02 Jan Social Media Trends We Hope Stay in 2019
Another year has passed in the ever-changing world of social media marketing. 2019 brought with it many platforms changes, memes, and trends that kept marketers on their toes. As we’ve entered into 2020, here are a few social trends from 2019 that we hope stay in 2019.
Identical content across platforms
In 2019, you likely saw brands posting the same content on Facebook in multiple placements – News Feed, Stories, Instagram, and even across platforms (Twitter, YouTube) – regardless of how it looked. While posting the same content everywhere is markedly easier for brands, and new placements have made it tough to know exactly how to customize, we hope that 2020 is the year that marketers start taking advantage of the various placements and platforms with highly custom content. There’s just too many cool features of Instagram Stories and too much opportunity on newer platforms like Snapchat and TikTok to run your :30 TV spot in full everywhere.
‘Facebook only’ brands
In a similar vein, over the past few years we’ve heard from brands who have only ventured into Facebook Ads when it comes to their social media marketing strategy. In 2020, “just” being on Facebook shouldn’t be an option. The advertising opportunities on all platforms have improved, and not tapping into a variety of them means you could be missing key parts of your audience. Think about how your brand might activate on Twitter, TikTok, or Instagram in 2020 and test a few campaigns.
Repetitive memes
2019 was actually a pretty good year for brands participating in social media memes, like the Netflix sex tweet. With how far we’ve come, we’re hoping to see less of the typical year over year themes done by brands. Think National Talk Like a Pirate Day, or posts that ask users “what’s your spooky ghost name?”. Brands should be wary of participating in any trends, but it’s definitely time to retire some of the staples and look for brand new memes to truly make a splash with your audience.
Super personalized content
If you work in social media advertising, you’ve likely been asked by friends and family “Is Facebook listening to my conversations? I’m seeing ads for things I’ve only talked about!”. Between the Cambridge Analytica scandal and recent hacks of devices like Ring cameras, privacy will continue to be a concern for social media users in 2020. Brands should look at their content and targeting strategies to ensure that they aren’t, for lack of a better word, being too creepy. It’s true that personalized and relevant content is effective, but if you are using “We miss you!” or “We see you’ve been looking at x product …” you will definitely set off people’s alarms. Work to find a balance between providing relevant social content to your audience, without making them feel like they are being followed.
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