The biggest social media trends for 2020

Are you planning 2020 marketing? These are the biggest social media trends you need to know about 2020, according to the social media consulting team of Convince & Convert .

Here's an overview of the biggest social media trends for 2020.

Social Media Trend #1: Social Media is going back to its roots

Social media is returning to its roots – moving away from mass marketing media and back to a personal, media-driven approach. This was predicted 4 years ago by Evan Spiegel, founder of Snapchat. At the time, everyone thought he was a hobbyist and was just guessing because “contacts-style” interactions were central to Snapchat. For a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right? But he made the money.

Increasingly, social media is about these components: paid advertising, customer service, expiring “story,” intimacy and 1:1 messaging and small groups (instead of email).

There will be fewer public interactions and more private interactions on Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram DM and more. What is dark society? Why is it important? This post explain.

2020 will be the year we see consumers start using public social media LESS, even if use social media each time continue to increase.

Jay Baer, Founder, Persuasion & Transformation

Social Media Trend #2: Influencer Marketing Be Authentic and Authentic

While influencers can still be incredibly effective for brands to reach new audiences and create new content, it's the authenticity of that partnership that will be key. The audience sees through the forced partnership, knows when they're being sold to, and gets tired of both. Just because a brand is associated with a social media celebrity or someone with a large following doesn't mean it's an instant win.

In fact, Bazaarvoice reported that 47% of customers are tired of bogus influencer content, and 62% of customers believe influencer endorsements take advantage of an impressionable audience.

47% of customers are tired of influencer content that isn't authentic. Click to Tweet

Anna Hrach, Strategist

Social Media Trend #3: Brands will need a human voice

With so many competing messages and decisions to make every day for your brand, it's easy to lose track of your voice and what made your audience fall in love with you in the first place. Going back to basics and being human in your posts can not only keep your audience happy, but it can also help you make publishing decisions much easier.

Recently, Social Media Examiner shared the best ways to humanize your Instagram business account including this example from Netflix:

Instagram business account with personality

Here is a great example of a brand becoming human and connecting with their audience in a friendly, conversational way.

Remember that you “don't have to be formal to be professional.”

Social Media Trend #4: Social media will become part of everyone's job

Social media has been a core part of business for over a decade. Gone are the days when “playing on that Facebook” was only supposed to happen on a lunch break. In today's world, business is conducted consistently thanks to and with social media. Like other disruptive technologies, social media has come out of the novelty era and into an era where social media proficiency is required as part of everyone's job.

Your staff is

The biggest social network asset. In fact, 45% of consumers are more likely to research a product or service when an employee of a brand posts about that product or service.

45% of consumers are more likely to research a product or service. Click for chirping sound

The social media skill set goes beyond marketing and communications roles. They are less required, but especially needed, in customer service, human resources, sales, and research. Even in roles that aren't directly related to content, messaging, design, lead generation, sales or service, we still require employees to be good at social media to promote push our internal advocacy efforts. Employee support programs continue to be top trends, because their success in humanizing brands and amplifying storytelling is undeniable on a grand scale. Businesses must provide principles of social media policy and resources for their employees to master social media skills, as the technology is more like email than VR in today's business world.

Lauren Teague, Strategist

Social Media Trend #5: User Backlash Will Grow

The trend I am anticipating and will be keeping a close eye on in 2020 is the backlash of users rooted in the 2020 political environment.

The political war continues in o your social media feeds, among cat memes, sports highlights, and family photos. Americans are in the process of investigating the impeachment of the president and the presidential election. The difficult conclusion of Brexit is certain to be made in the coming year. Election interference and disinformation tactics are being tested around the world in preparation. The US government has opened a national security review on TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese company. We've seen Jack Dorsey signal a move to eliminate most political advertising on Twitter (although political spending makes up a small percentage of Twitter's ad revenue).

We've made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe that access to political messages should be earned, not bought. Why? Some reason…?

- jack??? (@jack) October 30, 2019

But more than executives do, I want to see how Americans of all ages react to the political environment as it unfolds on social media. No matter where they spend their time using social media today, their audience's consumption habits and choice base will almost certainly change in the coming year. That will influence the decisions of marketers to pursue the intended audience from one social media platform to another. It will force marketers and community managers to dive deeper into the dark society space (Messenger, WhatsApp, Groups) where audiences will inevitably take refuge.

– Lauren Teague

Social Media Trend #6: Brands will need to define social media maturity

B2C marketers can't get more out of their social marketing investments without understanding where they are right now. growth on social media .

See this report from Forrester for learning about a brand's social media maturity capabilities, how to gauge your own maturity, and next steps to take to advance your approach.

Anthony Helmstetter, Strategist

Social Media Trend #7: Social Networks Will Continue to Dominate B2B Content Marketing

In 2019, social was the top organic distribution channel for B2B content marketing and the top paid distribution channel for B2B content marketing. This The trend shows no signs of slowing down and marketers will need to continue to invest in social media for marketing content. Furthermore, it's important for marketers to treat their strategies on each social media channel as distinct and specific to the needs of their unique audience, as social content is complete. It's not a one-size-fits-all.

Zontee Hou, Co-Head, Consultant

Social Media Trend #8: Usage of messaging apps will continue to increase

As the use of public social networks declines, the use of messaging apps will continue to increase. These include Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and more. Apps come with a host of new opportunities (and challenges) for marketers. The prize: billions of monthly active users, including coveted Millennial and Generation Z consumers.

For 2020, consider how messaging apps will fit into your social media and customer service strategy. At Convince & Convert, I manage our messaging apps and handle inquiries, general interactions, and more.

Social media isn't what it used to be, and the most successful social media marketers will develop their strategies based on where their customers are and how they want to communicate.