Social Media Trends for the second half of 2020
So, what's happening in the Social Media world right now and what should we be on the look out for the remainder of 2020?
Stories and reels, These are becoming the most popular trends in Social Media marketing, and since the launch of Instagram's 'Reels' feature to rival TikTok anything that you can do to look fun and cool is going to be a win.
Most of the top social media platforms have already incorporated short stories into their posting options, also known as ephemeral content, ephemeral content is something that is only available only for a short duration and disappears afterwards. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat Stories are perfect examples of this type of content.
So, make sure that you're benefitting from all of them, and you can use the same story for all the platforms out there, so it'll just be more efficient in the long run and get your message across.
Stories focus on the storytelling aspect of social media. They allow you to use photo, video, text, emoticons, and tags to create both long-form and short-form content.
So, what else is important to focus on for the remainder of 2020?
It's more important than ever to also focus on Niche Social Media platforms, as mentioned in other blogs, why blogging is so important, when you create a blog, you should try and replicate your blog across as many relevant marketing platforms as possible. Although some of the other platforms don't yet rule the social media world, they are likely to capture other audiences that you are not reaching by just posting on the 2 largest platforms shall we say.
However, do ensure you are using marketing messages in the correct way for the different platforms, some are more aimed at B2B, others will be a more informal and more of a friendly audience.
Let's use Pinterest as an example for a niche market, Pinterest would be a more informal platform, although not as big of a social network platform for marketing as others, it would be an ideal platform for targeting the female demographic that may be interested in home décor products for example.
Whereas LinkedIn is a business platform and you would use the LinkedIn platform to make connections, generate leads, improve brand awareness, foster business relationships and partnerships, share content, and drive traffic to your website.
Social media platforms in order of popularity include:
What's TikTok?
We would like to take a moment to talk about TikTok in particular, why is this you ask? The reason we would like to talk about TikTok, is because TikTok is noticeably becoming more and more popular in the Social Networking world. However, it is just one to watch closely at the moment, as although it's becoming increasingly popular, the demographic in which it seems to be popular with right now is between the ages of 15 & 24 based on statistics measured In March 2020, with the UK being 3rd country for the increasingly popular app to be downloaded, expecting to reach 10 Million users in the UK by 2021.
However, all that being said, it could be a handy platform to keep an eye on to monitor content and trends that may be relevant for your other more suitable platforms.
What is Social Commerce?
Social commerce is one of the most exciting trends in social media today, and it looks to have an even bigger impact in the months ahead.
Social Commerce is different than social media marketing, where you might try to drive referral traffic from social media to a website or online store. With social commerce, the store is within the app itself, and does not require you to link through to the website to purchase a product for example.
removing the need to bring up a separate webpage and therefore leaving the app you are browsing in.
You can learn about a product in a tweet and purchase within Twitter itself.
Three social media sites that are owning the social commerce space: Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Exciting Huh?
AR (Augmented Reality)
Oh, how we get excited about this one…
Augmented Reality has been around for a little while, you may be familiar with filters on Facebook or Instagram that overlay silly faces or backgrounds to your live photo, we would be surprised if you or your family have not yet discovered these.
AR is evolving fast and we are seeing more and more businesses including this functionality into their website to view products in which they are browsing in situ in their actual home. Real life size! I recently decided to purchase a mirror in fact, using that functionality.
So how Is this going to be used more within social media in the months ahead?
Be sure to watch this space…
Lastly, we would like to talk to you about this last Social Media trend, and that is the use of videos in your social media marketing.
According to recent studies, internet video traffic is in increasing exponentially, so if making live videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or any other video relevant platform is not yet in your marketing strategy, now is the time to incorporate it for that extra boost to your brand awareness.
Why is blogging so important? There are so many reasons as to why blogging is still important, however, it's important to ensure you are blogging in different ways; including text-based content, image content, video content, & audio content. Ensure you mix it up to keep your blogs interesting when being viewed on different devices, for example, mobile phones or tablets, laptops, even smartwatches are becoming so high tech that some of them can display photos and updates from the news and other articles.
Blogging for SEO, you'll hear SEO experts talk about it all the time and the reason is updated content on your website from the blog helps drive traffic to your website; so by creating frequent blogs, this, in turn, makes your website look interesting and active to the web crawling software of Google (in the interest of neutrality other browsers are available, but frankly is anyone using them?!) simply meaning you will be more likely found high up the SERP - search engine results pages - of Google.
Blogs should include 'SEO' keywords, relevant to the topic in which you are talking about, but, What is SEO you ask?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, it simply refers to ensuring your website is built and optimised in a way that attracts quality traffic - traffic being potential customers that are genuinely interested in the service or products in which you offer.
But SEO isn't just content, you need to ensure your website has the relevant Title Tags and Meta Descriptions, these should be informative and point to the relevant pages, content and media on the website.
A blog can help you build stronger relationships with your existing customers and new potential customers. When they are presented with written words on specific topics regularly, it shows you are knowledgeable and have information of value, you therefore become more trustworthy as a business as do the services which you provide.
You are also more likely to become the go-to business for information and help regularly.
Writing regular blogs, shows others that your business is active and always thinking about new offerings, working on new projects, ideas, and solutions to your prospective customer's problems.
Over time your blog will connect existing and potential customers to your brand, giving them an insight into who you are on a more personal level. Showing others your business standards, business character, vision, and personality and arguably the most important aspect, the services you offer.
Interactive and shareable content within your blogs provides opportunities to get your brand to reach further, this type of organic recommendation from one of your blogs is the embodiment of free marketing at its best!
Interesting and informative blogs also become share-worthy social media posts. It's just as important when writing content that you utilise soundbites and share these blog links on relevant platforms, whether it be Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and the ever increasing popularity of TikTok. By providing 'tasters' of your blog content you can create your own click throughs from your social networks for followers, and hopefully your existing followers will not only engage but also share this content on if they feel it is valuable enough!
Writing blogs allow you to become an industry leader, writing topical insight on what's changing in your industry. Ensure you keep up to date with changes, allowing you to share this information with others that may find it useful, whilst also showing giving insight as to your perspective on changes in the industry.
Why not say thank you to your clients in which have helped make your business successful? Pay it forward by writing a blog on a particular project in which you have completed work on recently, or perhaps saying a simple thank you to customers and suppliers who contribute to your business, giving them a shout out, also including links back to their services if relevant.
You could also share your content in email marketing campaigns, so rather than it just being an email in which you are sharing on a new product or service updates, it could be a more informative email, sharing free insight.
If you need support with increasing your online exposure, whilst establishing yourself as an expert in your industry, taking advantage of blogging is an absolute must in your marketing strategy.
If you are a small business, blogging is vital, however, it can be a time-consuming task to ensure you are blogging informatively and regularly. You may be thinking I don't have the time, resources, or expertise to keep on top of a regular blog, in which case this is where Goldilocks Creative can help…We specialise in taking care of this for you. We will take the time to understand your business, your values, your offerings and create relevant, appealing, and engaging content for your blog site for you.