Facebook was the first social network to have more than 1 billion active users in the year 2012. Facebook has shaped the social media landscape since its launch and has reportedly had over 2.32 billion active users in March 2019 only.

After social media became optimized for mobile browsing, most people find social media as their preferred companion for engagement. Statistics show that there are 3.2 billion social media users worldwide and the number is increasing with time (Emarsys, 2019).

The equation could be measured as 42% of the current population and the reason is, improvements in the mobile possibilities, making social media access even simpler no matter where you are. As social media is getting more and more integrated with our daily activities, it unveils numerous opportunities for businesses which are looking to reach the maximum audience through social media marketing. Social media not just maximize your reach but also expose your brand to a wider audience building their trust.

Many brands have included social media in their marketing strategies, either through influencing marketing or story ads. 73% of marketers believe that their efforts through social media marketing are ‘somewhat effective’ or ‘very effective’ for their business (Buffer, 2019).

Measuring social media’s impact on different platforms could be difficult. 54% of social browsers use social media to research for products and most of them look for reviews and recommendations. Thus, for nurturing trust it is important to have transparent discussions with your followers.

Excellent customer service can influence other customers to spread your product through word of mouth.

Four communication says 49% of consumers depend on influencer’s recommendation. 71% of consumers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media would likely recommend the following brand to their friends and family (Lyfemarketing 2018).

Marketers implement a multitude of ways to interact with users to keep them happy. They’ve started to connect with their users in a collective form where they can reach all the users at once rather reaching them out individually. In the coming months, we can expect to see these marketers spending less time in social media posting publicly and more time on groups.

Social media and smartphones together have proliferated the essence of delivering the content through videos.

Conclusively, Social media has the potency to provide marketers a substantial value.

Likewise, there are many factors of social media that’d be in trend this year to help strengthen the engagement of your audience.

1) Voice Search on Social Media

The ease of using voice assistant is that it makes us easily forget that they are new tools driven by cutting-edge technologies using sophisticated natural-language processing & powerful machine learning to enable rapid queries. A futuristic element – ‘voice search’ may enhance the potential of social media marketing.

Brands, influencers and bloggers who run ad campaigns, may add a voice recording to complement the ad and also make the payment for ‘PPC’(PAY PER CLICK) completely hands-free. Moreover, all the tech inclusive wearables may get linked to the voice searches.

2) The growing influence of social media commerce

Social platform has always been the primary way for individuals to consume media, interact with brands, seek recommendations and ask for help.

It is also a platform for consumers to make buying decisions.

A recent study by ‘Curalate’ states that 76% of US consumers have purchased goods through a social post they saw and 40% decide on what to buy based on reviews and recommendations on social platforms.

Instagram’s ‘Checkout’ feature has made the shopping experience seamless for the users. This beta feature allows the user to find & purchase the product they love and also receive their order notification through the Instagram app itself.

3) The growth of LinkedIn

LinkedIn is evolving and making a huge push towards becoming an informative business for content sharing & connection nurturing network.

LinkedIn offers stability, civility & real value that’s sorely needed on some social platforms.

Statistics says that 40 million business decision-makers spend their time on LinkedIn as it offers 3 times better conversion rate than any other social media platform.

From blogging to video publishing, LinkedIn has come forth with group functionality. Moreover, it offers premium data analysis & targeting capabilities-insight into those viewing your profile currently and many more.

LinkedIn has aggressively remade itself behind the curtains. Its data and profile are now integrated with a full range of Microsoft products from consumer apps to enterprise CRM software.

4) More strategic employee advocacy programs

Much like personal branding/marketing, when done with an influencer, it gives a human voice to the brand.

Due to a surplus of fraudulent marketers, genuine users prefer following friends, family, and acquaintances on social media. 61% of customers are more likely to trust a recommendation from a friend or family member compared to a celebrity endorsement.

To nurture trust and build brand awareness, companies encourage their employee advocate to create authentic connections.

As surveyed, employee-created content receives 8 times more engagement than the content shared by the company itself.

This approach of marketing seems less direct than traditional marketing but is found capable to connect with customers more effectively.

5) Micro-Influencers are the next big influencers

Micro-influencers are those who possess a handful of people to say 1000 or more as their followers, either in social media or in physical society, who could be easily influenced through them by either using word of mouth or any other means of communication.

They could be on any social media platform, either food blogging, traveling, or fashion industry, etc. as these people are usually experts in their respective niche.

Statistics say an influencer with 1000 followers has the capacity to generate 85% higher engagement than those of higher followers.

This statement may not be looking factually correct but the percentage of reach for those who have less number of followers is found higher.

Rather being cost-effective, they are reliable, trustworthy and they have the ability to connect with the audience on a higher level as well.

To Conclude

Social media acts as a bridge to build trust among consumers for the brand. The trust relationship between brands and consumers could be rebuilt by creating private groups, transparency reports, and employees as influencers. Thus, learning these trends will help you to adapt better with a rapidly evolving market.

Since social media platforms have evolved into full-blown communication channels, more brands have started relying on it to reach their target audiences. Businesses that’s why are embracing social media platforms to build a seamless connection with their audience and increase their reach.

As every brand nowadays is using social media in their marketing strategy to captivate the user’s attention, it has become difficult for a customer to stick to a single platform. Thus, any brand has to have a peculiar approach to attract users.

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