The boom of social media in recent years has taken the digital marketing world by storm. With 2020 coming up, social media will continue its ever-growing influence on consumers.

Because of that, 2020 is shaping up to be a busy year for marketers and businesses on social media. Different platforms are gaining in popularity, and different aspects are becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity.

Marketers know that when they use social media for business purposes, it is all about trying to connect with their customer base. Indeed, regularly posting on social media platforms helps keep your brand in your followers’ minds. And it will only gain more importance in 2020.

With that in mind, here’s an overview of the most important trends to watch out for in social media for business in 2020!

More and more users are spending their time watching videos on social media platforms than ever before.

A study by Global Web Index shows that 56 percent of Internet users watch videos on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram each month. Moreover, 81 percent of 55-64-year-old users make a monthly habit of watching videos. And, on top of that, 1-in-3 social video viewers watch videos made by brands.

Businesses are already starting to take advantage of social video popularity. 46 percent implement social videos as part of their strategy, while 26 percent are planning to do so.

The popularity of social videos will only continue to grow. So, posting videos about your brand should be a big part of your 2020 digital marketing strategy.

If you tell someone that there is only a limited time to view something, they will want to watch it as soon as they can. Working from people’s fear of missing out (FOMO), ephemeral content is poised to become a bigger feature in social media marketing. Ephemeral content is temporary content.

Some of the most popular types of ephemeral content are live content and Instagram Stories. We will break down exactly what these types of ephemeral content are below.

Instagram Stories allow you to temporarily share photos or videos with your followers. Already, 64 percent of marketers have or plan to incorporate Instagram Stories into their marketing strategy for 2020.

In fact, people will be attracted to them so much that Hootsuite suggests posting a Story once every four days to keep your brand in people’s minds.

And if that’s not enough to convince you—98 percent of Instagram accounts use Stories, and 400 million users watch Instagram Stories daily. Therefore, this is a tool you want to utilize to get your brand out there.

Instagram is ready to become more popular than ever this year. Before, businesses could get away with only having a Facebook business page. But now, it is apparent that having an Instagram business page will be just as important.

The numbers for Instagram’s popularity support this as well. Interestingly, one of the strongest demographics for Instagram use will come from 45 to 54-year-olds, overtaking the previous demographic of 13 to 17-year-olds, according to Hootsuite.

And it won’t just be Instagram Stories that rise in popularity either. Instagram Ads will also become more prevalent, especially since Instagram might remove the option to “like” a post. Instagram’s logic is that “likes” are equated to people’s social value, and that could be detrimental to their mental health.

But what does that mean for businesses? It means there won’t be an easy way to measure the direct impact of your campaign. And that could lead to a bigger push for Instagram Ads, where you can track your ROI.

Speaking of Instagram Ads, social media ads will become a more regular occurrence, and necessity, for businesses.

With a decrease in social media organic reach, that means there’s a need for social media ads in order to reach a larger audience. Because of this need, Facebook and Instagram ads will need to be included in your marketing strategy.

Experts predict that Instagram ads will only get bigger this year and will take over 30 percent of Facebook ads by 2020. Splitting your budget between the two platforms can help give you a wider range of audiences who will see your ads.

The way consumers find products and services is changing. Predictions show that 28 percent of users now turn to social networks for product discovery instead of search engines.

Why are people looking for products and services on social media? It’s for a variety of reasons, including the ability for visual searches and voice control. In fact, almost 50 percent of searches in 2020 will be done through images or speech.

Businesses should, then, be aware of two things: 1) images will be just as important as keywords, and 2) voice control will change how consumers discover products on social channels. More casual, conversational phrases will take over as the switch from typing to voice control increases.

As the popularity of searching for products on social media increases, more and more consumers will be using locations in their social media searches. Therefore, you should make sure to geotag your posts to improve their local targeting. This local SEO method will help increase your organic traffic.

Before you know it, it will be paramount to have every post geotagged so that consumers can easily and quickly find the product or service in their area.

People want to use social media to socialize with others. Since 2018, we have seen a rise in social communities such as Facebook Groups, which are created by brands to provide a networking platform for customers.

These social communities are usually an offshoot of a business page. They offer people a more private forum to get together and talk about their interests.

Social communities also offer many benefits to businesses. For example, they offer a good forum to test out new products and seek customer feedback.

In addition to these top seven, there are other areas and trends that businesses should be aware of for 2020.

Messaging apps, like Facebook and WhatsApp, make constant communication an easier goal for 2020. They will allow businesses to answer customer inquiries more quickly than ever before.

80 percent of smartphone users are projected to be using mobile messaging apps by 2020. That means conversational commerce will play an important role in how users find products.

With so many platforms and so many businesses using these platforms, trying to stick out in your own unique way might be a struggle. Personalizing your page and posts with user-generated content can give you that leverage. It can also help give you a better relationship with your followers.

It’s no secret that Facebook is currently facing its own onslaught of bad publicity over data breaches and privacy invasion. Because of that, expect there to be a response in the form of tighter regulatory control and legal scrutiny.

While we don’t know yet what that might entail, you can be sure that it will factor into how social media for business might be conducted.

Are you going to start using videos more? Or will you create an Instagram business or Facebook business account and start drawing in more followers? Maybe you want to try social media ads or social communities. Capitalizing on all these trends will help you have a successful 2020.

However, we know that it might feel a bit overwhelming, especially when you also have a business to run! If you need help navigating the latest social media changes, drop us a message on Facebook! Frontier Marketing helps businesses in McHenry County and the greater Chicago region stay up to date on the latest trends for social media!