As we kickstart 2020, our Social Media Marketing Team share their thoughts on the significant trends we think brands and businesses will see in 2020.
Reach Will Continue To Drop
Facebook has continued to become a ‘pay to play’ platform as organic reach continues to drop, and the need for ad spend becoming essential for brand pages. Instagram’s reach has reflected this trend over the past 12 months, and we predict that it will be heading in the same direction as Facebook.
However, before you press delete on your account, we are continuing to see our client’s Instagram accounts doing well, with a creative mix of quality and valuable content and careful monitoring.
The Key?
Analyse your audience and keep moving forward with innovative and ever-changing trends. And allocate some calculated spend to support your efforts.
Engagement Levels Will Continue To Nosedive
If you haven’t noticed already, your engagement levels are most probably down on this time last year. It doesn’t mean that your followers don’t love your content anymore; social media is just even faster-paced place these days.
While you might be over analysing every post or artwork you put up in substantial critical detail – your followers will be hungry in their swipe. Your focus needs to be on engaging content which compels your followers to take an action. That action might be to click on a shoppable tag or visit your profile and click through to your website rather than just liking your post.
Facebook Live Will Continue To Grow
It’s no coincidence that going live on FB gets excellent viewing figures. After all, Facebook wants to promote its ‘TV channel’. Regularly going live can help lift your page’s organic reach and you’ll also find your pre-recorded content will also see a lift as a result.
Think about the value you can give your followers with both live and pre-recorded content. Rambling on camera will be a turn-off, but sharing tips, advice and offering a peek inside your business will be appealing and an opportunity to start a conversation worth having.
Brands Working Across More Influencers
As organic reach and engagement continue to drop, we think you’ll see a fall in influencer marketing rates – After all, if fewer people are engaging with you, then your fee has to reflect this.
We believe that the ongoing trend for working with smaller micro-influencers will continue to grow for 2020. Searching for an influencer to work with your brand can be daunting.
Many buy their mass following (yes, we can tell you exactly when and how many). Not only does this devalue their own personal worth, but it also means that you are wasting your time and budget working with them.
Remember, real people, buy from real people, not bots or fake account recommendations.
Continued Commitment To Remove Bots & Fake Accounts
We’ve noticed a real drop in the amount of fake and bot account activity across our clients’ Facebook & Instagram channels in the past 12 months, and we think the clean-up will continue this year.
Again, the move towards removing the numbers of likes on posts to ‘others’ hasn’t had any negative impact on those client pages affected by this tweak. Does it devalue the post by not being able to see how many likes? We don’t think so. And perhaps it even allows for a more level playing field without the ‘influence’ of the person seeing how many likes on the post before taking action such as liking or commenting?
Shopping Online
E-commerce is continuing to grow with E-Marketer forecasting a 12.8% growth for 2020. Social commerce is continuing to evolve and impact who consumers discover and shop brands and products online with a seamless process that is quick and easy.
Taking advantage of shoppable tags is a no brainer, but selling is an art and how you ‘advertise’ your brand and products requires strategic thinking and planning in order for success.
