In order to make the most of the social media marketing campaigns that you might be embarking on, it is important to try to get ahead of the curve. What this means is that you must try to ascertain what trends are going to be prevalent in the coming year so that you can deal with them accordingly and ideally make it so that any marketing campaign you are responsible for will keep these trends in mind and subsequently enable you to maximize the effectiveness of the digital marketing campaign all in all.
In this article we are going to be discussing trends that have to do with the biggest social media platforms that are currently available for people to use right now, platforms that will form the basis of your marketing campaigns all in all. The five social media platforms that will be focused on are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat, and it is important to understand that most of these platforms are going to see major changes that you will have to keep in mind if you wish your marketing campaign to remain relevant as well as tackle the maximum amount of people that it could possibly reach.
Facebook
Data Source.
We will be starting with the single biggest social media platform in the world right now, although that might end up changing in the decade that is about to come. One change that has come to Facebook involves the launch of Facebook Pay, and this is something that most brands would want to get in on because of the fact that it could potentially open up new payment opportunities and encourage more consumer spending within the platform itself. With Facebook’s various messaging platforms probably getting integrated next year, chances are that Facebook Payments will be available uniformly throughout all of these platforms as well.
That being said, not all Facebook based payment plans are going to be quite as successful as the social media platform would have initially hoped. Facebook’s attempts at establishing its very own cryptocurrency have not been going very well. Most of its big name backers have decided to abandon the project, which means that it’s highly unlikely that you would need to think about the platform at all in the coming year so you can focus on things like Facebook payments in traditional currencies instead, something that will probably simplify the matter for you by a significant margin.
Another thing to take into consideration would be Facebook Watch. Facebook’s attempts at moving into the world of video streaming has not been all that successful either. It has gotten quite a few views but if you compare it to the audience that Facebook currently has then the experiment will most likely be considered a real failure. Still, Facebook will probably want to give the experiment another shot so you should keep it in the back of your mind as the year 2020 comes around.
Two big game changers that will play a role in 2020 would be AR as well as VR. Facebook has been adding quite a few AR filters to its Stories feature, and you would do well to take advantage of it since it can drive an enormous amount of engagement your way, engagement that you might otherwise have not been able to acquire no matter how hard you tried. With Oculus under its belt Facebook would also want to release a hardware based VR headset, something that would put it in direct competition with Snapchat.
Instagram
A lot of the changes that are coming to Facebook are going to come to Instagram as well, but this doesn’t mean that you should apply all of the same techniques while working with this platform. Instagram has a more youth oriented focus, which means that features like Houseparty are going to be a factor in your social media marketing campaigns. Threads, a close friends messaging service that is dedicated to Instagram, also indicates that the social media platform will be focusing on a more community oriented, messaging based trajectory in the year 2020, and this can affect your marketing campaigns in a wide variety of ways.
IGTV is a lot like Facebook Watch in that it provides a space for long form videos on that platform, but it competes more with Snapchat rather than YouTube. With Snapchat’s Discover making a lot more headway than IGTV, a few updates might be coming through to make it more like its Snapchat competition. With influencers also being given access to metrics, this could lead to a boost in influencer presence which is something that you could actually take a lot of advantage of seeing as influencers generally tend to be big marketing partners that can provide your products and services with a real push.
Twitter
This past year has been quite a good one on Twitter. The shorthand social media platform has been undergoing a slow but sure resurgence, and a big part of this has to do with how Twitter has changed how the public perceives it. With big changes being made to its privacy policy as well as the manner in which it deals with political ads, the marketing landscape on Twitter could end up looking quite different from what you were probably used to based on how Twitter was like previously.
There will be more of a focus on Topics, with Twitter providing localized feeds that are topic focused rather than general. If you narrow down the topics that your products pertain to you could use this feed to get your products and services a great deal more visibility. You will also have more control over who can see your Tweets because of Narrowcast Tweeting, so you could target your audience a little more specifically in the year to come. This will help tackle niche markets without exposing this niche to a wider audience that might not understand what it is all about.
Twitter has also seen a renewed focus on video content, with live streaming becoming a bigger part of the platform’s strategy.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn used to be just a place where you could apply for jobs, but after its acquisition by Microsoft it has seen some enormous growth. With video content becoming more prevalent on the platform, you could potentially expose yourself to a whole new LinkedIn market in the year 2020. What’s more is that LinkedIn might be taking a leaf out of Facebook’s book by promoting a group based feature, something that it has struggled with in the past but it might just end up perfecting next year.
You can also start using LinkedIn to market events. This could be particularly useful in situations where you would want to organize a product launch, and with LinkedIn representing a large chunk of the professional community there is no telling just how far this feature could take you. With InBot also potentially making a comeback in 2020, the possibilities as far as LinkedIn is concerned seem to be far greater than they have ever been before and this would be important to keep in mind if you are a social media marketing expert in 2020.
Wearable AR tech seems to be a priority for Snap Inc., and this could lead to a potential collaboration with Apple. This would be a true game changer, and with the success of Discover as a platform for content consumption as well as Snapchat’s dedication to the qualities that made it as successful as it is could lead to it becoming an even bigger player as 2020 comes and starts to progress. Investing in Snapchat marketing could just be a way to get an edge over your own competitors, so try to take advantage of what looks like its going to be a great year for the social media platform.
Read next: This infographic highlights how Digital Advertising changed in the past 25 years
In this article we are going to be discussing trends that have to do with the biggest social media platforms that are currently available for people to use right now, platforms that will form the basis of your marketing campaigns all in all. The five social media platforms that will be focused on are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat, and it is important to understand that most of these platforms are going to see major changes that you will have to keep in mind if you wish your marketing campaign to remain relevant as well as tackle the maximum amount of people that it could possibly reach.
Data Source.
We will be starting with the single biggest social media platform in the world right now, although that might end up changing in the decade that is about to come. One change that has come to Facebook involves the launch of Facebook Pay, and this is something that most brands would want to get in on because of the fact that it could potentially open up new payment opportunities and encourage more consumer spending within the platform itself. With Facebook’s various messaging platforms probably getting integrated next year, chances are that Facebook Payments will be available uniformly throughout all of these platforms as well.
That being said, not all Facebook based payment plans are going to be quite as successful as the social media platform would have initially hoped. Facebook’s attempts at establishing its very own cryptocurrency have not been going very well. Most of its big name backers have decided to abandon the project, which means that it’s highly unlikely that you would need to think about the platform at all in the coming year so you can focus on things like Facebook payments in traditional currencies instead, something that will probably simplify the matter for you by a significant margin.
Another thing to take into consideration would be Facebook Watch. Facebook’s attempts at moving into the world of video streaming has not been all that successful either. It has gotten quite a few views but if you compare it to the audience that Facebook currently has then the experiment will most likely be considered a real failure. Still, Facebook will probably want to give the experiment another shot so you should keep it in the back of your mind as the year 2020 comes around.
Two big game changers that will play a role in 2020 would be AR as well as VR. Facebook has been adding quite a few AR filters to its Stories feature, and you would do well to take advantage of it since it can drive an enormous amount of engagement your way, engagement that you might otherwise have not been able to acquire no matter how hard you tried. With Oculus under its belt Facebook would also want to release a hardware based VR headset, something that would put it in direct competition with Snapchat.
IGTV is a lot like Facebook Watch in that it provides a space for long form videos on that platform, but it competes more with Snapchat rather than YouTube. With Snapchat’s Discover making a lot more headway than IGTV, a few updates might be coming through to make it more like its Snapchat competition. With influencers also being given access to metrics, this could lead to a boost in influencer presence which is something that you could actually take a lot of advantage of seeing as influencers generally tend to be big marketing partners that can provide your products and services with a real push.
There will be more of a focus on Topics, with Twitter providing localized feeds that are topic focused rather than general. If you narrow down the topics that your products pertain to you could use this feed to get your products and services a great deal more visibility. You will also have more control over who can see your Tweets because of Narrowcast Tweeting, so you could target your audience a little more specifically in the year to come. This will help tackle niche markets without exposing this niche to a wider audience that might not understand what it is all about.
Twitter has also seen a renewed focus on video content, with live streaming becoming a bigger part of the platform’s strategy.
You can also start using LinkedIn to market events. This could be particularly useful in situations where you would want to organize a product launch, and with LinkedIn representing a large chunk of the professional community there is no telling just how far this feature could take you. With InBot also potentially making a comeback in 2020, the possibilities as far as LinkedIn is concerned seem to be far greater than they have ever been before and this would be important to keep in mind if you are a social media marketing expert in 2020.
Snapchat
Facebook and Instagram’s coordinated attack on Snapchat has led to a slowed down growth rate for the once rapidly rising platform, but in spite of this Snap Inc. has managed to report its best revenue numbers ever and it has started to branch out into a lot of other areas as well that could potentially allow it to continue succeeding. Snapchat’s ability to doggedly hang on to its audience has been laudable, and it remains a key marketing tool for anyone that specializes in social media based advertising campaigns for the year 2020.Wearable AR tech seems to be a priority for Snap Inc., and this could lead to a potential collaboration with Apple. This would be a true game changer, and with the success of Discover as a platform for content consumption as well as Snapchat’s dedication to the qualities that made it as successful as it is could lead to it becoming an even bigger player as 2020 comes and starts to progress. Investing in Snapchat marketing could just be a way to get an edge over your own competitors, so try to take advantage of what looks like its going to be a great year for the social media platform.
Read next: This infographic highlights how Digital Advertising changed in the past 25 years
