Biggest Social Media Trends!

Social Media Trends are ever-changing. There is always something new. If you don’t keep up with it, your marketing might go downhill before you even realize. The ideal thing is to be aware of the changes, adapt and update. Never lose your focus from trying to learn what’s important for your field specially related social platforms to stay on top. So the first question is what are these biggest social media trends? and all the fuss about them? Well, that’s our topic for today. Let’s dive in! 

Some of the biggest social media trends in 2020 are going to be Video content, User-generated content, Social Media Communities, Influencer Marketing, AR and VR implementation, Brand Personalization etc.

Video Content

No matter what type of business is yours, Video content will be the king of all. Almost all the brands are now focusing greatly on video contents and actively adapting it into their marketing strategy. In case you didn’t know, according to Hubspot 87% of business uses videos as a marketing tool now, which is about 70% increase from last year and it’s just going to get Bigger. 

Almost 6 out of 10 people would rather watch an online video as Google reveal in a report. 78% of people watch online videos every week and 55% view online videos every day. Moreover, Mobile Video consumption rises 100% in each year. Feeling surprised already? according to CISCO, By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic — 15 times higher than it was in 2017.

Youtube is the second most popular and widely used site right now. Users view a whopping 5 billion hours of videos every day. Video contents are so easier to inform your customers about your product and message that you want to convey. Even top digital marketers like Neil Patel is seen actively incorporating videos and focus on why video is so important? 

No doubt that, video is the future and that is also evident on the rise of social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat. Ephemeral contents like Facebook stories, Instagram stories, Snapchat stories have risen massively and many top marketers express the similar view. Live videos are catching attention on real time in social media channels. Brands are constantly seeing more engagement from videos from their target audience. You can notice the vast leap towards video trend in social network like Linkedin’s consolidation of video on its platform as well. Learn how to incorporate social media video marketing to get your business up higher. 

User-generated Content

What is user-generated content in Social Media Trends?
Any type of visual content whether its videos, images or other types of media created by users on online platforms that are available to others is user-generated content. USG is vastly noticed on social media profiles across any type of audience.

Can you imagine the excitement when your favourite brand responds to your online content or shares it on their channel? Amazing, right? Brands can leverage the power of it. Sharing of user-generated contents help you reach their audience along with exposing your audience as well. Honestly, It’s like killing two birds with a single stone. 

Many consumers are twice likely to share user-generated contents too. In a recent study shows 55% of people trust one another over brand marketing. often this type of content gets more engagement than typical auto-posting on the channels. Besides that, a brand responding to customers is one of the essential components of any Social Media Marketing strategy.

According to a report by Stackla, 79% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions. On average 70-80% of people would post about a positive experience of a brand. What is so unique about UGC that It isn’t paid for by a brand, so it’s a genuine and honest recommendation being shared by followers and fans.

Some brands, like Airbnb, completely rely on user-generated content for their social media content. Easy gathering and sharing of honest reviews, building loyal fan base and community around your brand are namely a few key benefits of user-generated Content which Social media tool like Later emphasizes nicely. 

Social Media Communities

Social media communities are social groups that are mostly created by brands to provide a networking platform for their customers. These are the private groups where like-minded people usually join to talk about their shared interests about specific brands or product types.

Even though you may wonder what is this all about? Well, it has to be one of the marketing strategies that often overlooked but super effective for a business. There’s no doubt people love communities where they can engage and communicate with brands and followers, express themselves and gather information.

Reddit is an example of a major social community site with a massive 330million monthly active users. A study says an average Reddit visit duration is 16 minutes. Facebook Groups is another brilliant example of such social communities. Many brands effectively do their marketing on such self-created groups to gather their customers and boost their brand awareness and sales. Group members can discuss, engage, review products and thus it helps brands to create not just a mega customer base but also credibility and brand awareness.

Even from my observance, for instance, a local mobile retailer brand named Kry International has seen tremendous growth in their sales and brand awareness by following the social media trend within a year after creating their Facebook group. Moreover, not just having an audience base of 100,000 active members but also the growth resulting in the brand to open 4 more branches within 2 years was super impressive.

The impact was so viral that leaded similar brands to follow the trend too. Not to forget people like to spend time with people more like them, with a common interest, rather than in the general public.

Influencer Marketing

What is influencer marketing? An Influencer is someone who has built a loyal fan base online through their contents and Business often partner with them to advertise, increase brand awareness or drive sales from their targeted customers.

Although it’s not completely new it’s still going retain its major place among all the other Social Media Trends in 2020. Here are a few amazing stats by Digital Marketing Institute about influencer marketing that might shock you.

• 70% of Teens Trust Influencers More than Traditional Celebrities
• 86% of Women Use Social Media for Purchasing Advice
• 49% of Consumers Depend on Influencer Recommendations
• 6 in 10 Teens Follow Advice From Influencers Over Celebrities
• Influencer Marketing Campaigns Earn $6.50 for Every Dollar Spent
• 57% of Fashion and Beauty Companies Engage in Influencer Marketing
• The Influencer Marketing Industry is Expected to Hit $10bn by 2020

Investing in influencer marketing makes more sense since it is generally cheaper than running paid ad campaigns. People are disliking ads more and more meanwhile there’s a growing trend of people using of ad-blockers in their browsers. Another reason for the rising of this social media trend is because influencers are a real person and can help in achieving not just leads but many other goals. They are helpful for a business especially to target niche-specific customers.

AR and VR implementation

Technology is rapidly growing and it is no wonder that Social Media will see a rise of adopting such technology like Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). You can already see Snapchat has utilized it and leveraging to its potential through AR filters.

Remember this gender-swap Lens fad earlier this year?

Not just Snapchat, Facebook has introduced Horizon and been working on its AR glasses and there are some reports suggest that even Apple has been working on its AR glass too. 

Social Media platforms are going to be massive and let users engage with brands in a whole new different way. Many brands will be implementing new campaigns and strategies to integrate these technologies to engage with their customers and provide the best experience. A brand like Sephora has already implanted AR to let their customer try on makeup before purchase.

Just think of this way, how would you like if any brand could provide you with a taste of destination place before you book your tour finally? Tourist industries can harness the power of such tech and flow with the newer Social Media Trends by introducing something like Virtual Tourism. Although VR might be still slow on social media platforms AR has already taken its pace and on a rising trend for sure which can be seen on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc.

Brand Personalization

Brand personalization is something I personally see as one of the major Social Media Trends. Currently, Social media is not just for sharing photos and videos, but also a huge customer service channel. Brands are more conscious about their customers and put their best efforts to engage with their customers.

Nobody likes a chatbot more than being able to speak to a real person. Businesses have started to understand this trend and almost all the brands try to implement someone to represent the brand and engage with customers personally.

You might have noticed this trend is mostly seen on Twitter. CEO and Marketers interact with their customers more from their personal account other than a business one as people tend to accept and engage more with a personal account than a brand account.

A recent study revealed brand owners have found that content and interactions from their personal accounts on Twitter have also earned more successful engagement and acceptance than their brand channel. Some small brands even heard to be putting less effort into twitter’s brand account rather than coming up with a strategy to merge brand activity with personal activity from a