Social Media Marketing is a type of digital marketing that uses social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube, etc. to promote a product or a service. In the recent years, social media marketing has exponentially grown. More and more people are becoming aware of its importance for both business and search engine optimization (SEO).
Since Social Media is used by humans, one can expect its trend to change with time. If you have a presence on social media, or if you are a social media marketing manager, you must understand and adapt to these changes or trends. Here are the top nine social media marketing trends you need to watch out in 2019.
1. Video content
Well, this social media marketing trend is obvious. Every year video content is growing. So, in 2019, video content is expected to show its dominance. In fact, social media experts are expecting a trend where more than 80% of content we consume on social media to be video content.
However, changing only the format of your content will not work. Just like your blog posts, you should make your video content exciting, informative, engaging and trust worthy. People on social media have a very short attention span. Within the first couple of seconds, Internet users decide whether to continue watching or hit the back button and scroll.
2. Good content will never go out of fashion
Good content is that ingredient of digital marketing, which has been the top priority and will continue to be until eternity. Just in case, if you have not leveraged content marketing yet, you should begin now.
So, create online materials to promote your products or services and stimulate interest in it. Next, know who is your audience. Never target the wrong audience. It is just waste of time, money and energy. It is better to do an online research to find out your ideal audience. Once you come to know who are the recipients, you can share the content you have developed. Make sure you post on the topics that are relevant to your business and interesting to your audience.
3. Social media influencers
In the recent years, the importance of influencers in a social media marketing strategy has been increased. Today, we have Instagram influencers, Twitter stars, and YouTube celebrities. Their every single post is seen by millions and millions of people. People are recognizing the importance of social influencers slowly. And hence, the number of online influencers have started to explode.
Micro influencers usually have followers less than 10 thousand. Their followers are genuinely interested in listening what they have to say. Since they have established themselves as experts, business owners can utilize this potential to promote their product and services. It is the easiest and inexpensive method for building both online reputation and consumer relationships. Therefore, it can be said that in 2019, this marketing potential is going to bloom.
4. User-generated content
There are two types of content. They are business owner generated content and user-generated content. All these days, it was business owner generated content that has the done the work. However, the importance of user-generated content has been increasing at a steady rate. So, you can expect user-generated content to trend in the coming year.
No doubt content generated by the business owners is crucial and important, but one should also make use of user-generated content. That is because user-generated content has its own pros. They are easily available and authentic. Your audience is going to believe what other are saying about you rather than what you are saying about yourself. So, it is time to look for the best content from your followers, and promote it.
5. Chatbots and Messenger apps
Messenger apps and chatbots provide another channel to the consumers to reach you. One such popular social media messenger app is Facebook’s messenger. It makes possible for the customers to have a chat with business owners without leaving Facebook. This is important because the people who are scrolling in the Facebook are not always trying to buy something.
Just in the case, where a customer is interested, he can directly visit your business page and have a look at it. This gives you an opportunity to initiate a conversation and lead them to buy your products or services. In other words, it gives you better control. So get ready to engage your potential customers through influencing the customer journey. Therefore, with 2019 at the door steps, you should have an active presence on all the popular and widely used messengers such as WhatsApp, Kik, and Facebook Messenger.
6. Social Monitoring
Listening to what others are saying about you is a fine art. In both social media marketing and online reputation management, monitoring your brand mentions is the key. It gives you an opportunity to know how your online reputation is shaping. And based on that you can craft your online reputation management strategies. On the other hand, knowing what other are saying will improve your social media marketing efforts.
If you know what others are talking about you in real time, you can join the conversation. It gives you an option to tell your side of the story and impress people with your 24/7 online presence. So far, this aspect of SMM is common across a small number of business owners who are popular and take their online reputation and customer service seriously. However, social media marketing managers are expecting this trend to become bigger in the coming year.
7. Live streaming
Live streaming and uploading videos are two different things. Yes, they both impact the audience in two different ways. Here are the few things you should know about live streaming.
- The average number of daily Facebook live broadcasts have doubled year over year after the year 2016.
- There have been more than 3.5 billion live Facebook broadcasts.
- Hundreds of millions of people have gone live on Facebook.
- More than two billion people have watched a Facebook live broadcast.
These numbers show that live streaming has grown exponentially. This trend is expected to grow more aggressively in the year 2019. Live broadcasting has its own advantages. You need not worry about developing the video or need not start over because it did not come properly. It gives you an option to showcase behind the scenes, and let customers know what is going around the office and how the products are made. In other words, live stream helps you to deliver a personalized experience.
8. Organic reach
2019 will be the year where organic reach will change significantly. Social media experts have noticed that organic reach on the social media platforms is changing from the last couple of years. At the beginning of this year, Facebook announced major changes to its algorithm to ensure its users see more content from friends and family. This means Facebook users are going to see less content from the brand and business pages. As a result, a brand can expect to have a decline in post reaches. This is going to affect the online visibility of the brand on social media. We suggest you to be prepared and craft strategies to adapt the changes made by the Facebook. Furthermore, it makes sense to seek professional help of a social media marketing company.
