Social media marketing is dynamic and requires you to continuously keep updating your tactics. If you want to beat your competition and stand out on social media, you need to stay one step ahead.
This is why you need to plan your 2020 social media marketing strategy, and this post will help you do just that. This year, we will see a lot of new social media marketing trends that you need to prepare for in advance.
Here are some of the key social media marketing trends for 2020 and why you should consider them while planning your strategy.
Influencer Marketing Will Continue to Evolve
When influencer marketing first started, it was more about collaborating with popular people to reach their fans and followers. The collaborations were usually limited to 1-2 influencers and the campaigns were not that frequent.
But the game has completely changed since then. Influencer marketing has been continuously evolving and changing with time.
First, brands started realizing the importance of qualitative aspects like relevance in their influencer selection process. Now brands prefer working with smaller influencers who are experts in their niche, rather than running after celebrities.
The second major change is the frequency of influencer campaigns. Influencer marketing has now become and will be an always-on strategy for many marketers.
Image Source: Social Publi
The third change that we are witnessing these days is the use of a network of influencers instead of just one or two.
LIKEtoKNOW.it, for example, uses a whole network of influencers to promote their app. These influencers wear products that are available on the app. Anyone who wants to buy those products can simply scan the image on the app and find the products worn by an influencer.
This is influencer marketing at scale and it is a trend you need to prepare for in the future.
Social Media is an Important Customer Service Channel
Another way in which you need to rethink your social media marketing strategy is to start thinking of social media as a customer service channel.
People love connecting with brands in a more direct manner and often post questions or concerns in comments. Some even send a private message on social media platforms to immediately grab the brand’s attention and get a quick response.
Why is it Important?
While you may have several customer service channels, you can’t ignore your customers or prospects on social media.
Firstly, it forms a bad impression of your
brand if you are unresponsive to social media comments. It is a public platform
where your unresponsiveness can be witnessed by everyone and misinterpreted. A
single customer concern that is shown publicly and goes unresolved can take a
toll on your brand’s reputation.
Moreover, you can’t disappoint your customers if you want to retain them and keep them loyal to your brand. Answering customer questions and providing quick resolutions to their problems helps you retain your customers.
Therefore, it is crucial that you start responding to your customers promptly.
How to Do it
While it is easy to say that you should respond promptly, it is not always feasible. You can’t keep track of every single comment, message, or mention manually. This is where technology can help you.
You can use social media listening tools to keep track of every single time someone mentions your brand. There are tools available that even help you respond to all social media comments and mentions promptly, without any hassle.
Authenticity and Relevance Will be Paramount
Today, consumers are much smarter and informed than ever before. This is the internet age where everyone is using one or more smart devices to stay updated on things that interest them. This is the time of information overload and it is difficult for brands to create content that stands out.
For such consumers, advertising or hard-selling products just don’t work anymore. They can instantly recognize an ad from native content and usually even avoid reading such content.
Today’s consumers want to only look at content that is useful and relevant to them. Social media platforms are also becoming smart enough to personalize each user’s feed per their liking. This means that you need to understand your audience well and create content that they will like.
Another important factor when it comes to social media marketing in 2020 is authenticity. As a rule of thumb, don’t make any unrealistic claims or false promises.
Consumers like brands that are genuine, authentic and that have a good story. They like to connect with a brand and not just have a transactional relationship. The more authentic your content seems, the more people will read it.
This also stands true for influencer content. You need to ensure that you only work with influencers whose personal values align with those of your brand. Fake reviews and sponsored, irrelevant content are things of the past. So, keep it real and people will value that.
Hashtag Marketing Will be More Important Than Ever
Hashtags marketing is like SEO for social media. Hashtags help you reach the right people, increase your content’s reach, and run successful marketing campaigns.
Here are some of the reasons why you should use hashtags in your social media content.
- People don’t just follow accounts, they also follow hashtags. If you use hashtags then your content will not be limited to your followers but will be shown to people who follow those hashtags as well. This helps you reach more people and boosts your content’s reach.
- If you use the right hashtags related to your brand or niche, you can reach people who are more likely to be interested in your content. These could be your potential customers and represent an opportunity for you to get more conversions.
- People who are interested in a hashtag might also be interested in a related brand and follow them. Hashtags, therefore, can also help you get more followers.
- Hashtags also help categorize your content under relevant topics. Given how smart social platforms are becoming at categorizing and curating content, this will be essential for you in the future.
Overall, hashtags are one of the most powerful tools in a social media marketer’s arsenal. Use them to beat the competition and make your content more visible on social media.
Brands Will Need to Stand Out and Have a Unique Voice
As mentioned earlier, consumers want to connect with a brand and prefer buying from the ones they can relate to. This kind of connection does not form overnight and can take years to build.
You need to have strong brand recognition and a unique brand identity to build a loyal follower base. For this, you need to make your brand stand out and give it a separate identity like an actual person and not an abstract concept.
You can start by maintaining a consistent style, aesthetics, tone, and voice across all online platforms. To do so, you can document your brand guidelines and specify what color palette, fonts, typography, etc. to use when creating branded content.
You should also choose a tone of voice that will remain consistent in all your brand communications. It could be anything from formal and serious to fun and witty. Just ensure that the same is reflected in all your social media content across channels.
With regard to your visual content, you also need to maintain some consistency. This can either be by using the same color palette, similar designs, frames, or another visual element. The idea is to ensure that all of your content looks like it belongs to your brand and should be immediately recognizable.
Check out Frooti’s use of bright colors and pictures of mangoes, for example. These posts clearly show that they are created by the same brand and have a distinct quality that fosters brand recognition.
Image Source: Instagram
Cause-Based Marketing Will Become More Popular
In recent years, cause-based marketing has become quite popular and this trend will continue in the future. More and more brands are now experimenting with this tactic and it actually works.
What better way to get people interested in your brand than by associating yourself with a worthy cause? Of course, the cause should be such that it appeals to your target audience. All you need to do is find a cause that your target audience relates to and start a campaign around that.
One brilliant example of a brand that has used this tactic for years is Dove. The brand has long been associated with the cause of breaking beauty standards and empowering women to be their best selves. Given that the brand’s core target customers are women, it makes this a perfect cause for them to take on.
Over the years, they have run several successful campaigns centered around the same cause. Their latest Instagram strategy, for example, is to repost user-generated content from women who promote a positive body image and acceptance.
Conclusion
This post lists six of the most important social media marketing trends for 2020. You need to rethink your social media marketing strategy keeping these in mind.
Use this post as your reference while preparing for your social media marketing plan for this year and see the results for yourself.
