Social media trends 2020

Marketing trends have changed during this year and continue to acquire new shapes in the year that is coming. Each month we see that something is reclaiming itself in a different form. The fastest to change are trends in social media. Social media is an essential part of millions of everyday lives. People communicate, consume information through social media more than in any other way. It is natural that changes come faster than ever since so many people all over the world use social media almost constantly – one way or another.

During the last decade, social media slowly has become a more and more critical part of the internet. Now you don’t have to browse all over the web; it is enough to do the same in one of your social media accounts. People use all of the popular social media, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and most of them do it not only for communication but to learn about new products as well.

It is impossible to run a successful (even potentially speaking) marketing campaign without social media strategy including. The decade is almost behind our backs, and we are aware that social media will not take less place in our future – both as consumers and businesses. Let’s what kind of changes we are about to face soon.

Temporary content will be more popular

One of the trends that are out there for a while and something that is not going to change is so-called ephemeral content. It’s a term that defines every type of temporary content. The most popular form of it is Instagram stories.

Other social media platforms, like Facebook and YouTube, also added the option of making stories. They are very short – users can watch dozens of them in a few minutes. This is the trend that is unlikely going to change. On the contrary – marketers predict that this content will gain more attention. Today Instagram users create many more stories than regular posts.

Instagram will continue to affect new trends

Instagram without doubts influencing the shape of social media trends more than Facebook or YouTube. It is very curious how their latest decision will make the difference in online marketing globally. They successfully tested and implemented the version where a number of likes are hidden and available only for those who own a page. This not very good for businesses. It is going to be much harder to understand how a marketing strategy on Instagram worked.

To understand the level of brand recognition now is going to be harder since there is no more obvious marker that would expose how popular some brand or even a single post. However, according to Instagram, the main reason for this step is utterly solicitous. To avoid the harmful influence that some aspects of social media could have on people’s mental health, Instagram found this decision helpful. But we could expect more.

Attempts to achieve greater privacy

Rather a negative tendency that makes millions of people worldwide to experience anxiety was information about the weak level of privacy. People now less willing to share thoughts in public groups and turn to private chats, where new members can participate only if real ones invite them. Communication will be more direct and oriented to somebody in particular — the space, where this will take place also important. Messaging apps seem to be more secure.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is a quite trend. People use it, even though we talk about it rarely. It adds digital elements to our everyday Reality. It appears in recent years, and unlikely will go down. Instagram here is the first one to contribute. The most popular and easy form of augmented Reality is their photo filters. These are made with a clear intention to make communication fun – by adding clothes, makeup, or even animal faces.

This is a very simple example of augmented reality. In the next year, we expect that other social media platforms will add augmented reality filters as well. Facebook is testing AR and VR possibilities and perhaps will implement some of them shortly.

Video-driving platforms

Video is gaining more popularity as a very digestible and engaging form of content. It means that video hosting platforms will get lots of attention, even new ones. The relevant example is TikTok, which is evolving very quickly. We are also expecting that there is will be more and more platforms that focus on video only.

Personalized video

The customization of the video for each viewer will be a popular marketing approach. It is easy to make it for the group of people so that the brand will be using it. By treating each customer as a separate person and not a part of the audience, brands will be able to make the relationships with them better.

The video will take more place

This is not something to be amazed by, because every year this trend is becoming only stronger. The video will take more place in marketing strategies and different shapes on social media. Video content is definitely the most popular form of content and will soon become the preferable type of information that pictures or text. Basically, when we talk about social media trends most of the time, we talk about how video is changing it.

Which is to say: the number one trend in online marketing continues to be video. There is no single marketing strategy that would make its way without video as a principal element. How social media trends in 2020 might be understood or how they could be followed up? What are the informed questions we should consider video marketing trends and tendencies in the year that comes to find out more? Let’s figure out how to answer to these matters.

Video marketing trends

A few years ago or so, the defining element of the marketing was one video. It was enough to make one video and post it on a particular social media or website. You could not be afraid people won’t notice it. Now, this approach is weak, and if one acts like this, the company might end up with no result. Results are important, and they speak for themselves – the conversion rate, new followers, comments, all these are matters.

To some degree, the more videos you make, the better results you will get. People no longer look for a single video. They used to search for an explainer video or social media video that would explain what is essential to the brand. Nowadays, people need content, a set of videos that explain and present complex ideas. One video can’t keep the audience interested, so the brand needs to post a set of videos.

Information is evenly spread between them – with fun a manner. This is another level where we can see that only one video is not enough to continue with. There is a need to encounter new information – that is shaped in many different ways. The shape itself, as well as a medium, is essential. If the brand post different videos – commercial 2d animated video, explainer, promotional clip, it is an approach that general audience find interesting and worth of appreciating. Interestingly, people don’t miss essential departures from the form.

The adaptations of the video are required

Today you have to play differently and look where your targeted audience is spending time online. It means you need to post several videos on several platforms. It includes many steps, such as adaptation to the format requirements that these platforms have, resizing and reshaping. Even if you come up with merely one video, you will have to make a few versions of it for different video hosting platforms.

The adaptations could be various – in some cases, you need to make a version with another language or even several languages, or with a shorter length. The case with length is especially important. The things here are not exactly in some requirements; it just people on some social media are more accustomed to watching longer videos, and on others, they would watch only short videos, up to one minute.

If on YouTube, people can watch 10-minutes clips, and it seems like a typical viewing experience, you don’t expect the same on Instagram, where the limit is only one minute. The same goes for TikTok or Facebook.

Regular content is king

Another significant change that caught us and will be only evolving in 2020 is the importance of making videos regularly. You can’t go with one video and use it for years like it was. In a few months, the world of online marketing can change so drastically that your video, even a very good one, will be like old news.

The effect of a video that has been made two months ago doesn’t always last for a long time. It is not the creator’s fault; the context is changing very fast. It is up to trends, tendencies in the video marketing to make some videos no longer relevant. Also, you have to consider that the viewer’s most critical criterion is a novelty of content.

You can even rethink old materials, but with it must have a new look in it. The original content is an engine of the viewer’s interest toward a brand. The goal is not to spend five months and make an incredibly great video, but rather to make several ones regularly, following up on what would work in a given moment. So it’s much more practical to make video clips faster and post them often.

To make appropriate videos for a diverse audience

Sometimes you need to change a video to such a degree that there is no escape of fully customizing it. I other words, modern video marketing demand from brands to be more flexible and open-minded. Openness to the changes is vital, and openness is often an ability to make people not only interested in what you do but to make them feel that the video has something to do with them as well.

The targeted audience can be located in different countries and places, and this is what posting in front of the company new questions: how to be understood in the different countries or how to make a video that will be natural for the audience that lives in distant places?

Video for internal communications

Video marketing has its approaches both inside and outside the brands. We get that outside strategy is made for the targeted audience and those who can support a brand. Trends, however, takes place also inside brands and have more influence on inside culture. For example, many companies need to make short videos for internal communications.

To optimize and enhance the efficiency inside the companies, people ask for short educating videos to share them inside the team. This is an entirely different thing – to work not for your targeted audience, but the improvement of the quality internal brand culture. It is also much easier to give information to new people in companies.