Make it snappy
Video is still an extremely valuable tool in the marketer’s repertoire. But with ever-decreasing attention spans, videos need to be shorter to hold users’ attention. For this reason, shorter clips are the future. To find out more about how to turn your Facebook leads into sales, read Six Steps to Convert Social Chatter into Actionable Leads.
Cinema-whats?
Social media feeds are full of clutter. And with so much visual material, it’s harder than ever to stand out. This is why we’re always looking for ways to disrupt the newsfeed. One way to do this is using cinemagraphs. These video-photo hybrids incorporate small amounts of movement and play on loop. Luckily, you don’t have to be Spielberg to create a cinemagraph. A simple cinemagraph is relatively easy to create using photoshop.
Livestreaming on Facebook
Facebook Live is an exciting feature which offers video streaming. Not only does it provide instantaneous gratification to your audience. It also enables you to engage with them in real time, to answer their questions and even view their reactions to events as they happen. By creating a community through live streaming, you can boost your Facebook digital marketing strategy.
The Buy Button
For some time, Facebook has been prioritising content by family and friends over branded content, which makes Facebook marketing harder and more expensive than it once was. That said, Facebook has made it even easier to buy products directly through its platform. Take advantage of Facebook Page Shop and give your audience quick and easy access to your goods.
Snapchat
According to Hootsuite, Snapchat is the most used platform among those aged 12 to 24. If this younger demographic is your key audience, Snapchat offers a huge opportunity for social media marketing. To see this principle in action, check out our case study to find out how to use Snapchat advertising to target students.
Is your audience adlergic?
Many recent studies have shown the rise in ad blockers, and this is most acute in the younger generations. And in an environment where 40% of millennials use Ad Blockers, Snapchat is a channel where you can guarantee reach and engagement. True, Snapchat is the home of the unskippable 6 second ad, but it also offers other opportunities to advertise to millennials in less-disruptive ways, which brings us to our next tip…
Let users generate content
In the last 2 years, Stories have grown 842%, which is 15x faster than feeds. Marketers can use this opportunity to deliver user-generated content campaigns, which provide a relevant and less-disruptive experience to an audience of millennials.
Chatbots and Messenger
Chatter boxes
Most people are familiar with chatbots as a substitute for customer service representatives. Now that advances in AI are making bots smarter when it comes to engaging users, chatbots can also kick start the sales process. For example, major companies like Amazon use chatbots for marketing.
Rise of messengers
By 2020 over 80% of smartphone users will be using messaging apps as their primary source of communication. Marketers will be adapting by meeting consumers where they are most active—on mobile apps. Read more about how to capitalise on mobile-first usage in How Mobile Marketing Can Help Small Businesses.
Image searches are also on the rise. And by 2020, at least 50% of searches are going to be through images. Predictions indicate that a lot of future searches will be able to images instead of keywords.
Pinterest has now developed a new tool called Pinterest Lens, which uses machine learning to help users discover brands and products. A user simply points their camera at something to find out which brands and products they are viewing. This makes Pinterest a great opportunity for marketers to advertise at the top of the funnel, in other words, to generate brand awareness.
Where you should consider posting
Now that you’ve seen a few top social media marketing trends, why not turn this data into action? Start by tailoring your campaigns to mobile-first usage with an eye to short videos, user-generated content and image searches. In addition to Facebook marketing opportunities like Facebook live and Facebook Page Shop, take advantage of Snapchat, Pinterest and messenger apps in 2020.
