5 Key Social Media Trends to Watch in 2020
Saying that most people spend a good part of their days on social media would be no exaggeration, not in the world we live in today. Social media has become a very integral part of people’s lives.
With new and improved social media tools to work with every day, a time has come where every individual is involved in some aspect of social media one way or the other.
Given the importance of social media in consumers’ lives, marketers and businesses go to social platforms to try and connect with their target customers. Staying updated on all the latest social media trends can help fuel your strategy and prepare you to stand out.
Here are a few social media trends that you need to be aware of in the year 2020:
- Influencer Marketing Will Continue to Grow
In a recent study, it was found that 59% if marketers plan on increasing the budget for influencer marketing in the coming year. With consumers increasing more than ever before because of the increasing number of ads in their feeds, they now look to people they trust to make any purchasing decisions. Whether it be close friends and family, or celebrities and artists that people dearly look up to, purchasing decisions are greatly influenced by these people.
Social media has always been great platform for small businesses and startups, because it allows the brands with little to no budget to compete with larger brands that are on the same platform. Since many small brands don’t have the budget to approach greater influencers, they seek growing influencers to market their brand giving them the platform to rise as well.
- Shopping on Social Media
The trend of shopping on social media began earlier this year, and we predict that this trend will continue to grow immensely.
You no longer need a specific website or any kind of platform to make any purchases. With just a few clicks now you can simply find the product you are looking for. You can go from scrolling through your Instagram feed to sharing your credit card information and making a purchases within a matter of seconds. Making online shopping easier than it has ever been before and cutting the sales funnel in almost half.
- Stories Will Become Marketer’s go-to tool
For a while before stories became common, it was only exclusive on Snapchat. But then Instagram stories became popular, followed by Facebook stories, Messenger stories and now even YouTube has its own stories format.
Stories is a unique way to provide viewers with a more authentic insight, as the videos are often created on the spot in that particular moment. With stories disappearing 24 hours after being posted, it gives marketers the perfect time to capitalize on the FOMO (fear of missing out) and offer major sales and deals on that particular brand. Further, stories provide a way for brands to increase their engagement and keep their customers involved with their brands.
- Augmented Reality (AR) Will Become Mainstream
Augmented Reality (AR) technology is gradually evolving with increased and improved application for e-commerce, product discovery and more. Let’s take IKEA as an example, it has recently launched a technology that allows you to see how different items will look in their homes using an AR app.
There’s a mass potential in this type of technology – realtors, for example, can take prospective home owners on several virtual tours of homes during which any pain colour they choose can be selected, walls can be altered and removed and various other changes can be made.
Thus AR can be utilized in several ways, and in 2020, AR is expected to see a big shift.
- Chatbots
At first when chatbots came into existence, customers were only given answers that were written beforehand. This was done with the questions that brands though were most common and used certain keywords to trigger the bot.
With 2019 ending, algorithms have improved massively and still improving the effectiveness of chatbots’ to understand what consumers are writing to them. Brands no longer have to keep pre-written answers with them as chatbots in many ways can now search the web to find the answers that the consumers are seeking.
These are the key areas that are expected to see a great shift in the coming year, with more improvements in these technologies. 2020 is going to be the year for digital marketers and social media trend setters.
