Social Media Marketing targets the users who are active on social media platforms. And in today’s time, almost everyone has an online presence. 15 years ago, no one would have thought that billions of people will come together with the help of Internet. There were a few sites before Orkut but it was the Social Networking site that started this revolution. The potential and future of Social Media Marketing was seen through the rise of Orkut. And then came Facebook. It was the turning point that left Orkut behind. Then came Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and many more. Everything else is history.
But the story does not stop here. As internet was rising quickly, agencies also took full advantage. They came up with digital solutions that assists brand in enhancing their image. The solutions include Content, SEO, PPC and Design & Development Services. As Social Media frenzy started, one more Service aspect was born – Social Media Marketing. The main aim of these services is to gain traffic and earn ROI through social media sites. It makes the user learn more about the brand and increase the visibility. The reason why this marketing has succeeded is because the user is able to interact and give feedback. Cut to 2018 now. There were many different trends in Social Media Marketing that changed how it was done.
Some of the trends are as follows –
- Going Live on Video
First thing first. Social Media is all about presence. As a user, more you are active here, better will the likes, comments and shares. To make sure this happens, new methods are happening. One of those was going Live. Social Media Marketing was all in for going live in 2017 but it went full throttle in 2018 as it got a great reception. Brands were so sure of this tactic that around 95 percent of them included this feature in their marketing strategy. Consumers just love videos. They prefer it more than the blogs. 4 out of 5 people always prefer to watch a video than read a blog. Facebook leads the way in Live video by a distance and is followed by Instagram.
- Rise of chatbots
Have you ever booked an Ola or ordered from Swiggy. After the ride/delivery, if you have any complaints, you don’t directly talk to an agent one-to-one. Instead, you talk to chatbots. The same also happened on Social Media. It was a great example of evolution. Chatbots are not just limited to these, they are now integrated with different Social Media platforms. Businesses became active in communication with the customers. Lets take an example of Facebook. In the first year, there was just 33,000 chatbots but this number jumped to 100,000 and when the rise is steep, how can Social Media Marketing be behind.
- Influencer Marketing
Social Media Marketing trends also took advantage of another aspect – Influencer Marketing. It isn’t a new term but its incorporation in Social Media was new in 2018. Micro influencers have become very famous. They are the ones who are not considered as celebrities but enjoy a great deal of fan following in social media channels. They have thousands of followers in their social media page and the followers follow them closely and read whatever they have to say. They are better than celebrities as the followers can connect with them easily. In 2018, micro influencers had 60 percent higher engagement rate as compared to celebrities. Brands partner up with them and market their products and services with their help.
- Full use of Paid advertisement
Watching videos on Youtube became irritating when a lot of ads started to pop in between but this is how revenue is generated. Platforms like Facebook took a cue and started to display ads. You will be surprised to know that Facebook alone has more than six million paid advertisers. Instagram, again, is second with more than 2 million paid advertisers. It became fairly simple in Social Media Marketing to target specific demographic and this is what is achieved in paid advertisement. You can show your ad according to location, age, gender and language of the user. Only these filtered people will be seeing the ad.
- Social Media listening
I want you to take a deep breath before reading the next sentence – Social media platforms are listening to what you are saying. It sounds creepy, right? But that is the truth and Social Media Marketing is taking full advantage of this fact. One such example is of Sprout Social. It offers different social listening tools to help the brand analyze what the audience is saying and how can the services be improved. Additionally, a brand can also see the health of their hashtags and keywords. Using the data, there can be different adjustments to the strategy and target audience.
- Clever use of user generated content
Individuals involved in Social Media Marketing are a clever lot. They benefit from the users to ease their work. User generated content was one of the talking points of 2018. In short, it is the ideal way to grow your business by doing less amount of work. Let audience say something about your brand. Ask them to use relevant hashtags and post using these hashtags. More the hashtags used,better will be visibility. It is an automatic way of promotion. If a user says something true, it will be viewed as an unbiased opinion with no monetary and financial benefits.
- Breakthrough of augmented reality
Lets begin with what augmented reality is. A computer generated image is made and superimposed on the real image as required by the user. With the help of technology, real things are altered. Users have embraced this option with open arms as there is a fun quotient related to this app. People access the front camera and make wacky faces and post them on social media. Snapchat is the biggest example of this. In fact, augmented reality is the backbone of their operations.
2018 brought a lot of new things for Social Media Marketers. I am pretty sure 2019 will bring even more!
Social Media Marketing targets the users who are active on social media platforms. And in today’s time, almost everyone has an online presence. 15 years ago, no one would have thought that billions of people will come together with the help of Internet. There were a few sites before Orkut but it was the Social Networking site that started this revolution. The potential and future of Social Media Marketing was seen through the rise of Orkut. And then came Facebook. It was the turning point that left Orkut behind. Then came Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and many more. Everything else is history.
But the story does not stop here. As internet was rising quickly, agencies also took full advantage. They came up with digital solutions that assists brand in enhancing their image. The solutions include Content, SEO, PPC and Design & Development Services. As Social Media frenzy started, one more Service aspect was born – Social Media Marketing. The main aim of these services is to gain traffic and earn ROI through social media sites. It makes the user learn more about the brand and increase the visibility. The reason why this marketing has succeeded is because the user is able to interact and give feedback. Cut to 2018 now. There were many different trends in Social Media Marketing that changed how it was done.
Some of the trends are as follows –
- Going Live on Video
First thing first. Social Media is all about presence. As a user, more you are active here, better will the likes, comments and shares. To make sure this happens, new methods are happening. One of those was going Live. Social Media Marketing was all in for going live in 2017 but it went full throttle in 2018 as it got a great reception. Brands were so sure of this tactic that around 95 percent of them included this feature in their marketing strategy. Consumers just love videos. They prefer it more than the blogs. 4 out of 5 people always prefer to watch a video than read a blog. Facebook leads the way in Live video by a distance and is followed by Instagram.
- Rise of chatbots
Have you ever booked an Ola or ordered from Swiggy. After the ride/delivery, if you have any complaints, you don’t directly talk to an agent one-to-one. Instead, you talk to chatbots. The same also happened on Social Media. It was a great example of evolution. Chatbots are not just limited to these, they are now integrated with different Social Media platforms. Businesses became active in communication with the customers. Lets take an example of Facebook. In the first year, there was just 33,000 chatbots but this number jumped to 100,000 and when the rise is steep, how can Social Media Marketing be behind.
- Influencer Marketing
Social Media Marketing trends also took advantage of another aspect – Influencer Marketing. It isn’t a new term but its incorporation in Social Media was new in 2018. Micro influencers have become very famous. They are the ones who are not considered as celebrities but enjoy a great deal of fan following in social media channels. They have thousands of followers in their social media page and the followers follow them closely and read whatever they have to say. They are better than celebrities as the followers can connect with them easily. In 2018, micro influencers had 60 percent higher engagement rate as compared to celebrities. Brands partner up with them and market their products and services with their help.
- Full use of Paid advertisement
Watching videos on Youtube became irritating when a lot of ads started to pop in between but this is how revenue is generated. Platforms like Facebook took a cue and started to display ads. You will be surprised to know that Facebook alone has more than six million paid advertisers. Instagram, again, is second with more than 2 million paid advertisers. It became fairly simple in Social Media Marketing to target specific demographic and this is what is achieved in paid advertisement. You can show your ad according to location, age, gender and language of the user. Only these filtered people will be seeing the ad.
- Social Media listening
I want you to take a deep breath before reading the next sentence – Social media platforms are listening to what you are saying. It sounds creepy, right? But that is the truth and Social Media Marketing is taking full advantage of this fact. One such example is of Sprout Social. It offers different social listening tools to help the brand analyze what the audience is saying and how can the services be improved. Additionally, a brand can also see the health of their hashtags and keywords. Using the data, there can be different adjustments to the strategy and target audience.
- Clever use of user generated content
Individuals involved in Social Media Marketing are a clever lot. They benefit from the users to ease their work. User generated content was one of the talking points of 2018. In short, it is the ideal way to grow your business by doing less amount of work. Let audience say something about your brand. Ask them to use relevant hashtags and post using these hashtags. More the hashtags used,better will be visibility. It is an automatic way of promotion. If a user says something true, it will be viewed as an unbiased opinion with no monetary and financial benefits.
- Breakthrough of augmented reality
Lets begin with what augmented reality is. A computer generated image is made and superimposed on the real image as required by the user. With the help of technology, real things are altered. Users have embraced this option with open arms as there is a fun quotient related to this app. People access the front camera and make wacky faces and post them on social media. Snapchat is the biggest example of this. In fact, augmented reality is the backbone of their operations.
2018 brought a lot of new things for Social Media Marketers. I am pretty sure 2019 will bring even more!