6 Social Media Trends To Watch in 2020

Social media marketing is one of the most powerful methods of marketing right now, and it will continue to grow in popularity as we dive deeper and deeper into the digital age.

Living in the digital age has opened up a new world of opportunities, not just for regular people on a global level but also for brands that are looking to develop into doing online business as well. In fact, the internet has allowed more entrepreneurs and businesses to rise up than ever before by giving an inexpensive and all-inclusive platform for people to begin gaining a profit through their own channels.

In the present and the immediate future, the face of social media marketing will continue changing as we move more toward trends that include personalization and connection and away from trends that commercialize brands and made them seem distant and isolated from their audiences.

The need for putting more effort to genuinely engage and build relationships with your audience grows bigger than ever before. If you don't work on that, you will probably start to stumble and fail to grow in a digital world where everyone is looking to build connections.


Your audience, instead of turning to you, will turn to your competitors who are happily dominating over your niche by providing both great services and products, as well as a confident brand for them to build a relationship with and grow to trust and love.

As social media platforms keep evolving we try to predict the next big trends.

So here I will share with you the trend predictions for social media marketing in 2020, based on past experience and great observation.

Social Media Trend #1 - Shopping on Social Media Will Expand.
Social Media Trend #2 - Stories Will Become Marketers Favourite Thing
Social Media Trend #3 - New Opportunity: Micro/Nano-Influencer Marketing
Social Media Trend #4 - Rise of Social Media Communities
Social Media Trend #5 - Video Content Will Dominate.
Social Media Trend #6 - More advanced, dynamic and direct social ads


Let's analyse each one and see what they mean and how can be used!

1. Shopping on Social Media Will Expand.

This is a trend that will continue to grow. Increasingly, you no longer need to leave a site or platform in order to make a purchase or a product you've found.
You can go from seeing something you like while scrolling Instagram to giving your credit card information and making a purchase instantly.

I believe we're going to see more brands turn in this direction, and while currently it’s mainly being used by larger, well-established businesses, I think 2020 will give smaller brands, and hopefully even startups, access to tools like this.


2. Stories Will Become Marketers Favourite Thing

For a while, Stories were just a Snapchat thing, but then Instagram and Facebook Stories came out, and now even YouTube has its own stories format.

Stories can present viewers with more genuine insight, as the videos are often created on the spot. And there's a tremendous field of opportunities in the Stories. Since Stories content disappears rather quickly, this is the perfect time for marketers to capitalize on the fear of missing out (FOMO) and to offer flash sales and deals that only loyal users will learn to look for.

3. New Opportunity: Micro/Nano-Influencer Marketing

Micro-influencer marketing has been especially successful this year, as customers tend to connect with influencers who are more focused on niche experts. 

On the other hand, many Instagram users have been avoiding influencers with 1,000,000+ subscribers; moreover, they’re perceived as more sales. Nano-influencers are influencers who are even smaller, have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers, and that means that their audiences are even more niche and engaged compared to micro-influencers.

In my opinion, big Influencers will start lagging while Micro and Nano influencer marketing with start gaining ground.  A celebrity influencer is likely to be paid to promote something, plus there’s a good chance that they haven’t even tried the product,  so it’s difficult for the followers to trust their recommendations.

Micro-influencers have also been known for their marketing strategy that involves the promotion of products they’ve tried personally and liked. This builds trust in their followers, therefore, the engagement rate in micro-influencers is high and, most importantly, relevant. Micro-influencers have the best chance at establishing trustworthy relationships with their followers, they achieve the highest interaction.

Partnering with a micro-influencer would be an effective strategy to connect with the target audience and promote products in a meaningful way.

Nano-influencers have a great chance to build small communities of engaged followers, as the last are more likely to trust their word over a celebrity who’s often paid to support a product or service.

Partnering with a nano-influencer can give a business the advantage of a great opportunity to promote their products in a more meaningful way, as these influencers create engaging, relatable content.


4.The Rise of Social Media Communities

This may not be something new, but it is definitely something that is becoming more popular now than ever before!

Social media communities are basically social groups that are created by brands to provide a networking platform for their customers/clients. These are usually private groups that like-minded people can join to chat about their shared interests.

Facebook Groups are an excellent example of such social communities. Many brands use groups like these to bring all of their existing and potential customers together and engage with them in a meaningful way. Group members can discuss several topics, share their experiences, or seek solutions to their problems.

Social media communities can also be utilized to launch new products or services, seek customers' feedback, and gain valuable customer insights.


5.Video Content Will Dominate

Video content is one of the most engaging forms of content and will soon dominate social media. Whether it is short videos like those popular on TikTok or Stories or long-form content on YouTube or IGTV, videos are the future of social media content.

According to a Cisco study, by 2022, 82% of all online content will be video content. This definitely shows how important it is to start utilizing video content to stay relevant in social media.

If you’re not currently creating videos, it is now the time to include it in your content strategy. In the near future, videos will rule social media and anyone who doesn’t realize that will have a tough time.

A great starting point can be the use of features like Stories both for your social media content and for advertisements. You can also add videos to your social media posts, even on platforms that were traditionally dominated by image or text content.

6. More advanced, dynamic and direct social ads

Brands are still investing massively in social ads and there's a good reason for that. Customers are becoming increasingly comfortable with the concept of social shopping in general.
Combined with the fact that ads are becoming more advanced, it’s easier than ever for brands to encourage direct sales from clients on social media.

For example, Facebook’s roll-out of personalized ad experiences delivers products to customers, changing formats (carousel, collection) and calls-to-action based on who it’s being served to, this has a great dynamic.

In the meantime, the introduction of Instagram shopping also highlights the increase in direct social selling.
The platform essentially represents extra arm for e-commerce and brands looking to start selling on Instagram without having to funnel followers to a bio link.

Even LinkedIn’s ad platform has lately evolved to help B2B brands get their products and services in front of relevant customers.

The point here is that companies don’t need to be shy about selling via ads in 2020. They have plenty of options to be more targeted and compelling growing almost universally across all the major social platforms.