Top 10 Unavoidable Social Media Trends That Will Rule 2019

2019 – Another Year of Social Media Advancement

2018 has been a wonderful year for social media trends when many welcome changes took place. It has also been a busy year with innumerable ‘stories’ to view all through the day. 2019, however, is not going to be any less eventful. This is the time when we should really consider analyzing and reviewing the positives and negatives with regards to social media trends 2019. This is also a good opportunity to revamp old social media optimization strategies which are no longer useful. So, let’s a have a close look at what will work for social media this year and what from the past is still here to stay.

Here’s a thorough review of what social media would look like in 2019

• #1 – 2019 Will Be the Year of Storytelling

  An extremely important factor behind the huge popularity of social networking sites is the scope of the users to share their personal or professional stories in front of the whole world. Look anywhere and you can see people posting regular story updates. This opportunity is best explored on Instagram and Facebook (including Facebook Messenger). Instagram Stories, although, are way more popular than the stories on Facebook because of their glamorous and stylish mode of portrayal. Messaging sites like WhatsApp also lets you share your regular updates with the help of the ‘Status’ option. This opportunity will grow more this year with more platforms being interested to add this as an option for their users.

  So basically, the concept of storytelling on social site is on the rise. Brands can easily use this to their advantage and share stories about themselves, their values and ethics, work culture, skilled team members, happy customers and what not. Undoubtedly, there is a lot of scope for a newly built enterprise to enhance their visibility through such stories, using social media for marketing of their venture.

• #2 – Authenticity Will Reign Supreme

  Authentic and true-to-life posts and updates are what people are more interested in. People are no longer clicking on ‘read more’ options when it comes to static social media content that have actually nothing to do with their lives. They are more willing to stop and look at the post that they can really connect to. A genuine short video posted on a Facebook Story essentially creates a greater impact on the viewers as compared to an image with a thousand filters or a post with a hundred hashtags. Authenticity is exactly what people are looking for right now.

  This trend has given a serious challenge to the existing conventional social media strategy. Online marketers need to upgrade their timelines and improve their ‘storytelling skills’ in order to keep their customers base intact. And yes, the stories have to be such where people find a point of connection and can relate to them. This is equally applicable for posts, blogs, images and all other points of social media connectivity.

• #3 – Purposeful Interactions Will Create Connections

  In 2018, Facebook changed and updated its algorithm and established an improved focus on meaningful user interaction. This created a huge debate regarding the future of marketing on social sites. This new and improved social media trend was in favour of content that has certain intent which can actually start a meaningful conversation. Dry content that was solely created for the purpose of online marketing was taken off from the list of priority. After Facebook, other social media platforms followed the suit and tried to create a space which is more user-friendly and interactive.

  Even in 2019, the same trend will be given a thumbs-up. This change has made many Admins sit straight and have a look at what they have been doing all this while. Now the focus is on content that has a purpose and a capacity to make the users ‘Comment’ on it. A skilled Social Media Strategist will tell you that this has actually given more power to the brands that have an inclination towards high-quality content.

• #4 – Social Media Influencing Will Be More Impactful

  We cannot deny the fact that social media influencers have already made their own self-claimed kingdom. They are no less popular than a TV star, a pop singer or an actor. Taking the help of such influencers to create an impact on a specific audience group has been in vogue for the past few years. Many brands, small and big, collaborate with these influencers in order to spread awareness regarding their brand. And yes, influencer marketing is not going anywhere.

  The year 2019 will see the rise of many micro-level influencers in order to fetch more local crowd towards business ventures. Therefore, running a social media campaign with the help of influencers is still a big thing with regards to marketing through social media.

  Did you Know?
  During the consumer survey it was found that 48 percent of respondents had purchased products or services discovered through social, but only 18 percent had made a purchase directly through social media.
  Source: www.statista.com

• #5 – Videos Will Give Way to More Videos

  Well-written blogs and social media posts are effective enough until this date. But what is more effective is videos as a means of conveying a message over various social sites. Content consumption has taken a new form with the advent of videos on social media. Whether it is short videos over stories or the long ones on the newsfeed, online audiences are being more and more engaged with video content. Most videos, from a 1-minute video to an essentially a long one, have their own audience base. Therefore, using meaningful videos (not mere advertisement videos) can actually gain you more publicity than anything else right now. And if not videos, then podcasts are also a great way of public engagement.

  Introduction of IGTV (Instagram TV) as an extended part of Instagram videos is a revolutionary step in this direction. After YouTube, IGTV can actually be the next big thing. Also, live video streaming is gaining popularity as it gives a personal touch to the video content. Therefore, 2019 will be the year of video marketing as a noteworthy means of marketing through social media.

• #6 – Social Media & Sales Will Go Hand-in-Hand

  Believe it or not, social media platforms help a lot of the users to discover products and services that they would have never been aware of otherwise. The popping up of products similar to what you have been looking for a while is where social media plays its trick. It allures the customer to click on the product on display and knows more about the deal. A huge number of these clicks actually convert to the purchase of the product. Therefore, social media is a highly effective medium to generate more lead conversions.

  Introduction of a ‘Marketplace’ on Facebook has enhanced this activity to a great extent. Instagram is another very impactful marketing tool which leads to successful business connections. Also, the rise of private (open or closed) groups for promotion is another highly influential inclusion. These groups are used not only to promote products but also for common essential services. This has fetched a lot of attention from the users and this is only going to be more powerful in 2019.

• #7 – Chatbots and AI Will be the Newest Addition to Customer Service

  Many ambitious brands have already started using chatbots and other automated messaging systems as a convenient part of their customer service. This strategy works very well because it creates the essence of a real conversation between the buyer and the seller. Customers looking for product or services online prefer to know about the purchase personally and what can be a better option than an artificial chatbot? This system has made it easier for a buyer to make the decision of buying.

  These kinds of chatbots are already popular and made its first appearance on a social media platform through Facebook. More and more brands are using artificial intelligence to create a personalized connection with potential customers through a social site. A Social Media Consultant should be able to come up with more knowledge regarding how to put this technology to proper use because this trend is going to be stronger in the future days.

• #8 – Private Social Messaging is Going to Gain New Grounds

  In the year 2018, the use of messaging platforms has already surpassed the use of some of the most popular social media platforms. And believe us, this trend is here to stay in 2019 as well. People are more willing to converse on a man-to-man basis than on social media posts. This phenomenon has given rise to text marketing as a newer means of attracting potential customer.

  Whether it is about staying in touch with friends and family or staying in touch with the latest fashion trends, users are preferring texting over scrolling for hours on social sites. A simple text update on WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger, WeChat or any other messaging app can take care of such basic user needs. It is basically a personalized experience that the users are looking for. Additional features of certain messaging apps make it easier for the brands to convey their messages. Like if a new product is launched, an impressive WhatsApp Status Update or an Attractive Facebook Story will definitely receive more views than simple posts or blogs.

• #9 – Communication Through LinkedIn Will Reach New Horizons

  LinkedIn can very specifically be another big social media revelation in 2019. If you look back at the past years (particularly 2018) LinkedIn has done great for itself and created a means of public interaction like no other platform. The videos on LinkedIn have gained more reach than the ones on Facebook. The recent re-launch of LinkedIn Groups, with the aim of creating a personalized community, will fetch more users towards the platform. But the most important fact is that the exponential rise of the influences of LinkedIn has paved way for a new king of social sites.

  All this while, many business ventures have neglected LinkedIn to an extent. For them, it is time to buck up and take notice of what they should do to build and enhance their visibility on LinkedIn and this trend is only going to get more powerful in the future.

• #10 – Quality Will Win, Throwing Away Quantity

  It was a widely used practice to post anything and everything all over the day, for weeks or months, just to grab the attention of someone who might have ‘liked’ something previously on your Facebook Page or Instagram Handle. This practice, however, will definitely not work anymore. People are done with useless information and want useful and relevant content. Even when scrolling down lazily through the social media feed, it is the content which is purposeful, and not just a click-bait, attracts more clicks on it.

  This is high time for many such pages and accounts that depended on just attracting the viewers towards their ventures and not feeding them any necessary information. 2019 is going to be a year when people will prefer quality over quantity. Therefore, a huge change in the process of development of social media content is about to take place. Social Media Services will essentially take care of their viewer demands and give them the material that they really need to know and not just thoughtless pieces about nothing at all.

Final Judgement

The face and factors of Social Media have ever been changing too fast. People all over the globe do their best to cope up with the everyday changes that social media is bringing to their lives and lifestyles. From simple text messaging, the ways of communication through social platforms have evolved a lot. It has not stopped at sending across emoticons, stickers or GIFs for better expressions, it has gone on to the sharing of daily updates of one’s personal experiences through stories on Facebook and Instagram, live streaming, selfie videos, boomerangs, face filters and what not. The way of the social world encourages the change of online marketing strategies, in order to be in the same line of thought with audiences. As a result, the trends of social media marketing have also changed and evolved drastically over the last few years and this trend is going to be carried forward in 2019 as well.