What’s next for social media marketing?

It’s about this time of year that businesses start planning their social media marketing for the next 12 months.  With that in mind, we’ve put together an up to date list of trends to look out for when planning your social media strategy for 2019.

Social listening

We’ve written a more in-depth piece about social listening fairly recently but felt there’s a lot more that can be said on this. Social media monitoring systems like Hootsuite or Sprout Social are becoming more and more of a necessity within your overall marketing toolkit.

Social listening allows you to find out about what’s being said online about your brand or what’s a current hot topic in your industry. This is great when it comes to creating tailored content for your target audience. It also allows you to keep an eye out for any problems potential clients could be having that could be solved with your services.

User-generated content

Creating content that your reader connects with is the ideal ‘win-win’ scenario in digital marketing. This can be done via the use of user-generated content, which is essentially an unlimited supply of free (with consent) content for your website, blog and social media channels.

For your followers, it’s an avenue to get themselves featured and noticed on a brand page. Perhaps you could incentivise this further through the use of prizes or giveaways. This then encourages more users to submit content which rolls on and on, spreading brand awareness like wildfire.

Ideas for user-generated content vary from business to business, if you’d like to know more it may be worth getting in touch with us for a coffee and a chat.

Micro-influencers

Influencer marketing has fast become a vital part of any social media strategy. Having said that, the larger influencers with the biggest followings are beginning to see a decline in their appeal and potency as a marketing option.

We’re beginning to notice a shift towards smaller, micro-influencers. Generally, those with around ten thousand or fewer followers as they have more value in reaching niche target audiences. A creator putting out valuable yet specific content, with a respectable following opposed to a massive following, often can share a much similar audience to those you’re trying to market to.

Chatbots

Chatbots initially took a while to catch on, but we’re starting to see them used more and more in conjunction with social media marketing. Back in 2016-17, they were spoken about as things of the future that seemed to be too good to be true, and this was generally the case.

Fast forward to present day and conversational technology has come on leaps and bounds. We have already begun work on a couple of chatbot products for clients in recent months and foresee the technology becoming more widespread in social media by the end of 2019.

Streaming video

More and more live streaming video has emerged as a significant and engaging source of both news and entertainment.

When a video is live it gives the viewer a feeling of being closer to the people on screen. This is because each viewer has a persistent awareness that what they’re watching is happening right now.

As with live TV, plenty can go unexpectedly wrong on a stream. Obviously, this can be very embarrassing. However, the fact that the chance is there is almost another incentive for a viewer to remain engaged.

Direct messaging

Whilst it can be a grind, direct messaging your followers on platforms such as Instagram comes with no financial cost. You can use your DMs to share information about upcoming events or offer seemingly exclusive discount codes.

All these things make your followers feel special and appreciated. It is as if you are paying each of them individual attention. However, don’t be too salesman-like. Try to avoid just copying a text advert as people will soon realise what you’ve done.

Be personable, friendly and human. One constant across all digital marketing regardless of the industry sector is the use of human language. You’d be surprised at how a formal or corporate tone of voice doesn’t resonate well even with corporate executives.

Augmented reality

We know that Facebook is currently testing Augmented Reality advertising options evidenced in their own news feed. With Facebook holding firm as the top social media platform for most business markets we can be assured that AR is definitely on its way.

A wise move would be to do your own research on this technology. Try to come up with a way it can be used in your industry. Simply begin experimenting. Your business should be ready when AR inevitably booms in the next year or so. Get this right, and use it efficiently and you will be noticed in a big way.

Temporary content

Pioneered by the lovely people at Snapchat, temporary content that disappears in just 24 hours has exploded in 2018. Facebook, Instagram and Youtube have now all implemented similar systems. You can be certain it won’t be long before all other platforms are offering something like this as well.

Having content that disappears forever after only a day may seem like a waste of time, but in actual fact, it’s a great way to play on a users fear of missing out. This gives the content a sense of exclusivity. A good example of this is a retail store launching a 1 day only discount on their Instagram stories. Consumers must then show this post in the shop, within the given time, to receive the discount.