5 Social Media Marketing Trends That’ll Continue in 2020
Why you need to include these in your digital strategy for next year.
This is usually the part of my blog where I (and pretty much everyone else) preach with amazing statistics of how many people in the world are actively using at least one social media daily and why your business needs to go where the eyeballs are, but I guess you already know those numbers by now.
However, if you’ve come here looking for salvation in 2020, I have some “prophecies” for you.
1 — Videos — the supreme leader
“If Content is King, think about video content as the supreme ruler” — (Yes I said this and you can quote me…the name is John Maduforo in case you don’t know :-))
One of the things that inspired this blog post was a conversation I had with a lady who discussed her plans to start her fashion business with me, I explained different ways she can create engaging video content around her niche. Her reply, “videos are hard to make and consumes data” left me numb in my lips as I gave her a long stare before saying...
“One of the biggest mistakes you’ll make in 2020 is to spend your data money on something else….remember your potential customers have fast (enough) Internet, they are looking for videos and your competitors are creating for them” (I said this too)
Why should your brand invest in videos now more than ever?
5 years ago, I’d unfollow you for posting too many videos on your timeline, because data was more expensive, the internet was slow and when it was “fast”, it took 50mins to complete a 20 mins video on youtube. Fast forward to today, video is about the most consumed content on the internet — the single explanation to why Youtube is the second largest search engine.
It is also interesting to note that…
The average connected Nigerian currently spends more money on data than on food.
Over 100mil Nigerians already have access to the internet and over 55% of these ones are active every day.
Gen Zs, (people born in the mid-1990s till the early 2000s) were born into the internet, some are like my kid brother and little cousins who may never understand what it means for a Youtube video to buffer and prefer to learn science and art using videos.
What so special about videos?
Videos engage all our senses and amp our emotions a thousand times more than any picture will. In 2020, this is going to be one of the biggest trends and should be part of any content strategy.
Even though videos can also be edited and refreshed to look great they bring us closer to reality than pictures. Consider a beauty brand that wants to sell a product, it will be easier to convert their followers with a 60 seconds or 5 minutes video showing how their favourite celebrity or beauty influencer does her makeup using these products than it would be using images (that may or may not have been photoshopped and edited so many times to make it look great)
2 — More eyeballs on disappearing content (Stories)
Whether it’s on Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp or Snapchat, disappearing stories have come to stay. Read my blog post on creative ways brands can plug into stories to engage their audience. On my personal account, I’ve seen views on my stories jump from 150 total views after 24 hours to around 600 views in only 5 hours of posting a story.
Aside from sparking the FOMO (Fear of missing out) effect in users, the bit size nature of story posts makes it easier for people to stay and watch when they just want to spend 15 seconds on Instagram or 30 seconds on Whatsapp, it’s left for you to keep them watching with extremely good and addictive content.
3 — Advanced chatbots (It’s Automation Szn!!)
If you are a first-timer to this conversation, my colleague Orakwe has written a fantastic blog post on what you need to know about chatbots.
So now that you have read his blog post, you will understand why in the near future, it would be hard to separate chatbots from the social media marketing mix.
Currently, only a few platforms have adopted this trend but considering that giants like Facebook and Twitter are making way to this era, it won’t be long before this becomes the most effective means of engagement for brands and for customers who would depend on them to make purchases, book and confirm hotel or flight details and also learn about their favourite brands.
Chatbots are never under the pressure of figuring out how to respond to 200 new messages as humans would face, hence, if configured properly, these data-driven smart bots can effectively engage followers faster and even personalise future conversations by asking and learning from questions like “What is your favourite kind of music? Or where is the one place dream to visit in the world? The adoption of chatbots by retail brand would further make way for my next point on this list.
4 — We’ll see more Shoppable Posts — Social Commerce
E-commerce websites are great but they almost old school and here’s why…
Over 80 per cent of Instagram users follow at least one business account, that means they also use this platform to search for new and interesting products.
It’s also interesting to know that over 72% of Instagrammers have purchased a product on the app. It just makes sense to be able to buy that wig or pair of Nike shoes right there without having to open another web page in your browser.
Facebook seems to be leading a lot of social innovations across all their brands (Instagram and Whatsapp).
Facebook’s shop feature currently makes it possible for brands to list products for sale right inside of facebook pages and groups, this closes the gap between product discovery, enquiries and sales as customers can choose to buy and make the payment right on your page without visiting your website. On Instagram, brands can also tag a post as a product which links followers directly to the product page, in the nearest future with seamless integration of payment systems, you’ll be able to complete transactions in the app.
This is a great way to close sales faster and keep any customer who may be distracted on their way to your website. With the integration of chatbots, social commerce will soon make conventional e-commerce websites secondary touchpoints for retail brands.
5 — Personalized Marketing
Won’t you just love it if your favourite fashion store sends you an email announcing new deals and every item on the deal looks like what you wear? If that email went to 200k people they probably all feel the same way.
Personalized marketing is a strategy that engages customers or prospects by communicating with each one as an individual. This is possible through data collection, analysis and automation.
Email lists are great examples of how to apply this strategy. If you can segment your lists properly based on different criteria, sending personalized emails to these groups have shown to have better engagement and conversion rates compared to generalized email blast hoping to catch random interested people.
You cannot provide a personalized experience without the right data, so the best way to start collecting data is by offering value in the form of a free resource, video, research, tools etc.
This always works, customers and prospects are more comfortable providing personal information to their favourite brands if they get something valuable in return.
While these trends open a gate of opportunities for brands and marketers, only those who are willing and fast to adapt will continue to attract and retain their ideal customers.
There are so many more trends to watch out for, more than I could write about in one blog, so, please leave me a comment and don’t forget that sharing is caring 💕💕
