By: Sophia Darmelio
Social media has influenced the way the world communicates throughout the last decade, which is why businesses believe that it is an effective tool. With new social media trends on the rise, businesses need to stay up to date with them for 2020 and beyond.
One of the most popular trends in social media that is not going anywhere are influencers. In the past few years, influencers have taken over social media by posting videos that go viral. Influencers are people who have a considerable following and are knowledgeable in their niche market. Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that influencers use to endorse products and services. Instagram is the most successful platform for influencer marketing, but the presence of influencers is growing on other platforms including TikTok. According to Adweek, “the industry is set to reach $10 billion in worth by 2020” (Contestabile, 2018). Snapchat and TikTok have their own influencers that have a younger target audience. Influencer marketing has proven to be beneficial to marketers because of the amount of reach and endorsement in fitness, fashion, beauty products, and more. Influencer marketing is not just about the individuals with the most followers. There are micro-influencers, too. Micro-influencers are the same as influencer marketers but on a smaller scale. Brands can partner with micro-influencers that have a smaller following to promote a product. I personally follow several influencers and I think more brands will utilize influencers to promote their products or services.
Another social media trend that public relations professionals have seen is the growing popularity of TikTok, which originated in China. TikTok is an app where users can create and share short videos. The goal is to gain followers and engagement for one’s videos. Hootsuite writes, “the app has 800 million monthly active users and the average user opens TikTok more than eight times a day” (Sehl, 2020). The main demographic for users in the United States are 18-24 year olds, but there are many older individuals that use the app, too. Influencers are an important element of the app’s popularity because many brands have partnered with them to promote products. TikTok is a great platform for businesses because accounts with very few followers can receive millions of views on a single video, which is a great opportunity for reach. If a business’ values match up with the app’s target audience, it should consider using TikTok as part of its campaign strategy.
One more social media trend that professionals in the field have seen is the use of videos. Posting videos on social media is a very useful way to get a message across to target audiences in an engaging way. Video content is often seen as live videos, vlogs, testimonials, and webinars. “According to a survey, 68% of users prefer to learn about a product or service through short videos” (Nidhi, 2020). Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn are platforms where one can post video content for an increased reach. Users come across video content on every social media platform – there is no escaping it.
Influencers, TikTok, and video content are trends that are very popular this year, and I see these trends becoming more popular within the next several years which will increase reach and awareness for brands.
Sources
Contestabile, G. (2018, January 15). Influencer Marketing in 2018: Becoming an Efficient Marketplace. Retrieved September 24, 2020, from https://www.adweek.com/digital/giordano-contestabile-activate-by-bloglovin-guest-post-influencer-marketing-in-2018/
Nidhi,D. (2020, September 12). 📈 42 Digital Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020, from https://www.singlegrain.com/digital-marketing/digital-marketing-trends-2020/
Sehl, K. (2020, July 18). Everything Brands Need to Know About TikTok in 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2020, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/what-is-tiktok/
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