To say that people live on social media is not an exaggeration. Chances are that the first thing you do when you get out of bed in the morning is check your Facebook feed, and that your definition of torture is to sit through a meeting and not be able to respond to your vibrating phone.
With social media playing such a central role in our lives, marketers need to stay on top of new and successful trends if they want to stay connected with their target audiences. They also need to know what strategies are yesterday’s news and ditch them accordingly.
In this article, we’ll go over some examples of what you should stop doing if you want your campaigns to be relevant in 2020, what you absolutely must try, and what you should keep doing (for the time being, anyway).
Strategies that no longer work
These marketing methods actually haven’t worked for a while, but old habits die hard. If any of them are still in your campaign repertoire, time for a reboot, and fresh.
Cookie-cutter communications
Few things are more annoying than template-style ‘Dear Friend’ messages. You follow a favorite influencer or brand on Facebook or Twitter, and the next thing you know, you get a reply with a pitch or proposition that’s clearly been copied and pasted.
As a marketer, these templated messages may save you time, but social media marketing today is about inspiring engagement and building relationships. Generic communications leave a bad impression and can turn people away from your brand, so slow down a bit and focus on making your messages more meaningful.
Bonus: check out these super-impactful and well-thought-out Facebook Ads for further inspiration.
That involves taking the time to create personalized messages. Use personalized subject lines, and see if your message resonates by using tools like an email tracker to monitor the recipient’s actions.
Getting followers by following everyone
At one time, your brand value on social media was heavily influenced by the number of followers you had. Soon marketers were following anyone who would return the favor and some businesses let you buy followers to increase your prestige.
Today, quality trumps quantity. It's not about how many followers you have- it’s about making the most of each one. So stop buying your following and focus on growing it organically by making people care about you and your products. It won’t be long before you notice a difference in your bottom line.
Strategies you HAVE to start
Now that you’ve cleared a couple of outdated strategies out of your toolkit, it’s time to replace them with two new marketing tactics that are delivering stellar results in 2020.
Ephemeral content
According to Influencer MarketingHub, ephemeral content is something that’s only briefly available. Examples include Stories Instagram, infographics, and Snapchat Stories, which are short, engaging, and easy for users to scroll through.
Between 2016 and 2019, the number of daily active Instagram Stories users rose dramatically from 100 million to 500 million, and smart marketers are taking notice. A recent Hootsuite report suggests that 64% of social media marketers are using Instagram Stories or making plans to do so. Are you one of them?
Augmented reality
You’ve probably seen (and used) those photo filters that give you cool sunglasses, a flower tiara, or cute bunny ears. These are all examples of augmented reality (AR), which uses digital assets to change the way that things actually look.
Social media marketers and brands are leveraging this technology to deliver a unique and engaging customer experience. Beauty retailer Sephora recently incorporated AR into its Facebook page: users can now ‘try’ on Sephora products via Messenger, which makes the shopping experience more engaging and lets them make better purchasing decisions. Even if you’re not into makeup, you can see how A/R can make people notice you, fast.
Social commerce
With social commerce, you sell products directly within your company’s social media platforms. This is not the same thing as social media marketing, which drives referral traffic from Facebook or Twitter to an online store or website. Social commerce lets customers buy your products without ever clicking off your social media page.
More brands are using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest as a new retail avenue to sell their products. Although this trend has been gaining momentum for a while, 2020 is the year when you want to start using mediums like shoppable posts and Instagram Storefronts.
Strategies you want to keep doing in 2020
These are tactics that you’re probably using already. The good news is that they’re still relevant and will be for a while yet- because they work.
Video marketing
Video has been a winning strategy for a while now, and it’s only going to get bigger. One Cisco study predicted that video will be 82% of all global IP traffic in 2021, which confirms that using informative and engaging video continues to be relevant in social media marketing.
If you’re not currently creating videos for your brand, it’s time to include it in your marketing strategy. Whether you’re using short but snappy stories on TikTok or developing more long-form content like YouTube tutorials, keep it going and don’t stop!
Personalization
Social media changed the way we deliver sales messages to consumers. People are no longer a captive audience for every marketing pitch that companies want to throw at them. If a message isn’t relevant, they turn away and likely won’t come back.
To stand out, savvy marketers have been personalizing their social media strategies. They collect data on their audience’s demographics, interests, and behavior to create and deliver the relevant content that catches the attention of potential customers, converts them, and keeps them coming back.
Conclusion
Social media marketing is a dynamic and competitive space, which makes it difficult to stay ahead of the competition. When you become more proficient in current trends that work and leverage newer strategies to your advantage, you’ll always ace your social media game and keep phones buzzing everywhere.