8 Time Saving Tips for Social Media Marketing

Building a strong social media presence is so important in this era. Social media marketing has become an important marketing strategy for businesses whether big or small. Consistently producing quality and relevant social media content, however, can be a bit taxing and time-consuming. Social media marketing can quickly consume your valuable time if you’re not cautious. Here are tips that will help you save time when marketing on social media.

#Tip 1. Set your goals right.

If you want to incorporate social media marketing into your marketing strategy, you should first set clear goals. Turning to social media without a clear knowledge of what you want is counterproductive and a waste of time. Know who your target audience is, what you want to achieve, and how you will achieve it. Your goals will also help you measure your success.

#Tip 2. Use automation software.

While planning out your social media posts earlier saves time, you can save more time by using automation software that can be set up to post content on your behalf whether. You can sign up for tools that allow you to schedule your posts days or weeks before. It is better to spend some hours at once coming up with social media posts for a given period rather than get spending so much time with it every single day.

Examples of softwares you can use to schedule social media posts include Buffer, Hootsuite and HubSpot. Others such as IFTTT and Zapier can automatically post WordPress blogs to your social media pages.

#Tip 3. Save your hashtags

Using hashtags when posting is necessary for categorizing content and increasing engagement.  Save all the hashtags you are likely to use in a note on your phone or computer so that you can easily add them to your content while posting.  You can find some relevant and trending hashtags with tools like Twitonomy, Hashtagify.me and RiteTag

#Tip 4. Share Content

Coming up with new content every time can be overwhelming. In this case, user generated content can be very effective. User generated content is content that has been created by your fans.  This helps you save time, and decrease content creation cost. It also makes your account much interesting and cajoles the person who had posted it

#Tip 5.  Get a mobile device.

If you have a smartphone or tablet, you will no longer have to be at your work station or have your computer to post on social media. You can go about other businesses and still post content from your phone wherever you are as long as there is an internet connection.  Apps like Pocket let you store content you find online in one place until you’re ready to use it.

#Tip 7: Drop some platforms

Some platforms may promise a whole lot of value and a solid return on your investment but you may later realize that they don’t work for your brand. Dropping such platforms can help you focus your effort to platforms that give you better results.

#Tip 8: Republish your content

When going through your analytics you may identify old posts that attracted more traffic and you can update them with relevant content if things have changed and they are now outdated and repost. This strategy will save you enormous time and it will be a favor to your new followers who had not seen it.

How To Effectively follow up your Media Pitch

So you have crafted a good story pitch, researched publications and journalists and sent it out, you’re sure that it would be perfect for your audience. Some days have passed and you haven’t received any response, you feel distressed.  Your instincts tell you that maybe, the journalist you pitched was not interested and reaching out to them will be a bother. But your instincts are wrong, you need to follow up if you want your story to get out there. Following up the right way is a challenging yet vital task. It is as important as sending the initial pitch. Here are some important things to keep in mind before sending that follow up message.

Give it some time

Journalist’s inboxes are a black hole for pitches, they receive an overwhelming number of emails each day and they may not be able to respond to all of them. You need to be patient. Sometimes even great and winning pitches get lost in the inundation of emails.

So how long should you wait to send a follow-up message?

There this no specific time frame, but 2 to 3 business days are reasonable. This gives the journalist time to work through their emails. Waiting for too long may make them forget your pitch. Also, you should prolong the waiting period by a few days for each subsequent email.

Be nice

I know it might be tempting to get out-and out nasty when you get ignored but do not be ratty or take it personally. They say that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.  Being nice and keeping calm can also help you create a positive relationship with the journalist which is a gain for your business or brand.

Avoid sending numerous messages.

As much as you need to be persistent, sending several emails won’t help it makes you bothersome. If your first two messages still go unanswered it means that the journalist was not intrigued. Move on and try pitching another journalist. Also, you should avoid sending the same message over and over again. You can try changing the wording.

Add to your pitch

Instead of just resending the original message, you can revamp it with additional information, offer something new and enticing that was not in the original email. Be creative and try another angle to make your pitch attractive and stand out.  You should also ensure that your story is excellently written because most journalists will do away with a story that does not pique their interest.

Keep it short

Follow up messages should be kept short, clear and straight to the point. Considering the many emails journalists get, it is possible to miss a few or forget to reply to some of them. One or two sentences are enough to bring the issue back to their attention. This also shows that you value their time.

Bottom line: Earning media coverage is not easy. You might send an excellent pitch but media contacts are often slow to jump on stories. If you don’t follow up you might lose your chance of being considered Following up is virtuous PR strategy and a great way to help your story get covered.

Why Small and Medium Enterprises Should Leverage Digital Marketing

With the change and evolution of modern technologies, the marketplace has become more digital. Small and medium businesses are doing everything they can to keep up, and stay ahead of their competitors. To achieve this, it’s vital to have a comprehensive online marketing plan in place – a strategy that makes   good use of social media, SEO, blogging, email marketing, pay per click and other digital marketing tools out there.

 More people are buying products online and that is why the benefits of digital marketing are becoming more predominant. The following are reasons why you should prioritize digital marketing over traditional marketing.

1. Digital Marketing Levels the Online Playing Field

Today, business owners clearly understand that digital marketing is not only for conglomerates and large corporations that have the adequate resources required to run an online marketing campaign.  Technology opens up opportunities regardless of the business size, it actually levels the playing field, providing small and medium enterprises the chance to compete against big companies and attract their share of targeted traffic.

2. Digital marketing is cost-effective

 We can all agree that television and radio ads or mounting a billboard can be a bit expensive for small enterprises with limited marketing resources but with digital marketing, small companies now have the opportunity to perform sales and marketing processes that were previously available only to large corporations. Digital marketing is less expensive than traditional advertising.  Some of the digital alternatives to traditional advertising are free, and all can be much cheaper than their traditional counterparts

3. Global reach

 Businesses want to reach as many people as possible and the internet provides a wide range of prospective customers for businesses at a low cost.  Through a stylish and informative website and a creative digital marketing strategy, small businesses can now reach an international audience

 4. Digital marketing is measurable

 While it can be difficult to track the success of a traditional marketing campaign like a radio or TV advertisement every digital marketing tactic that you use is measurable. With web analytics such as Google Analytics, you can eliminate guesswork and make it easier to establish how effective your digital campaign has been. By measuring your digital marketing campaigns in real-time, you can see which tactics are working and which are not. Then, you can adjust your campaigns accordingly.

5.  It allows you to target your ideal buyers.

When you place an ad in a local newspaper, you’re taking a shot in the dark that your message will reach its intended audience. With digital marketing, you can easily identify the platform that suits you best. SEO allows you to reach those consumers who are searching the web for content and topics that are relevant to your business. While pay-per-click, display, and social media advertising enables you to target those who are most likely to be interested in your products or services based on demographic information and general characteristics.

6. Digital Marketing Facilitates Interaction with Customers

Customer relationship drive businesses and digital marketing provides an avenue for brands to interact with targeted audiences in real time thus enhancing customer relationship. This also helps businesses understand their customers better.

7 Elements of a Good Press Release

Despite the many channels and platforms available to PR experts today, press releases remain an integral part of any PR strategy. A press release is a short, compelling, newsworthy declaration written by a public relations professional and sent to targeted media outlets for publication.

Companies distribute press releases for various reasons which  include  promoting upcoming events,  announcing new hires, product launch, celebrating awards or any other happening.

 If you want to secure press coverage for your business or organization, then you need to master the art of writing good press releases. Here are guidelines on how to come up with excellent press releases.

1.       Make sure your story is newsworthy

The media is always on the hunt for things that are new and exciting. Before you start writing your press release, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Is there anything new or recent in my story?

2. Is there anything unusual about it?

3. Does the story influence people’s lives or will anyone care?

If you're not sure whether your story is newsworthy, read, watch or listen to the publications or programs you'd like to pitch your story to and you will get an inkling of what they cover.

2.       Use a crisply attention-grabbing headline

A well thought out headline is the most critical aspect of a press release.  Most journalists will use the headline to decide whether to read further or not. The headline needs to be direct, informative and attention-grabbing.

You need to include a catchy phrase that will capture interest and encourage one to read more. Also, make sure your headline is a good representation of what your press release is about; the goal of your press release should be clear in the headline. Avoid vague and misleading headlines

3.       Answer the 5w and 1h as much as possible:

 The first lines should give all essential information such as who? What? Where? When? Why? and how? That is; what is happening, where, when and why it will happen (In the case of events) and how it will happen. Giving this information in a clear manner makes it easy for journalists to produce their own stories.

4.       Have a Call to Action:

Every press release has a goal. Whether you want to create awareness of a certain product in the market or you want people to attend an event, you need to clearly and concisely state what you want people to do after they have read the press release. Be compelling and creative, but do not sound promotional. Include information about your company, a phone number, an email address, and the name of the person to contact, so that readers know who to follow-up with.

5.       Include Multimedia:

 Multimedia is so appealing, you should try and spice up  your press release up by including some multimedia elements such as video, photos or infographics. Take for instance, if your press release is about a product launch, you will want to include photos of the product. Only add photos and videos that complement the story and avoid sending big files that will clog up your recipients’ inboxes.

6.       Add appropriate quotes:

 Effective press releases incorporate quotes and sayings from important people in the company. They also make the story more credible. Quotes should be used to provide insight and opinions. They shouldn't be full of jargon or technical language.

7.       Disseminate in the right way

Writing a good press release is not enough if you don’t know who you will pitch. Do your research and ascertain who your audience is, what media reaches them best and who are the most experienced journalists covering your niche. You can also publish the press release on your website and social media.

Public releases are not guaranteed marketing tools since it is not surefire that  mainstream media will publish it, it requires a bit of chasing to get press coverage. Do not give up if one of your pitch is declined. Be persistent and find ways of making your press releases exceptional.

Debunking the myths of PR

Bill Gates once said that if he was down to his last dollar, he would spend it on PR. Now that shows you how important PR is, but still, many people overlook and underutilize PR. This is because they don’t understand clearly what PR entails and of what benefit it can be to their businesses.

In this post I have dispelled the 7 most common misconceptions about public relations.

1.       Hiring  PR professional is not necessary

 This is a dangerous myth. Most people think that as long as they can tell a story about their company they don’t need to hire a PR expert, but the fact is, PR is more than just storytelling, there are so many things that go on behind the scenes. Under the PR umbrella, we have crisis management, event management, media relation et al.  It’s a full-time job and requires training. Hiring a professional who knows what they are doing may incur extra expenses but it will be worthwhile.

2.       PR is marketing

Marketing and PR are two different but complementary roles that are imperative for any business. Although these two have different tactics, goals and ROI, PR cannot be complete without marketing.  Marketing deals with promotional, direct sales and advertising whereas PR is focused on enhancing brand image through generating positive media coverage and stakeholder communication. Also, PR is long term and marketing is short term.

3.       PR is advertising

No, that’s not right, there is a huge difference between advertising and PR. While PR is earned and unpaid, advertising is purchased and it is paid for. The main aim of PR is to build mutual beneficial relationships between an organization and the public. With PR you pitch the media for your client’s story to get published and you don’t pay while for advertising, you have to pay the media for your advert to be seen. This can be less credible and pricier. Both advertising and PR help build brands and communicate with target audiences.

4.       I just need PR in time of crisis.

Public relations crisis are inevitable and most businesses will face such crisis at one time or another.   These can have a negative impact on the company’s reputation. Prior preparations and having a good crisis communication strategy in place helps to foresee and overcome such crisis. Some companies turn to PR experts when crisis hit and the company’s reputation is at stake. Their hope is that PR experts will just come up with the right response and mitigate the crisis.

5.       PR is for big establishments

Many people are for the idea that PR is only for those well established companies with huge marketing budgets but that’s not it. Although PR is not cheap, every business needs it. As a small business owner you do not need to hire a big PR firm to promote your business, all you need is a professional media outreach strategy to help you get journalists and influencers talk about you brand. This will boost your marketing efforts by building a positive brand image and creating brand awareness.

6.       You can achieve overnight success through PR

Now that’s a dream it won’t happen.  PR is a long term investment- it takes time to achieve success through PR. This is because it is all about building trust and takes some time to trust someone or something. That is why the ideas of overnight success is not possible with PR. You can achieve the overnight success through marketing but PR needs patience.

Want to be a successful leader? Communicate effectively

Being a leader means having things done through other people. Effective communication and effective leadership, are closely intertwined hence communication is an essential leadership skill and the first step to becoming a great leader. As a leader, you need to communicate flawlessly to your team members and the people outside your circle so that they can clearly understand what is expected of them. Good communicators are authentic, engaging, good listeners and they stand out from the crowd.  

Looking back in history, it’s evident that great leaders are always great communicators. We know of great people such as Bill Clinton, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King and Franklin Roosevelt who led great nations by the powers of their words and presentation. On the other hand, when we look at the fall of some leaders, we can attribute it to the wrong choice of words when speaking and generally the inability to communicate effectively.

The following are the key principles of effective leadership communication that fuel collaboration and success

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1.     Listening

Communication is two-way and good communicators are also good listeners. When you listen well, you understand other peoples’ viewpoints. Listening also nurtures trust, respect, and openness. Effective listening helps you build good relationships, solve problems and improve accuracy. Taking a moment to listen to other people goes a long way in making you more productive.  Leaders with poor listening skills will often be met with resistance as they are seen as dictators and this cuts people’s loyalty

2.     Authenticity.

Authentic leaders are positive people who promote openness, are genuine, self-aware and sincere. Find your own voice and learn to display who you really are as a person. Let who you are, where you come from, and what you value most come through in your communication. Forget about being eloquent and worry about being real because people want and respect real. Also, people are more apt to trust you when your actions match your words. Even better, lead by example.

3.Visibility

Thanks to technology, there are various means of communicating but face to face communication with people is still the best. Human connection is a matter of proximity. If you want to build a lasting connection with people don’t be out of sight. Don’t be known only by your emails and phone calls. Show up in person as often as possible. People need to see and feel who you are to get connected.  Leaders who came to power as poor communicators and they can’t communicate directly to people, feel the danger within no time and they end up getting people to communicate on their behalf, while they are somehow invisible.

4. Trust.

Stephen M.R. Covey once said that the first job that a leader has is to inspire trust and to bring out the best in people by entrusting them with meaningful stewardships and to create an environment in which high-trust interaction inspires creativity and possibility. Also, people should be able to trust you as a leader, as it increases commitment and boosts the flow of ideas thus increasing creativity and productivity.

In conclusion, words are known to win hearts and minds. Good relationships are dependent on good communication if you cannot communicate effectively as a leader then you are probably going to fail. People in leadership positions are challenged to polish their communication skills through training and practice.

Tips For Successful Influencer Marketing.

Influencer marketing has become so common in today’s digital marketing world and it is a great tool for driving brand awareness. To get the best results from this strategy, you need to put some effort and optimize your campaign. So how do you do this? Read on to find out...

1.       Determine your goals

Do not start influencer marketing without knowing what exactly you want to achieve, have a clear idea of your goals from the outset. This will go a long way in ensuring that you plan your campaign more effectively. You may have various goals for your brand e.g. increasing brand awareness, getting more revenue, or even generating leads.

2.       Define Your Target Audience

This is one of the most basic yet so important influencer marketing tips. Based on your target audience you will be able to strategize your campaign. You may need to consider many factors when identifying your target audience. This may include their age, gender, interests, location, etc. Defining your target audience will help you when choosing your influencers and ensuring that your campaign reaches the right people.

3.       Find the right influencers

After you have identified your target audience you now need to choose the influencers to partner with. You are supposed to perform thorough background research about them and their social media profiles. Here you look at the following

         i.            Engagement rate- this will give you an indication of how engaged their followers are. To calculate this, select a recent post and take the number of likes/comments divided by the number of followers.

       ii.            The range of topics they cover- this will help you to determine whether your brand falls on their niche.

      iii.            Look at the important metrics - A large number of followers doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is paying attention. An influencer with a lower number of followers may have a more active group that has a higher engagement rate compared to a person with a big number of followers. A good way to evaluate engagement is to measure click-throughs to know how many people bother to click on links on posts.

4.       Define your budget

Creating a realistic influencer marketing campaign budget is so vital. You need to define the total influencer budget ahead of time in order to reach your targets. You may also consider giving product freebies to influencers or even inviting them for an industry event as your guest as a way of enhancing your relationship with them. You will also find that micro influencers are more expensive than macro influencers. If you are working on a small budget you might find it more compelling to work with several macro influencers who charge a lower fee, rather than spending your budget on one micro influencer.

5.       Give influencers creative freedom

Influencer marketing is so different from traditional marketing,  while in  traditional advertising  you take total control over all aspects of the campaign,  influencer marketing requires you to leave the content creation bit to the influencer. They are creatives and they resonate with their audience and it would be good to let them fly free. All you need to do is to optimize the content to ensure the message is clear and all the facts are included.

6.       Measure results

You must track your metrics so that you can change or adjust your strategy accordingly. Based on your goals, you can plan which metrics you’ll use to gauge your performance. For example, if you’re goal was to increase brand awareness, then you might look at the number of people reached, and the rate of engagement. You can use different automated softwares such as Google Analytics to know where you’re getting most traffic from. If your goal is to generate revenue, you can create custom affiliate links for each influencer so that you can easily keep track of purchases made using their links. This can help you calculate the ROI of your campaign.

Do you have other tips to share?  Well, we’d love to hear them in the comment section below.

Importance of Using Videos on Social Media.

Social media platforms are a fantastic option to reach millions  of people all around the world and it  offers one of the best ways to  interact with target audiences. It  also provides a number of opportunities for growth and it helps businesses raise awareness and build  stronger brands. However, many companies who heavily invest in social media are missing a trick by failing to make video a mainstay of their social strategy. Leveraging video on social media is necessary to capture and satisfy a content-hungry audience.

 Come to think of it, if a picture is worth a thousand words then a video must be worth a million words, right? Video content is one of the most impactful, adaptable and profitable digital marketing tool at your disposal, you’ll want to make it a key part of your social media marketing strategy.
Social media habits are changing and all of a sudden the old tricks are not working as they used to. Video content marketing is becoming more and more popular and it has become the key to success for many brands. Through video content brands are able to break through the latest algorithm of changes and grow their businesses. If you are planning to start or revamp your digital marketing strategy then you will need to focus on video content creation, it will definitely be worth your time. The reach of video content is farfetched.

Here are a few things you will need to keep in mind as you create your video content.

1. The quality of the videos
It goes without saying that quality matters over quantity— and it's no different when it comes to video content. You want people to fully consume your videos, the only way to get them to do so, is to create a high quality video.

2. Catch the attention of your target audience
People flock to social media to get informed and most importantly, entertained. Make sure that your, videos are fun, engaging  and enjoyable enough to  capture and retain the audience’s  attention.

3. Shoot your videos horizontally
 Horizontal format videos are more superior to vertical videos. Also, most people these days are using widescreens eg laptops and TVs and horizontal videos would be more appealing.

4. Upload native video content
So you have created your video, uploaded it on You Tube and now you want to share the link on other social media pages.  No, that’s not right; you will be sabotaging your video’s probability of being seen. Native videos get more views than shared video links.

5. Make the first  10 seconds count
Research shows that the average concentration span of human beings is 8 seconds; this means that people may not have the patience to watch long comprehensive content   and that is why you need to make your videos as interesting as possible and pass your message within the first ten seconds.

6. Add a call to action
In order to get a good ROI from your social media video marketing efforts, you need to have a strong and clear call to action. If you are not encouraging your audience to act, then what’s the use of creating social media video content for your brand?

If you haven’t incorporated video content marketing into your social media l marketing campaign, now you know that you should. You will also need the tools to get you started. If you’re more of hands off kind of person that doesn’t like to get too technical, then consider hiring a social media management agency to help you create and promote your video content.

Using IGTV for PR and Marketing

If you are a fervent Instagram user, I believe you are familiar with IGTV,  This is a standalone video application  by Instagram   for smartphones whose basic functionalities can also be accessed on the  Instagram app. It supports long-form vertical videos. IGTV videos are designed to be longer than Instagram stories and it allows uploads of up to 10 minutes in length with a file size of up to 650 MB, but verified users  are allowed to upload videos of up to 60 minutes in length with a file size of up to 3.6 GB.  The service was launched on June 20, 2018, but still, brands have been relatively slow to adopt IGTV whereas, there are plenty of benefits brands can get from incorporating IGTV in their marketing strategies since right now, it is not oversaturated with marketers competing for attention. Now here are reasons why your need to incorporate IGTV in you marketing strategies.

1.       You need to be where your audience is.

Instagram is one of the most popular and fast growing social media platforms worldwide. According to statistics, Instagram had  reached 1 billion active monthly users in 2018.  The number of online video users is also steadily increasing and this means that more people are now looking for video content and IGTV can go a long way in helping businesses extend their social media and video marketing effort and reach. Brands should make the most of  this opportunity by creating content that connects with their audiences on a more meaningful level. 

2.       You  will be  ahead of your competitor

IGTV is still a fairly new concept, it has not yet been flooded with content and chances are that your competitors have not yet used the platform. Therefore, you can gain visibility and get ahead of you competitors by being the first to engage audiences using IGTV content. 

3.       You can easily connect with Millennials and Gen Z

Instagram is designed to appeal to the younger generations who favor social media over other traditional media channels. This means that marketers who need to entice Millenials and Gen Z need to include IGTV in their marketing strategies  because  IGTV offers marketers an opportunity to engage with this particular audience in a creative, and at the same time, profound way.

4.       You  can feature your happy clients

Nothing is more convincing to consumers than seeing other customers talking about why they like your brand.  So, its time you feature some of your loyal customers on IGTV. Invite them to be highlighted in the videos and let them tell viewers why they love to use your product instead of the usual, promotional videos where you showcase your new products.

BOTTOM LINE: Be sure to check IGTV’s video requirements before uploading, your videos should be vertical, not landscape, with an aspect ratio of 9:16, since videos on IGTV are optimized for mobile viewing.

How to Overcome Writers Block

As a PR pro, you will come across tasks that require you to write, whether it is press release, emails to clients or journalists, social media content, infographics, blog posts, the list is extensive. Writing is a crucial and valuable skill in the field of PR you will need to be creative so that you can so express your thoughts and tell your story in an easily understood and acceptable way. But many times, we find ourselves in a creative slowdown and we are unable produce any new work and not because we lack the skill or the passion.

You may find yourself staring at that blank page, you brain is cluttered and thinking becomes hard. When that happens we say we’ve got a writer’s block,

 I wouldn’t be wrong to say that there’s nothing like writers block it is just an excuse. It is a condition that only exists in your head, you think you are blocked; you become blocked, it becomes real. But you can easily overcome this and get back to your writing groove, read on and know how.

1.       Know the cause. Writer’s block is brought about by so many things including, fear, exhaustion etc. Once you have known what is causing the block then you can go ahead and try these other

tips.

2.       Mind mapping- Go get a piece of paper and put down what comes to your head about the topic. Write your main topic in the center of the paper, and then connect it to subtopics that branch out from the center. Continue adding subtopics that branch out like a tree.

3.       Do your research. You may experience a block if you don’t have enough information on what you are writing about. People sometimes write before they’ve gathered the raw materials.  Do enough research to answer the as many questions on the topic. At the same time, beware of paralysis by analysis – that is, continuing to conduct research when you already have enough information. Start with what you have and fill in details later.

4.       Use a different writing tool: You can try switching from Microsoft Word to Google Docs or from a serif to a non-serif font. Or try a script font and change your font color to blue. It seems trivial, but it’s amazing how those small changes can cure writer’s block and make writing interesting again. Also you can just shut down your computer. Get a pen and paper and free write. When you do this, you get the feeling that you’re making something. It will inspire you.

5.       Take a break. Take a walk and get some fresh air, read a few pages of a book, get some coffee or try some stretching exercises. Research has it that breaks, especially those that are regularly scheduled, have been proven to increase productivity and focus.

6.       Try writing at a different time. Sometimes, it’s simply not the right time to write. Your ideas may need to brew a little longer before you can put them down them down. You can try writing at an odd hour. It works.

Bottom line; You overcome writes block by writing so the  next time you feel blocked, don’t go and watch tv, or sleep or procrastinating or read articles on how to overcome writer’s block ( huh, yeah). Follow the above tips and voila! Your creative juices will be flowing again.

Top 4 Social Media Trends in 2020

These days, you cannot separate people from social media, it’s so clear that many people spend a good part of their days on social media trying to stay up to date with things they care about and that is why marketers have flocked to social media to connect with potential customers.  As a marketer, you need to know that social media is dynamic and there is a need to keep up with the trends. This will help you come up with a social media strategy that ensures your brand stands out from the rest. Now here are the 4 hottest social media trends to get excited about in 2020.

Trend number 1- Removal of likes from Instagram

I don’t know about you but personally, every time I see a post on Instagram I must check how many likes it has attracted leave alone the comments. Now imagine not being able to see the likes on other people’s posts.

Instagram has already experimented with removing likes in seven countries. This is meant to change the users’ focus to the photos and videos and not on the likes.  Luckily, likes haven’t been scrapped off completely, you will still be able to see likes in your own posts just not other people’s posts

On the other side, I think that if Instagram removes likes then brands won’t be able to measure the direct impact of their campaigns as easily as they do now. This might force brands to invest in Instagram Ads which they can easily track their ROI.

Trend number 2: From Facebook News Feed to Facebook Stories

After over a decade of Facebook's News Feed, Facebook is now turning it’s the focus to stories. Facebook Stories are typically News Feeds that rely on visual information rather than written. They are  full-screen photos, videos that are only available for 24 hours, photos play for five seconds, while videos play for 20 seconds

When Facebook first launched Stories, a lot of people didn’t see the point because that’s what Snapchat and Instagram were for. But the numbers don’t lie: over 500 million people are engaging with this feature and the numbers are rising.

 As a marketer if you want your brand to be seen then it’s the high time you delight your customers with some visual content on Facebook then once you know who is  watching your stories it will be easier to adjust your targeting efforts

Trend number 3- video content continues to dominate

In the past, we have witnessed trends come and we get thrilled about them but they don’t last. On the other hand, some trends like video marketing are here to stay; it is a complete game changer. Today it is the preferred medium by most marketers seeking to put their content out there and increase their engagement. Consumers want to see the product in action. An information-rich, accessible, and user-friendly video content can build a great online following and boost your ROI.

Trend number 4 - Influencer marketing continues to boom

Have you recently purchased a certain product just because a certain person you admire is using it?

Influencer marketing uses popular content creators to create brand awareness through different channels such as YouTube, Instagram etc. The influencer can influence his/her followers purchasing decisions.

Before the advent of social media, traditional marketing ruled but now influencer marketing has become so popular that brands are reallocating their advertising budget from traditional marketing methods like advertising to digital channels in order to increase reach. This is not going to change in 2020, we expect to see the influencer marketing industry grow more this year.

And with that, we wrap up the most recent new and shiny social media trends in 2020. Don’t forget to evaluate a trend to ensure it is right for your brand before incorporating it into your social media marketing strategy.