Social media is always evolving. It is a moving target for social media marketing strategists. It is often difficult to know what direction social marketing will head next. While we may see a few brand-new offerings in the coming year, many of the trends have been building into the norm over the past months. Fortunately, we still have a few weeks to get things in order for our 2019 social media marketing plans. Stay ahead of the curve. Contemplate and integrate these anticipated trends in social media for the new year.
More Personalized Advertising
One of the big rollouts from LinkedIn will be a new ad feature that allows brands to personalize paid ad content. This more authentic communication channel is called LinkedIn Dynamic Ads and is anticipated to help businesses not only grow their reach but to also start those B2B relationships on a more personalized level than ever before.
User-Generated Content
Why spend hours creating original content for your social media accounts when you can tap into the talents of your loyal audience. Canvass your followers to identify content and creators that showcase your brand. User-generated content provides to your audience a connection and sense of community that can’t necessarily be accomplished with brand-created content. Engage your followers more authentically with UGC and build stronger relationships as you show how much you value the input of your audience.
Top Down Social
Today, more than ever, the public trust in large institutions and traditional hierarchy is waning. CEOs need to connect with their community, share their insights, and listen to what their followers have to say. How better to do that than with social media profiles? Nothing screams transparency like a communicative and interactive leader. 2019 will see more and more top-level personnel utilizing social to do business.
Social Listening If you’d like to learn more regarding social listening, read more HERE.
Social listening is becoming a more prominent component of social media strategies. The social listening tools available can identify important patterns and provide meaningful interpretations of the data. Rather than basing social strategy on assumptions and guesses, brands can use the results of social listening to understand public perception of their practices, products, and services and adjust their strategies accordingly.
Chatbots as the Norm
Chatbots can be utilized to best leverage the messaging features offered by platforms like Facebook and Twitter. They simplify the process of interacting with audiences in a manner that still provides a personal feel. Chatbots increase engagement by providing personalized content right when it is needed. Make 2019 the year you integrate one into your customer service wheelhouse.
Instagram Live Streaming
Going live can send some people into a tizzy but Instagram Live Streaming is a fabulous way to organically connect with an audience. This feature allows businesses to provide the value-added content and top-notch customer service consumers desire. Start playing with live video now so you are a confident, old pro to start the new year.
Augmented Reality
Who doesn’t love a fun Snapchat filter? And who can, honestly, say they are surprised that we now have filters that display a sponsor in the corner of the screen? It was only a matter of time. This technology that superimposes computer-generated perceptual information on a real-world environment can provide consumers with an opportunity to interact with brands, their products, and their services, all on their mobile devices! Look for the level of sophistication to increase as we move through 2019.
Segmented Social
Many brands don’t consider segmenting their social audiences when they are running advertisements. The goal is always to be relevant at the right time to the right audience. Messaging to someone who knows he has a challenge to address is different than the messaging appropriate for the person who is yet to understand he has a problem! Understand where the sub-sections of your target audience are and craft your ads to meet them there.
Social for Product Research
Google and Bing searches are still, by far, the most common digital research tools. But beyond search engines, people are turning to social media platforms during online product research. Consumers’ preference to seek and follow advice and reviews from influencers and other consumers will only serve to increase social’s influence on product research.
SPECIAL FEATURE – BEYOND TRENDS TO UP-AND-COMING SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
Musical.ly
This is a Chinese built app that is considered an alternative to Snapchat and Vine. Musical.ly focuses on 15-60 second videos and lets users choose soundtracks to go along with the video. There are also different speed effects and filters. Musical.ly has a well-connected community and offers more features to edit videos than either Snapchat or Vine.
Vero
Vero is an alternative to Instagram. It allows for convenient sharing of links, photos, music, movies, and more. Vero is a fabulous tool for artists who want to share their work with others and does not feature any ads. Unlike Instagram, Vero offers four sharing options from a close friend to friend to acquaintance to followers. Without the ability to advertise, Vero is more of a research platform for marketers to discover and be inspired by the creativity of others.
Whether we’re talking about growing social media trends or new social platforms, we will continue to talk about change. As new technology becomes more sophisticated and more readily available to the general public, we will continue to see those technologies integrated into the world of social media. What does that mean for social marketing strategy? First, stay flexible. Second, collect, analyze, and interpret performance data then adapt your social media strategies accordingly. Take chances, be proactive, read, read, and read some more.
If you aren’t sure how to keep up with the changes and growth in the social media arena, never fear. The social media experts at Strategy Driven Marketing get absolutely giddy about the possibilities and would love to discuss strategy, content and more to help your brand move into 2019 ready to go. Contact us today for all of your marketing, website, or social media needs. Let’s connect!