Make Your Social Media Vision 2020 In The New Year
Trying to figure out what direction the (often) unruly and (always) unpredictable world of social media marketing is heading in 2020?
Yes, it’s a bit like herding cats, or trying to coax a fidgety group of school children to sit still for their class photo. But with significant shifts taking place in online marketing, it’s never been more important for small businesses to keep on top of—and one step ahead of—social media trends.
The increasing adoption of social media as a key part of the world’s Internet use will no doubt continue into the New Year, with billions of users (about 45 percent of the world’s population, accessing their favourite platforms around the globe).
Walk the Detox
While a growing audience is always desirable, there is one trend that suggests your social media presence needs to be as memorable as possible while providing real value: the “digital detox.”
With more people connected and immersed in digital content as part of their daily lives, says Smart Insights, social media overload is becoming a very real thing. For some, it’s simply a trust issue, with things like “fake news” and privacy concerns leading one in three adults in the UK (for example) to cut back on their social media use.
In fact, according to content marketing and social media specialist Lilach Bullock, “there will continue to be a big push towards making social media more private and secure for its users . . . and these things, of course, will have a big impact on marketing too. Brands and marketers need to be on top of these trends and act accordingly.”
For a small business, especially those without the internal resources to maintain and grow their social media presence, this suggests seeking outside expertise to help navigate these shifting waters and build their brand and online audiences.
Don’t shoot the Messenger (apps)
WhatsApp, a cross-platform messaging app that sends and receives almost any kind of media—text, photos, videos, documents, voice calls—is expected to have over 25 million users by 2021. By comparison, the platform had just over 16 million users in 2015.
There are many others, too, including Messenger, WeChat, QQ, and Skype. In its review of social media trends for marketers in 2020, fitsmallbusiness.com made messaging apps, and their ability to provide 24/7 support, top of the list.
“Brands that meet consumers in these apps enjoy an 88 percent open rate for their marketing messages,” notes the site. Most of today’s consumers expect, and highly value, an instant response when they contact a brand. That means even if you’re solely focused on Toronto social media for your marketing, you should be providing 24/7 customer support in 2020.
That’s a tall order for a small business.
The solution may lie in messenger chatbots (like the Clavis chatbot!). Powered by AI and machine learning, these technologies can allow brands to provide 24/7 real-time support. As fitsmallbusiness.com puts it, “speed is everything to today’s buyers, and patience wears out at 10 minutes.”
Don’t Overlook the Basics
In a 2018 study, Hootsuite counted over 3.1 billion active social media users around the planet. Keep in mind, that’s with a total world population of just under 7.6 billion.
But if you’re starting at the ground floor, getting your foot in the door and maximizing your brand’s online presence can seem like an intimidating task If you don’t know where to begin.
Bringing in outside help to #MakeSocialSimple is a good way to kickstart your marketing goals for 2020. In the meantime, however, there are steps you can take now to better connect with your clients.
Botreedigital.com believes that with demographics changing “every day,” small businesses need to put aside any outdated notions of who their customers are, and what they are looking for online. For 2020, they suggest a back-to-basics approach to posting “relevant content that generates action.”
If your marketing budget is small, try repurposing content. For the people at botreedigital.com, repurposing “is probably the only social media strategy . . . that works in the long run.” Choose your best content and give it a new look or place it on different platforms in new ways to increase traffic and reach.
Here’s to a very social 2020!
