While social media is nothing new, that doesn’t mean there is nothing new in social media. At Triple Canopy Media, we have done our research. So five months into the new year, we are sharing the top social media trends of 2019 – as culled from a variety of expert sources.
Influencer marketing
Topping the list is authentic influencer marketing and micro-influencer marketing. Both are a win-win for the parties involved. You benefit because you establish a strategic partnership with someone with reach, credibility, and salesmanship who can advocate for your product or service.
The influencer benefits because he or she is recognized, gets access to information, and becomes the first to learn of news in their field — three things that strengthen their influence.
Interaction
Social media is about more than driving traffic to your website. So be sure to interact with your audience. Take time to understand your customers and how they interact with your brand. Be responsive to their comments. Engage them. Respond quickly to customer complaints, issues and questions. Personal interaction is important because it helps build relationships and relationships help build business. Using the right monitoring and tracking tools will help you do it right.
Interactive quizzes
Interactive quizzes are another important thing to share on social media, according to Forbes. Letting readers answer fun questions in order to receive personalized product and service recommendations encourages two-way conversations in a digital environment.
Podcasts and other audio content
And since we live in a world that encourages multi-tasking, Forbes also points out the creation of podcasts and other audio content as another important 2019 trend. Users can listen to your audio as they drive, walk, run, and do household tasks. With voice search so popular, content creators should be creating content that can be listened to, as well as read and watched.
Long-form content
“Scientific evidence is proving that long-form content drives conversion and search engine optimization when done right,” advises Edward Bourelly of Omni-Culture Marketing, Inc. Consumers don’t necessarily prefer short bursts of content. They will engage with long content if it interesting. So make it interesting. Here’s how to create long-form content that engages readers:
- Tell stories that convey the “behind the scenes” realities of your business.
- Tell stories that matter to people.
- Communicate, don’t sell.
- Share personal stories, including employee-created content, which receives eight times more engagement than content shared from the company itself and extends brand messaging by more than 500 percent.
Live video
Ever watch the TV sitcom “A.P. Bio”? In several episodes this season, a high school staffer is shown spending lots of work time recording Facebook Live videos about her consumer experiences. Meanwhile, her phone screen is shown blowing up with positive reactions from viewers. These scenes alone show how live video can connect with a mass audience on an authentic, personal level. Use analytics to find out more about your audience and how to deepen your connection with them. Develop a video strategy that includes live, vertical, interactive and smartphone-quality videos.
Those who study social media trends say LinkedIn, with 260 million users, has done a lot over the last year with video, with the rise of LinkedIn influencers, and with connecting their products to Bing. LinkedIn reports that year to year likes, comments, and shares on the network have increased 50 percent. And the network is appealing to a younger demographic as those folks start out on their careers or head into higher ed, as well as to executives who prefer watching video to reading text.
Instagram stories
Well, that’s no secret. Instagram has exploded, and Instagram stories keep growing in popularity and engagement. Whether the reach is paid or organic, the growth is there. Out of Instagram’s more than one billion monthly users as of June 2018, 400 million of them are clicking on Instagram stories. Instagram Stories continue to gain popularity and increased engagement via organic and paid methods. And Instagram is the only social media platform that has seen an uptick this year over last, a new Pew Research Center study has found.
Social media use steady and established
The Pew Research Center study also found that, “The shares of adults who say they use Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter are each largely the same as in 2016.”
Brent Csutoras, co-owner and adviser of Search Engine Journal, puts it this way: “Companies need to remember that the “newness” of social media is over.” It’s here to stay.