Social media trends to follow
A social media marketing strategy is on the minds of many small business owners. And if it’s not in yours, it should be!
Major platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram battle for market shares by adjusting their business models to balance improved profitability for shareholders with improved user experience.
As these platforms develop, the way you use them for your small business must change as well.
Let’s look forward to some ways to promote your business on social media in 2020.
More than 18 months later, the Federal Trade Commission officially ruled that Cambridge Analytica misled Facebook users. The company had collected the personal data from millions of Facebook profiles without people’s consent and then used it for political advertising purposes.
While Cambridge Analytica went bankrupt shortly after the scandal, Facebook continues to work hard to strengthen its data access processes and convince people to trust its new dedicated news platform.
Facebook released Facebook News to a subset of people in the US That means that while you will still see posts from family and friends in your main feed, Facebook News will publish content from a team of journalists (employed by Facebook).
This year, the company is also focusing on cryptocurrencies and establishing its Facebook Pay feature. This could mean that your small business could soon incorporate platform selling into your account.
While the launch of Facebook Watch was not as expected (only 140 million people daily watch the videos and shows, which sounds huge, but does not compare to the 1.6 billion daily assets of the platform in general) . Still, it looks like Facebook will make another attempt in 2020, so let’s see what that means for video marketing.
What do these changes mean for your social media marketing strategy?
We’ll have to wait and see. The more proprietary content the company creates, the more marketers can compete to stay visible.
The company recently announced that it would stop running political ads and is updating its global privacy policy to provide users with more information on what data advertisers might receive.
We also wonder what the company’s vice president of design and research, Dantley Davis, meant by his recent announcement about a number of changes that could come to the platform next year.
How will this affect the way you promote your business on social media?
You might have the ability to limit who retweets your tweet (which I don’t see is a feature that entrepreneurs would use a lot, we love our retweets!), And the ability to tweet something to a specific group based on their interests.
Learn more about how to use Twitter hashtags.
Since its launch in 2003, LinkedIn has become the world’s largest professional networking platform.
Microsoft acquired the platform for $ 26.2 billion in 2016 and, with access to Microsoft resources, we’ve seen up-to-date professional information and more targeted announcements.
We have also seen the reappearance of LinkedIn groups.
A LinkedIn group allows your company to create a discussion board related to your industry. This gives you the opportunity to start a special interest group of like-minded people that is specific to your product, service, and / or expertise.
Groups also provide excellent visibility for your business, as each member that is part of your group will have their logo on their profile. Group owners now also have the ability to post different types of media such as images and videos, and immediate notifications allow for real-time conversations.
Executive Suite has more than 300,000 members and brings together executives with a web series, practical tips and discussion forums.
What do LinkedIn groups mean for your small business?
Hopefully a better way to foster a sense of community, find candidates for job openings, and gain brand visibility, to name a few.
You may recall that Instagram tested likes removal in several countries, including Australia, Japan, Italy, and Ireland. The likes did not disappear; In the US and Canada, you can still see the like count on your own photos and videos, but not on others’ posts.
So where did this come from? Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has long dealt with people using hacks and solutions. These mainly come from unscrupulous bots and companies that manipulate the application to make themselves or other users appear more popular than they really are. So this is an attempt to make Instagram more authentic.
Instagram says, “We hope this test takes the pressure off how many likes a post will get, so you can focus on sharing the things you love.”
While many entrepreneurs and small businesses are good at this, influencers and video marketing agencies are not.
How can you show companies how popular they are? How will they show commitment?
But for the average small business owner who isn’t buying likes or bottling the system, this could be a good thing.
If your social media marketing strategy includes engaging content, and you’re happy to focus on comments and grow your followers, you’ll be fine.
While IGTV got off to a slow start, it is now considered one of the biggest social media trends out there. After Instagram announced earlier this year that Instagram would allow one-minute previews of IGTV videos on Instagram’s main feed, users (and businesses) started to take notice.
Unlike your other Instagram videos, IGTV videos can be 10-60 minutes long. This offers a great video marketing opportunity for interviews, behind-the-scenes features, and much more.
Since we can now add landscape oriented videos as well, I have been adding my Business Edge Show videos which have had a lot of traction.
These are just a few of the changes you can expect to see across major platforms this year. I’m sure there will be many more as the year goes on, as things are always changing!
To effectively promote your business on social media in 2020, it is essential not only to understand social media trends, but also to adopt them.
If you find it challenging to stay on top of social media, consider hiring an agency that can create strategies that are specific to your social media needs and goals so that you can focus on building your business.