Saying that social media will only become more prominent in the everyday lives of people in 2020 should come with no surprise. But what about it? What are some things to look out for in order to ensure success in your digital marketing efforts for the upcoming year?

Here are our predictions for where social media marketing is heading towards in 2020:

Mobile

A few sets of stats to set the tone first (as of Nov 2019):

• Mobile devices account for over 53% of worldwide internet traffic
• Over 95% of Facebook users access its services by mobile devices
• On average, we are on our phones for 17hrs a day, but our attention span has lowered to 8 seconds due to the infinite amount of content we come across every day.

To put this into perspective, every time you run a piece of content or ad on the internet, 8 seconds is all you get to capture an audience’s attention before they move onto the next piece. And if your content is not optimized for mobile, you miss out on more than half of the world’s internet users and 95% of the users on the world’s largest social networking platform.

This is why it is important to optimize your content distribution strategy with up to date market insights continuously. For instance, if you are trying to promote a line of outdoor clothing to millennials. Your targeted audiences are likely outdoor enthusiasts, they would likely follow many outdoor recreational activities oriented social accounts on Instagram and Facebook, and depending on their interests, they may be more active in the summer or winter (e.g. surfer vs. snowboarder). Being millennials, they’re likely primarily on mobile and are more active on Instagram than on Facebook.

Of course, audience targeting is only half the story, the other half of Social Media Marketing has to do with the actual content itself.

Videos

There is increasing consumer preference for video content over static images. This is especially true for digital ads and sponsored social media content. A quick scroll through Instagram and Facebook and you would notice that there are significantly more videos around than merely a few years ago.

Videos must be utilized in order to stand out from the crowd and capture the attention of your audience properly. Instagram Stories have also risen to become one of the most popular channels that people receive video content and can be effective in promoting brands in a more personalized way.

This blurs the line between different social media platforms being exclusive for their respective types of content (e.g. YouTube for videos, IG for photos, etc.). But at the same time, this introduces a whole new category of online videos. Where YouTube videos have evolved into more serious and polished productions nowadays, social media Stories are typically vertically viewed videos (on mobile) that are shorter in length and (relatively) less polished due to their temporary nature (stories are typically only available for 24hrs after they’re posted).

Instant Messaging

One of the most important aspects of crafting an effective marketing campaign has to do with choosing the right platform to get your message out. This is especially true for digital marketing, where there are so many different platforms out there it may be disorienting to decide on which one works best for your needs.

There is no denying that Facebook has some of the biggest and most effective platforms out there for social media marketing. Note that in this context we are not just referring to Facebook as a platform by itself, but the company and its subsidiaries as a whole. This includes some of the most popular social networking platforms on the internet right now, such as Instagram, FB Messenger, and WhatsApp Messenger, among others.

Study shows that 80% of adults and 91% of teens message every day. In 2018/2019, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp were the three platforms that mobile users spent the most time on. These are also some of the most frequently accessed apps right after a smartphone gets unlocked. There is also an increasing preference for people to get customer support through instant messaging rather than by email/phone.

This marks a shift towards even more integration between a business and its social media presence. Meaning that maintaining a healthy and effective social media presence is more important than ever if not essential, as this is what customers come to expect.

Deeper integrations between businesses, eCommerce, and social media

What we may see more of in 2020 is deeper social media integration with company websites and their operations (e.g. live chat supported by FB messenger to replace a customer service hotline). With Instagram Shopping and Facebook Marketplace entering the eCommerce space with social media integrations, we will likely also see more diversity in terms of how people shop online, and an increase in purchases that come directly from social media advertising.