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The latest social media marketing trends
Rebecca Appleton • 12 August 2020
What can we expect to see as we head towards the end of the year?
Social media is always in demand and it seems that there is a never ending stream of innovation but usage has soared in the last few months as people were ordered to remain at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Even though lift has begun to return to normal, some activities are still out of bounds and there appears to have been no decline in appetite for social media content.
The July Global Statshot from Data Reportal shows that the total number of social media users has grown 10% in the last year. Facebook and Instagram are also helping to advance social commerce with the launch of shops to help small businesses sell online during nationwide closures meaning there are many compelling reasons to continue to invest heavily in your social media presence.
Here are a few of the trends you can expect to see shaping how you market to customers and engage with fellow brands as we approach the latter stage of 2020.
1. Video content
The number of live streams appearing on Facebook and Instagram hit new heights during lockdown and it’s fully expected that video will become the most dominant of content formats over the next few months. In the first quarter of this year, video content made up 17.1% of all Instagram content. While this percentage is impressive in itself, it’s also worth noting that it made up just 0.8% of all content in the same period last year.
One recent innovation which we can expect to fuel this trend and keep video at the forefront is the launch of the Instagram tool, Reels. This short form video format is designed to challenge TikTok’s dominance and is already flooding Instagram feeds.
2. Entertainment value
You probably noticed that TikTok continued to grab headlines during lockdown – the video steaming app might be threatened with a ban in the USA but that hasn’t stopped millions of users embracing its shorter video format whole heartedly. In February, it peaked as the most downloaded app, with 113 million new downloads. In the UK, user numbers swelled from 4.5 million to 12.9 million in the first four months of the year.
Why is this significant? Over and above reaffirming the appetite for video content, Tik Tok’s videos tend to be funny, light-hearted and entertaining with clips of people dancing and playing pranks frequently going viral. This entertainment value is something that we are likely to see more of through the rest of the year as consumers search for much needed light relief from the pandemic.
3. New features
You’ll have to stay at the top of your game to ensure you’re making the absolute most of everything social media has to offer as we motor on towards December as social networks like Instagram and Facebook appear to have speeded up new launches. With tools like new group chats, video calls and social shopping all being rapidly deployed, there are lots of new ways to engage with your audiences emerging each week. You’ll have to keep your finger on the pulse to stay up to date.
4. Selling via social media
Social commerce is something that has been floated around for a while now but hasn’t ever really taken off as expected. That has all now changed, again thanks to the pandemic. In the midst of international lockdowns, research conducted by Facebook showed the devastating impact coronavirus had had on small businesses with many fearful or their future and a huge chunk finding their revenue streams closed off. In response, it rolled out Shops which allowed small businesses to begin selling right away on Facebook and Instagram, with the entire transaction conducted on the network.
McKinsey research indicates that this could be something that will ramp up in the near future, as more than three quarters of consumers say they have changed their shopping habits as a result of COVID-19 and citing social media as an important discovery channel.
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