2020 Social Media Trends

2020 has brought new challenges and offered businesses the opportunity to expand their social media literacy during isolation. We have compiled a list of 10 social media trends that you need to successfully enhance your business's online presence and attract customer's attention for longer. These hot trends will keep you ahead and translate into more brand awareness, conversion, and grow your audience!

Below is a quick view of the ten amazing 2020 social media trends you will discover in this article:

1. Video Content Continues to Please

2. Influencer Marketing Sky Rockets

3. Personalization Pulls in Success

4. User Generated Content Humanizes Your Brand

5. Stories Make a Splash

6. Temporary Content Drives Traffic

7. TikTok is Brand New and Killing It

8. Social Media is the New Customer Service

9. Augmented Reality is The New Normal

10. Social Listening as Strategy

Video content

Video ads will continue to outrank images as a means of engagement. On average, an individual will watch 100 minutes of online video content by 2021. This is an opportunity for your brand to be seen and to catch consumers' attention with video ads to increase your brand awareness. Visual stimulation is critical to grabbing consumer attention and can result in more profit for your business. People love seeing how a product is used, how it can look in everyday life. They want to relate it to themselves, and the most organic way is to show them.

Influencer Marketing Dominates

Incorporating influencers into a marketing strategy for businesses creates highly relevant content that resonates with online communities. The use and value of nano influencers (influencers with the smallest followings) are growing in this department because brands realize the purchasing power behind niche communities. By tapping into these smaller audiences, there is more value for your business through increased engagement and conversions. Influencers are a great way to stretch your budget for the most significant impact while legitimizing your brand with audiences. By having someone else promote your business, you will gain the notoriety that translates to dedicated audiences with reliable purchasing power.

Personalization

Curating content to individuals is proven to result in more ROI. Facebook understands the value of this concept. People are more likely to interact and follow through on ad content that is in their preferred format. Using sites that can incorporate personal likes and interests to promote your brand will result in a more significant profit.

Amazon uses this tactic by having features like "frequently bought together," "recommended for you," or "inspired by your shopping trends." These target each user and get them to spend more time browsing and purchasing. A definite way to hold customer attention is to personalize homepage content with these features.

User-Generated Content

This trend is dominant because it promotes authenticity, trust, and drives purchases for businesses. Word-of-mouth is a successful tactic because it breeds demand and fosters a quality image for your brand.

Aerie, an apparel and lifestyle company (sub-brand owned by American Eagle), started an awesome UGC community with #Aeriereal. The company pledged to stop using edited photos of their swimsuit models, and they asked Instagram users to post images of themselves in swimsuits without edits with the #Aeriereal hashtag. Aerie would donate $1 to the National Eating Disorders Association for every photo shared. The campaign had a massive positive effect online and increased Aerie's reputation and sales.

Stories

Stories remain an impactful and accessible tool among Facebook and Instagram users. They allow people to interact with their followers in a way that they can't just from posting on their pages. Live stories are all the rage, seeing how they drive immediate and direct traffic to the host's content. The opportunity here is that you can get creative with the content you share, there can be tutorials, interviews, sponsored content videos and more.

Temporary Content

Temporary content is also known as ephemeral content, which typically disappears after a certain amount of time, usually in 24 hours. Stories and Snapchats fall under this umbrella. This popular trend is a brand-building tactic. By creating urgency for audiences to view your content that is quick and digestible, you are catering to FOMO's social experience. It's almost like when you're playing a phone game with a login bonus every day. A user is more likely to check into the game once a day to grab that bonus than miss out and feel left behind.

TikTok Will Dominate

This app that started in China and is popular among North American Gen Zs and Millennials will continue to divest content from popular social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Since Kevin Mayor, former Dinsey's Head of Streaming, is now the new CEO of TikTok as of May 2020, there are plans for increasing content and acquisition deals. The opportunity that lies in this app is growing, and everyone needs to be following it. Staying ahead on feeds means putting content and ads into populated spaces like this one. TikTok allows for the quick dissemination of trends and challenges, meaning there is an excellent opportunity for businesses to create user-generated content, or utilize influencers to spread brand awareness and generate leads.

Social Media for Customer Service

More and more often, brands are using social media to re-direct customer issues to direct contact for solving confusing or dissatisfying experiences. By monitoring feeds, businesses can respond faster, which leads to higher rates of customer satisfaction. Despite not being the original intention for this matter, social media has flexed into a broader landscape that businesses must be vigilant. Even if you aren't on social media, it doesn't mean your customers aren't talking about you.

Did you know Xbox is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most responsive brand on social media? They have a channel dedicated to responding on Twitter. They also act proactively by using monitoring tools to stay ahead.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality has been slowly seeping into our everyday lives for the past decade, and it has accelerated recently. It will continue to grow and dominate as a social media trend. Snapchat filters have normalized the overlap of digital content directly onto reality. Your brand can tap into this and create sponsored filters or be like IKEA and launch an app that allows buyers to step into the world of purchases that they could have. Social tech advancement will gain your brand notoriety because you work to stay ahead for the ease of your customers.

Social Listening for Stronger Strategy

Authenticity goes a long way when most buyers have a distrust of traditional advertising. Brands have tapped into the power of monitoring online communities and potential buyers to locate their stance on social issues. By aligning your brand with your customers, you can achieve a human face for your business. Many brands turned to this after COVID placed most individuals into isolation and closed physical stores. By focusing more on social interests and emphasizing with audiences, brand legitimacy and image increases.

If you want to learn more and be up to date on social media trends, please feel free to contact us at hello@blitmarketing.co at any time.