you need to do is to get yourself acquainted with some of the
best social media marketing trends that will turn 2020 into a big milestone for
your social media accounts.
According to statistics by eMarketer, the number of social media users in 2020 will pass 3 billion users, corresponding to about 80% of global internet users.
Taking advantage of such a massive audience is your best card to boost your brand visibility and increase your profit beyond measure.
To give you a hand, let’s see the best social media marketing trends to help you plan your social strategy this year.
1. The age of dynamic post-click landing pages
You might have heard about it before, but
personalization is of paramount importance for a successful social media
marketing strategy that will turn your Gen Z and millennial audience into
engaged social media followers.
With the rise of “one-size-fits-all” ads, though, the average consumer is hesitant to click on Instagram or Facebook ads and engage with their corresponding post-click pages due to the lack of personalization.
You need to find new ways to reach and engage with your audience, taking into account what your target audience wants to see rather than what you want.
After all, statistics show that 51% of consumers expect that businesses will be able to anticipate their needs and make relevant suggestions to them by 2020.
Dynamic landing pages, in this case, are a powerful
form of personalization that takes into account your followers’ behavior to
deliver specific elements corresponding to the individual’s specific needs.
If you want to create a landing page that will be highly-personalized and match your ad groups, then you should start with simple things like including your visitor’s location to increase the relevancy of your messages.
Here’s an example from HouseKeep’s dynamic landing
page:
Also, keep in mind that in order to create such landing pages you need to use an exceptional landing page builder that supports the creation of dynamic landing pages.
2. Social media eCommerce is a must
Understanding your audience’s needs and finding ways to fulfill them in the fastest way possible is what this year is all about.
What’s already out there to help you achieve it, is
Instagram’s shoppable posts function, something that was popular throughout
2019 and is slowly going to turn into a major trend in 2020.
Especially when you start a new online store, giving your audience an easy and fast way to communicate with you and at the same time complete their purchases is a new reality that every company should embrace.
As complex steps and numerous new pages can discourage consumers from completing their orders, giving a fast way to fulfill their needs without leaving their favorite social media network is a core aspect of social media marketing.
Here’s an example from Colourpop Cosmetics:
Getting smart with your customer lifecycle marketing endeavors by offering your potential customers convenient solutions is one of the most exciting social media marketing trends this year.
3. Virtual influencer’s popularity increases
Whether you already know about it or you are just
about to find out, virtual influencers are one of the most incredible things
that happened in 2019.
While these CGI influencers have been around for some time now, the rapid changes in technology and graphic improvements have given us an upgraded version of them that is hyper-realistic and almost believable.
As one of the most incredible things of social media
marketing, virtual influencers have come a long way to establish themselves as
true social media personas who have achieved higher engagement rates even
compared to real worldwide influencers.
As consumers’ love for unique experiences and content that will pique their interest and curiosity keeps growing, virtual influencers keep getting more and more popular, especially with the technology-loving Gen Z.
Here is one of the most popular virtual influencers,
Lil’ Miquela, back in 2016:
And here’s a recent post from her collaboration with
Samsung. Can you spot the difference?
4. Video content is the king of social
As we progress in a more technologically advanced era,
specific forms of content are going to be favored over others.
Video, in this case, will continue to be the most powerful
form of content to engage your audience with your products or services.
As Cisco predicts, by 2022, 82% of all online content will be in video format.
What this means, is that you have to find clever ways
to deliver your video content, either in the form of an amazing story that will
awe your social media followers or a short video post that will be able to land
numerous comments, likes, and shares.
With video content attracting consumers’ attention a lot better than a simple image post, it’s no longer a matter of if brands use it in their Facebook or Instagram strategy, but a matter of how well they will use it to engage with their audience and make them spend more time on their profiles instead of their competitors.
Video content is about to be the next big social media marketing trend to dominate the social media landscape and help you power up your customer retention efforts by showing your loyal followers exclusive content that will inspire them.
Here is a great example of KetelOne’s Instagram
stories:
Delivering content that will truly speak to your
audience is a matter of how creative and authentic it is.
However, planning and having a regular posting
schedule can be a tedious task that requires a lot of time and effort.
To give you a helping hand, you should consider taking advantage of various tools to maximize your marketing team productivity to help you save valuable time and supercharge your social media marketing endeavors.
5. User-generated content (UGC) beats sponsored posts
User-generated content has been around for some time
now and while it’s nothing new, it’s still one of the most popular social media
marketing trends that numerous brands have used to boost their conversion
rates.
The popularity of user-generated content comes from
the authenticity it can give to the brands using it compared to sponsored
content.
As a powerful marketing resource, user-generated content that highlights the positive aspects of your brand, and other customer’s great customer experiences, will drive purchase intent.
According to statistics, 80% of consumers consider user-generated content a factor that influences their buying decisions a lot more than the content businesses create.
Since UGC is the best way to boost brand credibility, more companies will leverage the power of social listening to unearth the most valuable pieces of content to differentiate their brand and product/service from their competitors.
Here’s
a post with an amazing recipe featuring Kitkat’s newest Kitkat flavor:
6. Amazing customer service
For B2C companies, customer service has been a wild
process of exchanging a chaotic number of emails between representatives and
customers.
While emails have always been an efficient channel of
communication, it isn’t suitable to give answers to small customer queries and
problems that need an instant solution.
Social media networks, on the other hand, can truly turn into amazing customer service channels to answer your customers’ questions, give them faster, more targeted answers to their problems and help you grow your business in the most cost-effective way.
Here’s how customer service can be made easier with a
simple Twitter comment from Chipotle:
Answering simple queries like these through Twitter clears any possible misconceptions about the brand and allows other users to look at the comment and answer numerous other similar questions.
Leveraging the power of direct messages also offers you the chance to deliver more personalized and direct customer service to solve the customers’ problems and make them feel valued.
Here’s a direct message example from Casper:
7. New marketing possibilities
Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Snapchat and Twitter are some of the most popular social media networks for users to communicate with peers, engage with their favorite brands and gather information about things that interest them.
However, newer social media competitors have made their appearances in recent years like Periscope and Meerkat (now Houseparty) in 2015 and Tik Tok in 2017.
While not every single one of these newer social platforms has managed to reach the top, Tik Tok added 188 million new users last quarter, growing by 70% from Q1 2018.
As the new fun video-sharing social network, Tik Tok has a massive young audience that makes it the perfect place for B2C marketing, especially for brands targeting a 16-24 audience.
Here’s how well Chipotle’s Tik Tok video has performed
so far.
Wrapping up
To plan your social media strategy, you need to get yourself acquainted with some of the biggest social media marketing trends that will dominate the landscape and change the way users interact with your brand.
So, now that you are aware of what the future holds, be ready to take any social media challenge and turn your accounts into a massive conversion tool to get your business to higher heights.
Guest author: Marilia Dimitriou is a Creative Writer working for email marketing software Moosend. Her passion for writing has made her find new ways to combine the art of Creative Writing with SEO Copywriting. When she’s not writing articles, you’ll find her enthusing over marketing tech and automation.