The same laws of attraction never remain for too long in the social media marketing landscape. And while we all expect new trends and updates, more noteworthy is the ‘why’ that motivates these changes. Knowing ‘why’ will better develop businesses to stay ahead of the curve and shift their marketing activities aligning with audience attentions.
Here are some key social media marketing trends to keep an eye on:
Engagement will be the focus, not virality
A post going viral could come out as a result, but it couldn’t be the aim. Not everything you post will be seen by each of your followers.
With maturing social media marketing practices, we are seeing a shift from the content that should be viral towards the content that connects with your audience. This shift seems more feasible and favorable, as the individuals who most likely see your content on social are the ones who already like your brand to begin with. Those core followers are acquainted to your message – so what could be better than beginning from there, to build your social brand?
How do you do this?
- Understand what your target audience is looking for and expecting from your business.
- Create and deliver that content, and they will like and share it among their networks.
Deliver impactful customer experiences and that will yield you happy customers, who gradually become your brand advocates, and help spread your content throughout their own extended networks.
So you see – ‘Post going viral’ is great, but ‘brand advocacy’ is more convincing, and probably a better strategic aim.
On-the-go social updates will sway
Instant or should I say on-the-go updates, have always been a significant aspect of social media. In 2016, posts that are more ‘in-the-moment’ are supposed to dominate than others which are scheduled or posted after the event.
Live streaming apps like Hangouts on Air, Periscope are allowing for broadcasting live videos.
And did you know? – Periscope-ers together watch forty years of live video each day.
Instagram and Snapchat also support on-the-go posts in contrast to after-event posts, and if the trend catches on, you can forget about scheduling all your company’s social media posts in advance.
Identifying relevant metrics to track
Looking at the current trends, it is notable that organic reach has fallen radically; in fact a page would be fortunate to have 10% of its total followers see any one of its Facebook posts, and that renders ‘Page Likes’ a less important target to strive for.
While metrics like followers, shares, likes, re-tweets and comments may be treated as indicators in certain contexts, the actual figures that matter are conversions.
Subsequent actions taken through the posts, click-through rates, leads or purchases generated are the numbers that need focus.
We are already seeing it in the horizon –
Facebook’s ‘Conversion Lift’ metrics leave behind the basic effects of soft numbers and intend to show businesses exactly how their on-platform activities add to their bottom line results.
Similarly, Twitter has employed a similar system to provide a more accurate summary of campaign results.
No denying that shares and engagements play a vital part in the whole marketing process, but the real numbers are what brands/marketers are going to focus as social media metrics in 2016.
Think mobile first in social media too
As social media marketing grows to an anticipated $11 billion by 2017, the enduring shift to mobile is a top choice for marketers. Mobile users exchange content 2x as often as their desktop counterparts.
Know the facts:
– 85% of Facebook users access the network via mobile and over 1/3 access it only on mobiles.
– Twitter mobile users are 66% more likely to retweet.
– Pinterest content is shared 3 times more often on mobile than on desktop.
– 40% of LinkedIn users use mobile app to look for a new job
So now the question is – how does your social post look like on a tab or smartphone? How the tweeted pictures look like on a Windows/Android/iOS handset? Are they optimized to load in a few seconds? Note that an image which is clear on social channels on desktop is not necessarily going to be clearly readable on an iPhone.
GIFs and immersive video growing bigger
A certain shift can be seen from a long-format story to short snack-able videos, attuned with the consumer’s content consumption habits. Consumers are excited and welcoming micro-video and GIFs.
Interesting formats like cinemagraph have evolved and taken visual storytelling to indeed a next level by giving a twist to GIF based content.
Did you know? – Cinemagraphs get 60% more engagement than static images.
And we observe that social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Google, and Twitter are all embracing natively hosted video and integrating GIF content. The 15 seconds brand centric approach has reigned Instagram, and the 5 seconds pre roll ads have interested brands and viewers the most on YouTube.
With Facebook and Google adding 360 degree video capabilities and Virtual Reality content, brands be all set to create more immersive moving content, to find more opportunities for social engagement.
New players to enter the social space
Marketers are predicting two new big players to come in the social space this year.
The frequency with which new services and platforms are entering the playing field, shows us that it’s probable that new players might join the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in 2016 and grab some share in the already competitive market space.
What do you say?
Do you find something missing that you think will happen in social media marketing in 2016? Let us know what you foresee.
