What social media trends should agencies expect in 2020? Check out these data-backed social media strategy predictions.
In a digital age where tech revolutions happen as frequently as new iPhone releases, social media is the one medium constantly changing faster than the rest. Hootsuite blogger James Mulvey shares a list of data-backed social media strategy predictions for 2020 and offers tips to stay ahead of the curve.
Product Discovery Becomes More Visual (and Social)
According to GlobalWebIndex, almost half of Internet users follow social feeds of brands they like or those that offer products they are thinking of purchasing. Search engines, online reviews, and press releases are traditional discovery channels today. By 2020, current data trends indicate large growth in five areas: social for product research, visual searches, voice control, messaging apps, and chatbots. It’s important to learn how you can utilize each in your search strategies now, before 2020 leaves your brand in the dust.
Social Video Saturation — and Evolution
It’s easy to see video’s growth potential. According to GlobalWebIndex, 56 percent of Internet users watch videos on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram each month. One in three social video viewers watch videos made by brands. In the next couple of years, marketers will face video saturation as more companies adopt this medium. Here are few ways to expect radical change in social video content:
1. Social eCommerce — More companies using video to explain products to customers.
2. One-to-one communication — Using live video to handle customer concerns or questions.
3. Passive networking — Including more videos in your everyday social posts to capture more social traffic.
Gen Z Drives VR and AR Adoption
When developing social media strategy predictions, look at early behaviors and technologies used by new generations. For example, companies can adopt virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) into their content strategy because these tools will gain more practical uses in the future of social media development. Gen Z will be pushing these technologies further as recent studies found 22 percent of Gen Zers are using geofilters each month. Examples include location specific videos and lens functions.
Social CEOs Become the New Normal
Marketers will see the greatest impact on how social media influences work life in two areas: employer branding and the rise of socially in-tune executives who use social to listen to customers, communicate their vision, and rally employees. As employees have more power to affect an employer’s brand on social, large organizations will have to manage employee comments and perceptions similar to customer feedback.
Fake News and the Rise of Regulation
2018 is the beginning of the end of an unregulated social era. Major social platforms will most likely face regulation in the years to come as we face more discoveries about fake news and data privacy issues. Marketers will face stricter regulation, while tech vendors will expand market share by protecting and storing first-party data. Does your company have a plan to handle these new hurdles?
