Key Trends Of Social Media Marketing
Social media is considered the most powerful marketing tool available today, and with billions of users and social dominance, businesses need to have a social media presence. Facebook alone has 2.934 billion monthly users. Even TikTok, which is only 6 years old, now attracts more than a billion monthly users, with users spending 850 minutes on the app each month. With social media changing constantly, it is difficult to keep up with user needs and that is why we have compiled a list of future social media marketing trends.
What future holds for social media marketing?
In this ever-changing world, it’s hard to keep up with current trends let alone prepare for future trends. That’s why we’ve put together some trends for the future that, if you start using them now, will make huge changes in your social media.
Live video
Live video content is a big growing trend on the internet, starting with YouTube back in 2008 and getting the most traffic when Facebook adopted the feature in 2016. It’s available now across multiple social media channels, including WhatsApp and Instagram. Live video has been recorded to drive more engagement than pre-recorded video, and now 95% of marketers plan to incorporate live video into their social media campaigns.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) has grown massively over the past 10 years and is accessible via Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat as filters. This has moved from AR Photos to the AR Live Chat seen on FaceTime and Facebook Messenger. AR is yet to be used for marketing purposes but should be monitored as it develops. Augmented reality will soon become a standard, and as the number of users grows, it will become an important tool for promoting products and services.
Your audience will take centre stage.
The rise of social media has given everyone a voice. People no longer just follow brands but can speak for them. Passing your microphone to your followers can be a great marketing tool for the future. We’ve seen an increase in customer engagement with influencers and videos on TikTok, but looking to the future, we’ll see this continue to grow and increase as more people search. More customer reviews.
Transparency
In this modern era, it is increasingly easy to spot whether brands are hiding information from consumers. Big brands like Facebook, and Nike all suffered after trying to deceive consumers. All millennials and Gen Z want transparent brands and will favour transparent brands. It means that you cannot cheat and instead you must be honest and admit your mistakes if you want your brand to be popular with the new generation.
Stories and Reels
Stories have become a standard part of the social network and can be shared across all channels. The concise nature of the stories perfectly suits the audience and the younger generation likes the brands they see in social stories. It is found that 58% of consumers become more interested in the brands they see in stories and 50% of people visit websites to buy products they see in stories.
Short videos that initially started as stories have taken a new step with the growth of TikTok, now short videos in the form of reels are starting to dominate and will continue to grow in the future. Stories are longer than stories but are usually under 60 seconds long, with some stories being as short as 10-20 seconds. You can see a breakthrough in Instagram reels, which are gaining more attention than traditional IG videos.
Final Thoughts
The social media landscape is constantly changing and what the future of social media will entail remains a mystery. Before the rise of TikTok, social media platforms didn’t see vertical video content and “short films” being the future. It is important as a business that you monitor your marketing strategy and ensures that you are using social media transparently to speak to your customers. If you start taking advantage of the factors of the future we identified in this blog, you could see growth across your social platforms, in terms of engagement and sales. We know that with the ever-changing landscape, social media can be a difficult tool to use and if you find this a difficult element to include in your business, contact the social media marketing team who can help you develop the right marketing strategies for your business.