The year 2019 has so far seen brands using social media to connect with their audiences and interact with them to understand their requirements and address them. More brands now are relying on social media platforms to reach their target audiences. Social media channels have emerged into effective communication channels for people to share their opinion, vent anger or demand changes in an app or a service. There is a meaning to all this noise. It's helpful to the brand, if they're listening in carefully. What will be the most important social media trends in 2019 for brands and businesses? Let’s find out the top social media trends to watch out for this year.
Personalization powered by AI
It's no secret that personalization powered by Artificial Intelligence will take over marketing. Messaging and chatbots will become an important part of a detailed personalization strategy. The best example of personalization is Airbnb which uses past information and upcoming trips to design personalized travel suggestions.
Social Media powered eCommerce
More social media companies will open their platforms for e-commerce. This would be important for companies which already offer brands features for advertising like YouTube and Instagram. Facebook already allows users to buy products from brand pages in their shop section and also has it's own Marketplace.
Social Intelligence
One of the major social media trends to follow in 2019 is social intelligence. Every business has a social media presence, and this is on platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat. Similar to collecting intelligence for security orces, brands will combine AI automation and human expertise to follow social trends closely.
Influencer Marketing will be under the scanner
Influencer Marketing has grown leaps and bounds on social media platforms. The concept of influencer marketing is less direct than traditional forms of advertising and as such, the influencers are or social media figures that have gathered a defined community around themselves will be scrutinized for their personal behavior online affecting their reach and trust in the process.
Examples of brands using social media:
- Apple's #ShotOniPhone social media campaign increased user-engagement was so effective that it's Chinese counterparts soon caught on the trend to rope in their customers for marketing the brand. The brand has successfully created user-generated content by means of the user-generated campaign and by giving power to its own customers.
- Make-A-Wish Foundation and Disney collaborated for their user-generated campaign together. This social media marketing campaign #ShareYourEars asked the audience to share a picture of them wearing their Mickey Mouse Ears and captioned the picture with the #ShareYourEars hashtag. This campaign experienced user participation which led Disney to reach more people than it traditionally would.
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