2020 has been an interesting year, to say the least. The disruption to our everyday lives has changed the way we consume and use the internet. Not to say that the internet and similar industries have not seen a steady increase in users year after year but the virus has starkly pushed us further to work, play, and most importantly connect with friends and family via digital platforms.
The drastic increase in media consumption means social media is currently the most important platform to run advertisements and market to target consumers. As social media navigates its greatest period of upheaval, it becomes crucial for a business to command consumer attention strategically. Fortunately, social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are constantly evolving with the current demands with a series of updates to provide a better experience for customers.
Here are 5 new social media trends and updates to follow
Privacy and security
Privacy has become a key concern for users after a series of controversies social media platforms have faced in the recent past. Social Media platforms are now pushing towards higher levels of data privacy and security than ever before. Facebook has recently gone through major revamp and privacy updates. Similarly, other tech giants have followed the bandwagon to protect consumer data from third-party channels. These new changes and updates require that we constantly evolve and alter the way we run social advertisements.
Video as the primary content
Consumers’ digital consumption data indicate that there is a huge preference for video content. As well as being entertaining and engaging, video content plays an important decision in consumers’ decision-making process. Video consumption is rapidly growing and it’s estimated that people will spend 100 minutes a day watching videos online in 2021, which is close to a 20% increase from 2019.
Tik-Tok has shaken the way we scroll through social media with their viral video centered around comedy, dances, and challenges. Similarly, Instagram’s recent ‘Reels’ feature will let users record and edit a 15-second video with the addition of using visual filters.Within the 2-month launch, Instagram has increased the average time spent by a person by 3.5%.
Engagement will become the most important metric in Marketing
Social media engagement measures public shares, likes and comments for an online social media account, in short, the engagement your brand has with potential consumers. Since social media has over 1.5 billion users worldwide, measuring the number of consumers that engage with your brand will help determine the content that is relevant to your consumers and gain insights on how to convert them to paying customers.
Social media algorithms for engagement have changed recently and the general rule of thumb now is to get comments and replies as compared to likes. Video content generally has the highest engagement rate.
Social media will soon become a form of search engine
YouTube has already become the world’s second-largest search engine and it won’t be long before Facebook, instagram and other platforms capitalize to position themselves similarly in the near future. LinkedIn is using its unique position as a professional platform to connect with like-minded people but could also become the world’s largest job finding engine.With hashtags representing certain types of information, future updates could prompt consumers to choose to search on social media platforms rather than google.
Social on Social community and Facebook groups
Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook private group will become the future of Facebook. The biggest advantage social media has to traditional marketing is the ability to be able to target a specific niche market as opposed to anyone and everyone. Many brands are also pushing towards group-oriented marketing, as a way to enhance privacy and also to specifically target the most relevant consumers for their market. Influencer marketing is also the backbone of social community-based marketing and over 80% of marketing managers find this to be an effective marketing strategy.