What’s New For You In Social Media This Year?

With constant updates to algorithms, new features, and changes in consumer behavior, your social media strategy needs to shift, also. Is it time to try something new?

MicroCreatives.com outlines 7 different trends you should be watching in 2020 as you adapt your social media to meet today’s needs.

Location: Local marketing isn’t just for small businesses with single locations. Even national brands can tap into location-specific niche markets in multiple ways. Here, MicroCreatives recommends creating location-specific pages, but national brand pages can also target their ads to specific locations. This could range from promoting an open house at a specific branch location for a regional financial institution to ads and content highlighting regional recipes that use a national food brand.

Behavior-based: In addition to encouraging audience participation with your content, use targeting in your social media advertising to focus on audiences who have certain behaviors or interests in common, such as following specific groups or hashtags that relate to your product or service.

Ephemeral content: No longer purely the domain of SnapChat, the now-you-see-it, now-it’s-gone nature of Facebook and Instagram Stories can make them especially compelling. Make this content visual and attention-grabbing to boost engagement.

Product discovery: More and more consumers turn to social media to find information about products. While the standard thinking is to balance promotional content with informational and entertaining content, including product information can provide the link (literally) between your social media page and a sale.

Video: Engagement with video far outstrips that with text-only content on social media. Think live product announcements, behind-the-scenes tours, Q&As with leaders, and even quick holiday greetings from your team.

VR & AR: With more people at home (both during the coronavirus pandemic and possibly after), there will be more people looking for new and novel experiences.

Influencer marketing: Especially if your target market veers to the younger end of the age spectrum, consumer products can benefit from the stamp of approval of credible influencers who align well with your brand.

Regardless of what new tools and techniques you choose for your social media strategy, we have one important recommendation: Integration social media with the rest of your marketing and PR. Don’t silo it and treat it as a completely separate entity. Your social media content should be a way of establishing your brand identity, connecting with prospects and customers, and driving traffic to your website where you can convert leads and customers.

(Want more back-to-the-basics info on social media? We cover the what, when, and how often of organic social media posts in this complete guide.)

You’ll find more about how we see social media as a part of the overall marketing and public relations program, especially for B2B marketing, in the JONES Social Media Solution plan. Download it, or schedule a time to talk with me about how JONES can help you integrate all of your marketing efforts toward your most important goals.