Many predictions say that 2020 is going to be very exciting year when it comes to social media marketing.
Here are the 5 biggest changes that might happen:
1. Organic Video Content will become more important due to rising cost of paid ads
Facebook has announced that the cost of ads will be gradually increasing in 2020. This will lead marketers to focus on creating high quality organic video content and come with new strategies that will be more focused on content marketing. Marketers will start to compete who will create more useful content and whose content will give more value to the audience.
We will also see popularity of IGTV increase, as more people and companies will realize the importance of it. The biggest benefit of video content is that it makes your followers want to stop scrolling and pay some real attention to your content. Of course, this happens only if your content is good and people find it useful, so that is what you should be focusing on.
2. Stories will become the most important feature on Facebook and Instagram
Stories are already very popular, but they will gain even more popularity in 2020 until they eventually become more important than regular feed content. Instagram has already introduced some new features that enable you to publish different types of content in story format.
One new thing is that Facebook is going to make its stories easier to use in order to encourage its users to use this format more often. For example, now you can automatically share your memories from previous years, as a story. Stories are very important to Facebook as they represent additional space for ads and that’s why they are trying so hard to improve them.
3. Brands will be focusing on building more personalized relationship with their audience
The following months will be great for brands who have created a community and built close relationship with their customers. Other brands will have to work hard to achieve that, because personalized customer experience is no longer just nice to have. It is one of the main characteristics of successful digital marketing in 2020.
People now prefer to move into more private conversation channels, such as Facebook Messenger. This enables a so called conversational marketing to evolve via chat and tools such as Messenger subscriptions. The goal is to build connection and trust with your audience, and brands will be focusing on putting more personality into their social media. This can be done by genuine influencer marketing, collaborations and brand advocacy.
4. Less is more
In previous years, we have learned that there is no point in being present everywhere and reaching everyone. Much better strategy is to first identify your target group and than start talking to them, using the language they understand. That means that you should choose two platforms and focus on them, instead of spreading your attention on too many channels.
First, identify who is your target group, what are their interests, what kind of content they usually read. This is different for every business. For example if you are selling clothes or make up, your ideal platform is probably Instagram because you can express your creativity with visual content. On the other hand, if the product or service you are selling is related to work, you have better chance to find your ideal customers on LinkedIn.
5. Engage with your followers and show them how much you appreciate each of them
People love to feel appreciated and they love to receive personalized messages. Don’t lose this precious opportunity to connect with your prospect customers on a deeper level. Always be kind and helpful when you are replying to messages and questions that you receive. When someone mentions your business in a comment or in a story, make sure to reply and send a kind thank you note.
Usually those small gestures that sometimes you are not even aware of make the biggest difference in business. One more tip is to send them responses using a voice note, because it will help establish a deeper connection and build trust.
You should see all these changes in social media world as an opportunity to grow and improve. Now is the right time to start planning your strategy for 2020, so you can be ready to rock as soon as the year starts!