Social media is a constantly evolving platform that requires users to stay updated about the latest features and trends. The latter is especially important in social media marketing, where following the trends predicted for the year can be what puts a company ahead of its competitors.
However, due to constant changes made to social media platforms, it’s important to look way beyond the current year, especially regarding social media marketing strategies. Instead, it is smarter to follow social media future trends and these are the top 10 predicted for the future.
Video Will Rise in Popularity
While YouTube is one of the most popular video sharing platforms today, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are also great platforms to share videos, especially if they are of a shorter duration. Due to what a lot can be conveyed during a few seconds of video and audience preference for this type of content, videos will definitely be a point of focus in future social media marketing strategies.
Main Source of News
Traditional media is slowly dying and people often rely on social media for quick updates on the latest events. For this reason, one of the top future trends is social media as a main source of news. Media companies will rely on social media to post live updates and share content, while brands will also focus their marketing strategies on current events.
Artificial Intelligence
As mentioned above, social media will soon become a primary source of news information. However, it is extremely easy for fake news to get shared among thousands of users within a short time. In order to limit the spread of false information, AI can be used to separate the fake from fact.
Advancements in Chatbot Technology
Social media users expect quick responses and a company that takes hours to respond to inquiries on their social media pages may lose a lot of customers. This is why chatbots have come to play a big role in social media marketing.
Trend predictions for the future look at more human-like chatbots that make users forget they aren’t interacting with a human representative of the company.
Augmented Reality
While online shopping is extremely convenient, there are certain items that are tricky to buy online. These include clothes and accessories like sunglasses. With augmented reality, however, a customer can “try on” a pair of sunglasses before adding it to their online shopping cart. This enhanced buying experience will be a result of augmented reality or AR and the technology will also popularize live events and AR videos.
Potential
While many changes to social media are gradual and thus easy to adapt to, there is a lot that can be achieved on social media. The potential it holds, especially in social media marketing, is slowly being tapped into and these advancements and improvements will definitely change the way social media is used.
Mini-Community
New features on social media apps often aim at increasing engagement between users and creating mini-communities within the social media apps. A cartoonist, for instance, may join a Facebook group for artists where they can talk to fellow cartoonists and learn various tricks to the trade.
A business too, can benefit from such mini-communities. A bookstore, for instance, can have a group where news about books and authors are shared, along with reviews and recommendations. These groups can increase engagement and strengthen the relationship between the company and the consumer.
Increased Engagement
There was a time when buying followers and likes was the norm. Social media marketing today instead focuses on organic reach. This requires increased engagement, which means that companies will have to look beyond liking and comments on their posts. Sharing relevant and interesting content will increase engagement, as will live videos and stories.
Search Engine
If you want to search for a video, you may type the name in YouTube’s search bar as opposed to on Google’s search bar. This is an indication that social media apps like YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram are turning into search engines themselves. Thus, a future trend of social media marketing would be identifying this role of social media and benefiting from it.
Privacy
You can’t talk about the future trends of social media marketing without looking at privacy and security. While technological developments will be used to improve user experiences, they will also be used to ensure privacy protection and data security of users.