In today’s digital age, our connection to handheld devices has reached new heights. Consider for a moment: how frequently do you find yourself drawn to your phone’s glowing screen?
In a comprehensive survey conducted by Reviews.org, it was revealed that a staggering 56.9% of American adults aged 18 and above openly admit to being enthralled by their cell phones.
But that’s not all—prepare to be astounded as we uncover another astonishing fact: an overwhelming 89% of Americans find themselves irresistibly drawn to their phones within the first 10 minutes of waking up. These captivating statistics offer profound insights into our evolving relationship with handheld devices.
As Jeff Bezos puts it – “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”
- A report from Statista reveals that a staggering 4.8 billion individuals, accounting for around 59.9% of the global population, actively engaged with various social media platforms.
- Teenagers (age 13-17) spend the most time on social media, averaging 8 hours and 39 minutes per day on screens, followed by young adults (age 18-29) with over 5 hours, while adults (age 30-49) spend about 4 to 5 hours, and older adults (age 50+) spend less than 4 hours per day.
- Facebook holds the title of the most widely used online social network globally, boasting approximately 2.98 billion monthly active users.
Scope for Innovation?
But is this it? Can we expect even more captivating developments in the realm of social media marketing?
The answer is uncertain.
While many continue to grow their brands with an existing social media strategy, the massive availability of content always motivates marketers to come up with something fresh.
It is never to stand out from the crowd, and you always need to stay a step ahead of the competition to have a chance at becoming successful on social platforms.
Top Social Media Trends for Marketers
Trends in social media strategy refer to the prevailing patterns and shifts in how businesses and individuals engage, communicate, and market on social media platforms. These trends encompass a wide range of aspects, including platform features, content formats, user behavior, algorithm changes, and industry best practices. Stay informed and gain valuable insights into the current and future trends of social media strategy.
1) Ephemeral Content Will Continue To Make Waves
Ephemeral Content is the type of content that remains online for a brief period of time, for example, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat stories. The story update feature exists for both individuals and businesses on every social media platform. With this fast-moving world, our attention spans have also shrunk, and that has made ephemeral content popular. The fondness of the audience towards updating stories made most of the platforms incorporate this feature, including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.
- The Instagram app attracts a staggering 500 million daily active users from around the world.
- Snapchat experienced a growth in its user base, reaching 383 million daily active users globally, up from 375 million in the previous quarter of 2022.
- In January 2023, approximately 20% of Snapchat users were men aged 18 to 24, while 18.3% were women in the same age range. Additionally, around 20% of users fell between the ages of 13 and 17.
Source: Instagram Influencer Story
2) Influencer Marketing Will Stay Around The Block
Social media has given birth to a new breed of influencers that are not your traditional celebrities. They are a mix of everyday users, specialists, and proponents of certain special interests. They are driving demand for products and services they promote to their followers on social media channels. The audience views them as trusted advisors, and their role in Influencer Marketing will continue to grow in the coming years. Here are some stats to check out today.
- The Influencer Marketing industry holds a substantial worth of $16.4 billion.
- Experts predict that the industry will soon surpass the $18 billion mark in terms of its market value.
- An intriguing statistic reveals that 7 out of 10 teenagers place more trust in influencers compared to celebrities.
Although influencer marketing has been around for a long time, social media has made it a cornerstone of modern marketing. As a marketer, you will need to make sure your social media strategies have influencer marketing built-in if you want to be future-ready.
Brands have used influencer marketing as a potent approach to connect with and engage their target consumers. However, influencer marketing will keep changing as the social media ecosystem changes. By working with micro- and nano-influencers, brands will adopt a more focused strategy.
Nano-influencers have an even more specialized audience, frequently between 1,000 and 10,000 followers, while micro-influencers have a smaller following, generally between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. Their devoted fan base in a particular group or specialty is what distinguishes them.
Working with micro-influencers and nano-influencers offers several advantages. Firstly, these influencers tend to have a more authentic and relatable connection with their followers. Their smaller audience allows for more meaningful interactions, fostering a sense of trust and credibility. Their recommendations and endorsements carry weight, leading to higher engagement rates and better conversion rates for brands.
Daniel Wellington: The watch brand Daniel Wellington collaborated with numerous micro-influencers on Instagram to promote their minimalist timepieces. By partnering with influencers known for their fashion and lifestyle content, Daniel Wellington increased brand visibility, generated buzz, and achieved significant sales growth. The campaign’s success showcased the power of influencer marketing in the fashion industry.
Glossier: Glossier, a beauty and skincare brand, leveraged influencer marketing to build a strong online presence. They collaborated with beauty influencers and bloggers who shared their personal experiences and honest reviews of Glossier products. These partnerships helped Glossier reach a wider audience and establish credibility, leading to a dedicated community of brand advocates and increased sales.
3) Social Media Ads Will Continue To Make Waves
Social Media ads are becoming increasingly useful than any other type of ads. Social Media advertising is even more important when it comes to targeting the millennial audience. In fact, Instagram boasts an impressive user base of 1 billion monthly active users.
- The advertising sector is poised to witness a steady growth rate, with an expected annual CAGR of 4.53% from 2023 to 2027. This trajectory is projected to culminate in a market volume of US$247.30 billion by the end of the decade.
- It is anticipated that the number of users in the Social Media Advertising market will reach a significant figure of 5,852.00 million users.
4) The Use of Artificial Intelligence In Social Media Will Prevail
The AI for social media market is projected to witness a substantial growth rate, with a CAGR of 28.77% expected by 2028.
Whether it is a website or social media, AI-powered applications are owning the game everywhere. Not only do they allow businesses to engage, but they also help in targeting the right audience. Machine learning and Natural language processing (NLP) tools are empowering incredibly powerful social experiences. Here are a few examples of how AI is empowering various social media platforms:
- Messenger applications for real-time conversational marketing
- Social media monitoring and predictive behavior analytics
- Behavior-based targeting with the advertisement
5) Video Content Is Here To Stay
By 2027, the number of users in the Video-on-Demand market is projected to reach an impressive 3.44 billion users. Furthermore, user penetration is estimated to increase from 36.8% to 43.2% by the end of the decade.
Social Media channels like Facebook, YouTube, and others are responsible for the majority of the marketing videos being consumed by end-users. Live videos are another popular option to drive engagement with your audience and grow your brand following on social media.
6) Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality (AR) is poised to reshape social media in groundbreaking ways. The continuous advancements in AR technology are unlocking new possibilities for immersive and interactive experiences on various social media platforms.
Leading platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook are at the forefront of integrating AR features into their platforms. Users can expect a wide range of AR filters, effects, and experiences that seamlessly blend digital elements with the real world. From face filters to interactive games and virtual try-on experiences, AR is becoming an integral part of social media engagement.
Brands across industries are recognizing the potential of AR and leveraging it to create unique and memorable experiences for their audiences. Expect to see more brands adopting AR-powered campaigns, product launches, and interactive advertisements. For example, fashion brands might utilize AR to enable virtual fitting rooms, allowing customers to try on clothes virtually before making a purchase.
7) Going Live
The “Going Live” trend will continue to thrive and evolve, becoming an essential component of social media strategies. While it may have initially gained popularity in 2019, it has since undergone significant advancements and integration across multiple platforms.
With the rise of real-time engagement and the desire for authentic connections, live videos have become a powerful tool for brands and individuals alike. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube have further embraced the trend, enhancing their live video features to offer more interactive and immersive experiences.
In the coming years, the importance of going live will become even more evident as it caters to the preferences of modern audiences. Internet users are increasingly drawn to live videos due to their ability to provide real-time updates, exclusive content, and opportunities for immediate audience interaction.
Brands and influencers can leverage the power of live videos to showcase product launches, host Q&A sessions, conduct interviews, stream events, and even offer behind-the-scenes glimpses. By going live, they can connect with their audience on a deeper level, building trust, fostering engagement, and establishing a sense of authenticity.
8) Conversational Marketing
Nothing beats talking to your best friend about that car you want to buy, isn’t it? Conversations are a great way to connect with your users and drive sales.
Many brands are using conversational marketing by creating content that encourages their users to tag their friends and family members in the posts, and it has a chain reaction that ends up delivering unmatched customer engagement in a matter of hours.
This trend is fresh and when combined with a strategy like self-aware marketing, it can do wonders to any brand’s social media marketing campaign.
9) Rise of the Memes
Memes will continue to be a relevant and popular form of social media trend in the future. These humorous and relatable images or videos, often accompanied by clever captions or text overlays, have become a widespread means of communication and self-expression on social platforms.
Memes will continue to dominate social media platforms, reflecting the evolving cultural landscape and current events. Memes allow individuals, brands, and organizations to participate in trending discussions, capture attention, and connect with their target audience in a relatable and entertaining manner.
Brands have recognized the potential of memes as a powerful marketing tool. By leveraging popular memes and incorporating them into their content strategy, brands can create a sense of authenticity, humor, and relevance that resonates with their audience. Memes allow brands to engage with their followers, increase brand awareness, and foster a sense of community.
10) Gaming and Social Media
Social media platforms are trying to gamify every aspect of their platforms. But that concept is still evolving. There are games that are well integrated with platforms like Facebook and they often tend to blur the line between gaming and social media.
For marketers, these games are a perfect place to advertise their brands based on the user preferences. This trend will continue to grow in the future and marketers can scout more opportunities to promote their brand between these games.
11) Social Commerce
More than half of the world’s population is on social media right now, and many of them use social media platforms to get inspiration for their purchases.
This constant search for motivation inspired social platforms like Facebook and Instagram to come up with Shops, and they have infiltrated their respective platforms for a few years now.
With a surge in social commerce, an increasing number of online shoppers, approximately more than half, are now making purchases directly through social media platforms. By leveraging these platforms, these brands can tap into expansive user bases, offering a seamless and convenient shopping experience. This strategic move allows them to meet their customers where they are, providing personalized recommendations and a streamlined purchasing process. As social media continues to evolve into a thriving marketplace, leading brands are capitalizing on this trend to drive online sales and forge deeper connections with their audience.
Moreover, social commerce allows brands to streamline the shopping experiences they deliver across different platforms and allows consumers to purchase items as they scroll. It has become increasingly evident that this is not just a passing trend but a definitive pathway to the future.
12) Managing Disinformation
Managing disinformation has become a critical concern for social media platforms. The proliferation of false information deliberately spread across various social platforms has had significant negative implications, leading to misinformation, polarization, and potential harm to individuals and societies.
Recognizing the detrimental impact of disinformation, social media companies have taken substantial measures to address this issue. In recent years, platforms have implemented stricter content moderation policies, enhanced fact-checking mechanisms, and collaborated with third-party organizations to verify information and combat the spread of disinformation.
In the coming years, the focus on managing disinformation will intensify even further. Social media platforms will invest in advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, to detect and flag misleading or false content more effectively. These technologies will help identify patterns, analyze content context, and assess credibility, allowing platforms to take proactive measures in countering disinformation campaigns.
Conclusion
So, marketers, are you ready? Aptly consider these trends while planning your future social media strategies. Social media is something that will not be slowing down any time soon. And if you want to talk about more things or all things social media, we’re right here! Just drop us a line at info@growthnatives.com, and we will get back to you.