16 Jan Social Media Trends 2019
Social Media Trends 2019
Let’s be honest, 2018 was a bit of a minefield for social media and those who use it. What with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, fake news and privacy and data issues it couldn’t have been more difficult to navigate.
What will this mean for 2019? After 60% of people admitted no longer trusting social media, trust will be a massive one. Reassuring users that their data and information is safe is going to be high on the list for everyone who is trying to use social media to their benefit.
Let’s go into the detail…
Stories
Instagram announced that 400 million people were using Instagram stories every day. This is only set to grow in 2019. Instagram stories (and Facebook stories) show a more authentic, less polished look into peoples (and brands) lives.
Micro influencers especially are set to make more use of them in 2019 as they aren’t always receiving money to promote products and a story has a much shorter shelf life than taking a space in coveted feed.
There has been a shift from people scrolling through their feed to watching the stories first, this can be shown in the increase of people highlighting a new post to their page through their stories!
For businesses to stay relevant in 2019, it’s important for them to make use of stories while remaining authentic.
Meaningful engagement
Gone are the days of a large following being the most important thing on your page. In 2019 its more important to have a small, engaged and dedicated following. After all, who wants 1 million followers and only 100 likes on your posts?
If you’re a business, work hard this year to build a dedicated following around you and your brand rather than trying to build a huge network. Remain true to your brand and provide genuine, interesting and informative content to followers who actually want to see it to build returns.
Facebook groups
Although Facebook groups aren’t new, they are coming into their own since the Facebook algorithm update which promoted friends and family way over business pages.
Since then, businesses have been starting groups to create a sense of community around their brand and their products. Creating dedicated spaces to discuss and chat with other like minded individuals. For example, the ‘Women who travel’ group has 50,000 members, ¾ of whom are active on a daily basis!
A draw back of groups is that, considering there are already 200 million groups on Facebook, actually being discovered is tricky! We recommend sending out newsletters to your customers, posting regularly about the group and bringing as much attention to it as you can.
Be prepared to have someone manning the group daily to ensure any customer comments are dealt with swiftly and effectively.
Succeeding on social using groups means a fine line between sales and support through the group.
Linkedin has been gradually gaining in popularity since its launch. Remaining professional and avoiding the ‘drama’ that other social networks went through has allowed Linkedin to grow to over 500 million members. Linkedin is a great choice for B2B marketing due to its reputation as being a business platform it’s the natural place for decision makers to be.
Over 100,000 articles are published on Linkedin a week (which although a lot, is a lot less content than other platforms!) This makes Linkedin a great place to get yourself seen.
As 44% of Linkedin members earn more than $75,000, it’s an excellent way of reaching affluent customers!
Social ads
Since the Facebook algorithm change it’s almost impossible for a business page to reach their audience without paying for it. Since then brands have been paying regularly to share ads with a targeted audience. Since space is limited, prices have risen and will likely continue to rise for the premium. Consumers however, are more savvy to ads and are more likely this year to skim straight past them than ever before. In other words, despite companies paying more than ever before in 2019 for ads, there’s no guarantee anyone will pay attention to them!
We recommend running campaigns that are exciting, informative and well made to capture and keeps peoples attention.
Messenger
In an attempt to remain private, messenger has grown in popularity and will continue to rise in 2019. Platforms such as Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp (which have 2.8 billion users between them) will continue to grow. The decision comes when a company must choose whether to ‘intrude’ into someones personal space with advertising or not.
9 out of 10 consumers use messaging to reach out to and directly communicate with businesses.
So for 2019, ensure you have plans in place for your messaging. If you use a bot to respond, ensure it works correctly, and if it doesn’t make changes to ensure it does.
If you need help managing your social media in 2019, don’t hesitate to give us a shout and we’ll help you navigate through the tricky world of social! 01234 834719 info@shynee.com