2020: Top Social Media Trends That Will Help You Grow Your Online Presence

With a turbulent and unexpected start to 2020, industries across the globe have had to face novel challenges that COVID-19 and consequently, the lockdown, have posed to businesses of all sizes. While some industries, such as the hospitality industry, have been dramatically impacted by this crisis, others continued to operate, however, not under normal circumstances. We noticed increasingly more sectors embracing technology solutions in order to adapt to a fully remote environment. As a result of this, more and more businesses also shifted their attention to building and growing their social media presence, investing more in their online advertising and trying (maybe more than ever) to build and nourish their relationship with the target audience.

Following big changes in the social media world, such as the recent removal of likes, you may be interested in discovering the major social media trends that you need to watch in 2020 and how you can use them to grow your presence in the digital space.

Social Media Listening

A growing trend in the digital space is social media listening. With a multitude of tools that allow companies and brands to tap into social media conversations, you might want to include this in your online strategy. Social media listening will enable you to access data and insightful information that could completely transform your marketing strategy. Who knows, you might end up learning that there is a specific group of individuals who you’ve eliminated from your target audience that actually have a pain point you’ve never considered. Social media listening gives you the opportunity to cater your product or service to them!

Video Content

If scrolling through your social media feeds, you ever get the feeling that there’s more video content than ever, you are right to believe that and you need to embrace it cause more of it is on its way! Video content has completely revolutionised social media in recent years and all statistics point to the fact that video content will definitely dominate your feeds in the years to come. Out of all content types, it sure looks like we have a winner. Even with paid social, we are witnessing an increase in the number of dynamic advertisements and video-based ads.

Influencer Marketing

In the past decade, we have seen influencer marketing growing consistently from one year to another, yet lately, this particular sector has been facing challenges that have forced marketers to reconsider their influencer marketing approach. While it initially started as a way to promote brands and products cheaper than through traditional or online paid advertising, the digital space is now dealing with incredibly popular influencers who are charging significant amounts to promote brands.

That would not be such an issue for marketers if they were confident that influencer marketing is the optimal technique for their client, but what happens when that influencer doesn’t deliver on the metrics to the level expected? Influencer marketing is still one of the most effective ways to market your brand, however, marketers are now turning their attention to niche influencers, small and local individuals who have a very powerful connection with their audience. Turns out it is more effective, as well as more profitable, to work with a small network of nano and micro-influencers, rather than going for one big influencer.

Ephemeral Content

According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s recent report on social media trends for 2020, the interest for content that is only available for a short period of time (Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook Stories) is on the rise and will continue to gain more popularity in the future. With short, punchy content to watch, online users are more likely to spend hours (yes, hours!) scrolling through Instagram Stories. Whether we’re talking about organic or paid social media marketing, this social media insight can be particularly helpful when developing your content marketing strategy or ads placement. If your target audience is predominantly active on Instagram, it is likely that they also spend a significant amount of time on IG Stories. Why not use some of your ad budget to experiment with IG Story ads and see how they perform?

Customer Service

Customer Service on social media is probably one of the most important aspects of your online strategy, especially if we refer to medium to large companies. It is crucial to build relationships with your online community and a big part of this community is represented by individuals who are loyal customers, occasional customers or potential customers. Besides everything else that you are integrating within your marketing strategy, it is now clear that online users expect companies and organisations to respond to their online enquiries and they also expect a response within a few hours. What’s more, according to a statistic released by Go Globe, 60% of customers who complain on social media expect a response within an hour.

User-Generated Content

Not necessarily a new trend as UGC has been in the books for businesses in recent years, however, still a trend that is showing potential growth in 2020. As part of their content marketing strategy, big brands across the globe are using more and more user-generated content in their organic, as well as paid marketing campaigns. The high engagement rates for UGC is not the only benefit, as user-generated content is also completely free!

Social Media Communities

Social media groups were always there but as it turns out, they’re making a comeback! Gaining more popularity by the year, Facebook groups, for example, are no longer just a forum, instead, they become a community where online users can exchange opinions, tips, ask questions and get relevant information and content. Big brands have jumped at this opportunity and companies such as Conde Nast are building social media communities personalised for specific audiences (young, female, solo travellers is one of them, as an example) where they can promote and publish high-quality content that is customised to their audience’s preferences and therefore, building a stronger relationship with those who will potentially become customers for their products and services in the future.

With reports from marketers at Hootsuite, Influencer Marketing Hub and others, we are also looking at a transition towards personalisation, technology adoption (VR and AR) and private engagement for a more personal, relevant and highly targeted marketing strategy across all industries. Even though the social media world is constantly changing, your audience is most likely spending a significant amount of time already on some of the most popular social media platforms, meaning that you can leverage these channels to reach your target audience, generate leads, increase sales or build brand awareness. If you would be interested in social media marketing but you’re not sure where to start, feel free to reach out to us at hello@socialgamma.com and we will be happy to discuss it further with you.