Social Media Trends for 2020 and Beyond

Saying that most people spend a good part of their days on social media would not be an exaggeration. Not in today’s world.

Social media has become an integral part of people’s lives and daily routines. Some are addicted to it so much that the first thing they do after waking up is to check their social media feeds.

Given the importance of social media in consumers’ lives, marketers and businesses flock to social platforms in the hope of connecting with their target customers. However, there is a content overload on social media and the competition is very high. It can be extremely difficult for you to stand out unless you have a clear social media marketing strategy.

Staying updated on the latest social media trends can help fuel your strategy and make you stand out in the crowd. Here are eight social media trends that you need to be aware of for 2020 and beyond.

Social Media Trend #1 – Ephemeral Content Will Keep Gaining Popularity 

Ephemeral content is something that is available only for a short duration and disappears afterwards. Instagram and Snapchat Stories are perfect examples of this type of content.

Today, people’s attention spans are short and the way they like to consume content has also changed. This is why content formats like Stories have become popular. They are short, engaging, and addictive in a way that people can spend hours scrolling through one Story after another.

This is evident by the substantial rise in Instagram Stories’ daily active users, as shown below.

Marketers have taken notice of this trend and will continue to leverage it to their advantage. According to this recent report by Hootsuite, 64% of marketers either already have incorporated Instagram Stories into their strategies or plan to.

Another study suggests that brands post a Story once in four days, again, proving the point that these are getting more and more popular.

Social Media Trend #2 – Niche Social Platforms Will Perform Well

Facebook and Instagram have long dominated social media as the largest and most popular platforms. However, in recent years, several other niche social media platforms have not only emerged but have significantly risen to fame.

TikTok, for example, is one such platform that started in 2016 and immediately gained popularity among youth. B2B companies prefer LinkedIn for their social media initiatives, while the gaming community flocks to Twitch. There are several such alternative social media platforms that are gaining popularity and will continue doing so in 2020 and beyond.

Here are some of the most popular social media platforms by the number of users or registered accounts.

Social Media Trend #3 – Instagram Will Remove Likes

Instagram is one of the largest social networks and any major changes implemented here can shape the social media landscape. One such major change is the possibility of Instagram removing the likes feature for posts.

Instagram has recently tested this proposal in a beta test and may soon apply this change globally. The logic that it has given is that likes determine a person’s social value and waiting for such validation is detrimental to people’s mental health.

However, there are a lot of people who outright reject the reason and think that Instagram wants to implement this change to earn more. Brands pay enormous sums of money to influencers to promote their products. None of this money goes to Instagram. In fact, influencer marketing has become so popular that brands are moving away from traditional marketing methods like advertising.

If Instagram removes likes then brands won’t be able to measure the direct impact of their campaigns as easily as they do now. This might encourage some brands to invest in Instagram Ads as they can easily track the ROI for those.

A scenario where Instagram successfully removes likes and gets more marketers to move to their ads feature could be transformative for social media marketing. This will not only affect influencers but may also encourage other social networks to make such moves.

Social Media Trend #4 – Social Commerce Will Expand

Social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook have long been used by brands to sell their products. Social commerce has become a new retail avenue for brands and this trend is only going to get stronger.

Social commerce is well on its way to becoming a mainstream retail channel on par with other mediums like websites and offline stores. This trend will strengthen further with more and more social networks introducing pro-selling features like shoppable posts.

From shoppable posts to Instagram Storefronts, social networks are continuously evolving to become retail platforms. Brands and marketers will leverage these and incorporate social commerce in their sales strategies.

Social Media Trend #5 – Video Content Will Dominate

Video content is one of the most engaging forms of content and will soon dominate the social media a clear winner over all other types of content. Whether it is short-form videos like those popular on TikTok or Stories or long-form content on YouTube, videos are the future of social media content.

According to a Cisco study, by 2022, 82% of all online content will be video content. This clearly shows how important it is to start utilizing video content to stay relevant in the social media domain.

If you’re not currently creating videos, it is time that you include it in your content strategy. In the near future, videos will dominate social media and anyone who doesn’t realize that will have a tough time.

You can start by using features like Stories both for your social media content and for advertisements. You can also add videos to your social media posts, even on platforms that were traditionally dominated by image or text content.

Conclusion

These are some of the trends that will dominate the social media landscape in 2020 and beyond. Leverage these trends to your advantage and stay ahead of your competitors.

Social media is a dynamic and competitive space and these trends can help you ace your social media game. So, keep abreast of the latest developments around these themes and use these for your social media initiatives.

Article Provided By: Influencer Marketing Hub

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