See you later, Snapchat! Next year’s social media trends will make your brand hard to beat, says Claire Stevens.
I’m sure we all find it difficult to keep up with the ever-changing landscape of social media, as each app tries to remain on top of the market with new and exciting features. But how can we, from both a personal standpoint and as businesses, stay relevant in the noisy social media world? Staying in touch with the coming social media trends that we expect to see in 2019 can prepare us for the future of the social media landscape.
Brands can have difficulty competing among the number of businesses with impressive social media profiles. Knowing how to remain top-of-mind for consumers is important, and that’s where social media trends come in to play. No doubt, with the ever-increasing number of social media users, a brand’s ability to utilise some of these new trends will set it apart from the rest. Hiring expert social media management is one of the first steps for busy businesses to begin taking part in the dynamic social media world.
1. Video victory: Who doesn’t love captivating video content?
Did you know that Instagram is reportedly seeing 400 million users of its Stories feature every day? Impressive, huh? This is over double the number of stories shared daily on Snapchat, and that’s not even taking into consideration the additional video from Facebook’s Stories feature. Vertical video is a useful way for brands to promote their offering with snackable and engaging content. 2019 will see more and more video from businesses, as it is becoming one of the quickest ways to provide a business’ target audience with their brand messages. Try taking some behind the scenes footage or making a short teaser trailer for a product to excite your followers.
2. Influencer marketing: Word-of-mouth on steroids
We’ve already begun to seen the uprising of this trend in the past few years, however, Influencer Marketing is still playing a huge part in brand promotion on social media. Influencer Marketing, as the name implies, involves using or getting an influencer to market your products or services to their social media followers. This kind of trend is starting to be widely adopted by brands around the world, and it’ll be far from over in 2019 – this is one sure to stick around social media trend! Despite the heavy price tag for some collaborators, a number of Australian brands have been able to snag high-profile influencers, such as Bondi Sands’ collaboration with Kylie Jenner. Users tend to look up to celebrity influencers due to their idolised appearance or expert choices, causing followers to be more likely to want to replicate the actions of the influencer. Equally, non-celebrity influencers can engage customers through highly relatable collaborations. While high reaching influencers may appear crucial, how many of us have rolled our eyes to an influencer’s post as soon as we see the words ‘Paid partnership’ or #ad? Don’t forget that seemingly organic collaborations with lower-profile influencers can foster greater consideration from your target audience.
3. Disappearing content: Catch me while you can!
In the same realm as stories, another popular feature that social media platform Snapchat originated, is the trend of disappearing content. The time limitation of these stories lasting only 24 hours emphasises the urgency of a brand’s offering. Short-lived content motivates consumers, much like the idea of a ‘one time only’ sale.
4. Transparency: Honesty is the best policy
As we all well know, brands and their products can receive reviews and feedback from their customers through social media. Many social media platforms allow for reviews, comments and direct messaging between a company and its customers.
In 2019, transparency will be key as customers continue to share their opinions with the world on social media. Brands will find it harder to hide any flaws as customers can easily broadcast their negative experiences, while also having the opportunity to promote brands with positive feedback. Crowd-sourced review forums are also adding to the competitive nature of business with platforms such Yelp and TripAdvisor.
These platforms allow users to look up the best-reviewed business in their local area and easily make a purchasing decision while disregarding the lower rated competition. It’s a good idea to foster positive reviews on sites such as the ones listed, in order to spark interest from customers in the consideration stage of the consumer journey funnel.
5. Interactive chatbots: Talk to me!
As creepy as the idea of a talking robot sounds, Chatbots possess impressive levels of artificial intelligence, making it easier for brands to answer queries from customers and save time for both the business and the customer. Recent improvements in software mean that Chatbots are likely to become more and more common in 2019. Our charming, electronic friends will likely deliver business information, the automation of sales and direct messages for years to come. Chatbots can be created to answer a bespoke selection of questions and provide information directly related to your business.
By utilising a few of these 2019 trends in conjunction with frequent updates, your social media management will be hard to beat!
