To make your product known, you’ve got to be where people are.
And you know where they are. Yep, on social media. Scrolling their news feed, watching videos, commenting on their friends’ statuses, posting photos, sharing content, liking stuff, etc.
The social media craze is not over yet. In fact, year after year, we see a significant increase in social media usage worldwide. There are currently 3.484 billion social media users, which corresponds to a 9% increase from last year.
A lot of things have changed on how people use social media since the early 2000s. And if you’re using it to promote your brand, you need to know that what worked before may not work now. As we conclude the year 2019, let’s check out the most effective types of social media advertising in 2020.
Chatbots and Messenger Integration
Customers don’t like waiting. In this world where you can obtain information almost instantly, the last thing you want to do is wait. That’s why the emergence of chatbots has had a massive impact on social media marketing. This AI technology is proven effective in customer service interactions, particularly for welcoming customers, answering simple questions, resolving technical issues, and addressing complaints.
Make sure you set up auto-replies on your social media account to improve customer interaction and engagement.
Social Media TV
Over two billion users log in to YouTube each month, which makes it the top video sharing channel in the world. More and more people are using social media today not only to communicate with friends and relatives but also to stay updated with current news and events, and tune in to their favorite shows. The arrival of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and other streaming platforms made social media even more entertaining.
Always consider these social media TV channels when creating your digital marketing strategy.
Live Streaming Events
Facebook Live will continue to thrive in social media advertising this 2020. Why not? It’s an easy way to connect with customers.
A lot of marketers use it for various marketing activities like product launches, sales, DIY tutorials, and behind-the-scenes. Live streaming is widely used to cover events as well. Whether you’re hosting a community event or taking part in a prestigious national event, you can take your followers along through live streaming. And the best part is you don’t need expensive equipment to do that. Just your smartphone.
In 2020, it will be much easier to publish live events through social networking channels.
Social Media Listening
Also called ‘social media monitoring’, it’s a way for brands to know what content, products, or topics interest their customers the most. You’ve probably experienced it. You’re searching for something or chatting with someone on social media and suddenly, ads (which you might be interested in) start popping up from nowhere. That’s not a coincidence. That’s a planned marketing strategy.
This 2020, expect more businesses to use software tools that gain insights from customers’ behavior on social media. These tools look for specific keywords from social media forums, product searches, and other places to generate relevant ads.
Social Media Advertising for More Customer Reach
Businesses will continue to use social media to connect to their customers and find new prospects. That’s because social networking sites, such as Facebook, will have more users. Currently, they have 2.7 billion monthly users. Yes, that’s a lot. More potential customers out there too.
With such a vast network, most brands make use of all-in-one marketing platforms to schedule and manage posts. This way, they are able to publish posts at the time and on the day when their customers will most likely see it.
Social Media Contests
Hosting social media contests has been a practice of many companies. They do it primarily to gain more followers. But the landscape has changed. Marketers are seeing many more benefits from running contests on social media. For example, they can be used to gather feedback, drive customer engagement, and raise brand remembrance.
In order to get value from running a contest, it’s important to keep it relevant to your audience. Know what they value and align your incentives to those things.
Augmented Reality on Social Media Platforms
Not to be confused with virtual reality, augmented reality (AR) will play a major part in social media advertising in the coming years. In fact, Facebook just launched an AR Studio which marketers can use to create rich AR experiences for their customers.
Augmented reality technology has just opened new opportunities for marketers and businesses to promote their brands, from AR virtual stores which give customers a very engaging experience to AR and live events (imagine attending an event from the comfort of your home). You can also market your brand by creating interactive AR videos.
Influencer Marketing
It isn’t a new trend but influencer marketing will continue to soar this 2020. Social media is dominated by influencers who are paid an exorbitant amount of money to promote brands. However, businesses will spend more on a network of smaller, more local niche influencers. This strategy is cheaper yet yields the most results. It also drives much higher engagement than having to work with big-time influencers. More and more marketers are also combining influencer marketing with content and social media marketing as a more powerful approach to online advertising.
It’s important, however, to find influencers with similar values to your company. You can’t just blindly work with influencers because they are famous. They need to have the same core values as yours for a successful relationship.
There’s no stopping social media from being a major marketing platform. To get the most from your social media campaigns, be sure to incorporate different strategies. They are not only effective, they are also easy to implement. As early as right now, you can start planning your social media marketing strategy for 2020 with all these approaches in mind. You don’t have to do them all. You can start with one or two until you find the best combo that works for you.
