The savvy marketers, managers and marketing executives at mid-size companies have already started looking into new digital marketing innovations that can help improve performance this year. In 2019, now more than ever before, your approach to social media marketing can make or break the business almost immediately and have a residual impact on earnings for the foreseeable future.
So, what are the trends in Social Media to keep an eye on for 2019?
Continued Focus on Privacy and Transparency
The main catalyst impacting social media in 2019 may stem from the privacy and transparency issues associated with the Russian hack of the 2016 elections. The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer report found that 60 percent of the consumers worldwide no longer trust social media companies. This underlying fact effects how social media companies and marketers will advertise to consumers in 2019.
Continued Emphasis on Brand Safety
Companies should continue to prioritize brand safety and avoid any association with content that conflicts with their mission statement. Many consumers want brands to put more pressure on social media companies to operate more effectively, including shielding consumers from offensive content, curbing fake news and safeguarding personal data.
Consumers are likely to view brands as complicit with any unsavory advertising and associates the advertising as an indication of the brand’s values, including hate speech. As a result of these concerns, consumers are increasingly growing more uncomfortable with data-based marketing techniques like tracking in-store purchases for targeting purposes. About half of the 9000 respondents in the global study indicated they’d be unwilling to sacrifice data privacy for a more personalized shopping experience.
More customized metrics and time-based metrics
Increased emphasis on customized metrics that help with social media marketing, engaging target audiences and driving higher returns are expected through 2019. As consumers raise expectations and competition increases, marketers depend more and more on targeting and personalizing their add campaigns. Efficiency is key, so many marketers prefer consumer data metrics that can account for multiple concerns, like campaign impact and brand safety. Metrics that provide marketers with data about time-in-view provide additional customer insight and engagement.
Influencers leaving Instagram
The growing mistrust online isn’t just limited to social media companies, it’s affecting influencers as well. Credibility is now becoming more important to consumers than the size of an influencer’s following. Whether it be caused by negative publicity, additional limitations, or increased competition, more and more influencers are migrating away from Instagram towards newer platforms like Patreon or OnlyFans that are inherently based on the most-lucrative subscription business model.
Groups and Stories and DMs
One of the easiest social media 2019 predictions to make is that groups, stories, and DMs will continue to reign supreme online. A greater emphasis on privacy and intimacy have only added to the momentum of the rising interests online users have for social media groups. During 2018, membership in Facebook Group increased by 40%, with 1.4 billion people engaged in these groups each month.
For many marketers, real success in 2019 involves capitalizing on the group trend by providing a safe space for consumers that is to scale and not inundated in overt advertisements. One of the most promising avenues for engaging online in a personal way right now are the Stories that have become popular on platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp and Facebook. The Stories have grown 15 times faster than feed-based sharing and are on pace to overtake feeds as the way friends share online in 2019.
Around 40% of consumers say they are unlikely to become emotionally invested in a brand unless they interact through social media. Around 90% of consumers prefer messaging customer service, but less than half of all businesses have implemented messaging apps. Few brands have established the appropriate harmony between bots and humans needed for proper scale. Whether it’s through Stories, Groups or direct messages, marketing companies need to improve engagement to keep pace in 2019.
