With 2019 closed, it’s time to look towards the new year. You will find plenty of predictions across the web during this time of the year, with some of them coming to fruition while others will fall flat. In this article, we’re going to make some predictions of our own, based on social media trends that we’ve seen throughout 2019. The following are the predictions of a Chicago social media marketing agency and company.
Facebook Watch
Facebook Watch is the company’s response to the rise and popularity of online video streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube, and it has seen some popularity so far. Facebook reported that in June of 2019, it averaged 140 million viewers daily for the service. This means that we can expect to see a heavy push for the platform in the coming years. What does this mean for your business? More opportunities to advertise. Given the company’s revenue model, we can expect to see the streaming service getting new ad options in the future, which will be a very appealing avenue for businesses in certain industries.
Twitter topics
Twitter has recently given its users the option to follow specific topics alongside accounts. This gives users a new way to stay on top of the latest news and trends for their interests. The other purpose of this new feature is to streamline the onboarding process for new users. A new user may not be aware of the most important accounts within their topic of interest, and they may be turned off by the platform. The topics feature also opens up a new marketing avenue for companies within an industry, while substantially changing some aspects of social media marketing strategy on the platform. A company will be able to enter the stream of its desired topic if it can provide relevant value to its users.
Short-term value content
Short-term value content refers to content that is only relevant and available for a short period of time. This type of content is most prevalent on Instagram and Snapchat, and it is called “Stories”. Stories have exploded in popularity over the last few months, going from 100 million daily active users in October 2016 to 500 million daily active users in January of 2019. Naturally, marketers took notice, and you now have as many as 64% of marketers who integrated or intend to integrate Stories into their social media strategy.
Niche social media platforms
Many companies will focus their social media marketing efforts on large, popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. But over the last few years, new platforms have started to gain a lot of traction. For example, you have TikTok, a platform launched in 2016 that is currently immensely popular among the younger generation. You also have LinkedIn, which is far from being a new platform to the market, that serves a niche audience of business professionals, making it ideal for B2B companies. Other niche platforms include gaming hubs such as Twitch, messaging apps such as WhatsApp or WeChat, and content aggregators such as Reddit. Depending on your industry and target market, these growing platforms will offer a unique marketing opportunity for your business.
No more likes on Instagram
Any large changes implemented by Instagram will have a ripple effect throughout the social media ecosystem, which is why Instagram removing the “like” feature is a big deal. The stated reason for this removal is to promote mental health, since users perceive that likes reflect a person’s social value. More cynical observers claim that the removal has a different reason behind it. A big part of marketing on Instagram revolves around influencer advertising, which does not funnel money through the company. It is suspected that by removing likes, Instagram hopes to encourage brands to invest into their proprietary Instagram ads system. Whatever the case may be, this will make it harder to measure the direct impact of an influencer campaign, and it may lead to other platforms removing the feature as well.
Are you interested in boosting your social media marketing efforts in Chicago?
We are the premier social media management Chicago for businesses of all sizes. If you are looking to improve your online marketing efforts in 2020, contact us today for a free quote!