It can be hard to predict exactly what will be trending on social media in the first month of the year, as social media can be completely different from one week to the next. It’s an unpredictable and exciting online space, which is why we love it as Digital Marketers – there’s always something new going on!
But we have seen trends throughout 2019 which we know will be here to stay in 2020:
Video
Just like in 2019, 2020 will be the year of video. Social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, are already pushing brands to produce video content through Story Ads. This gives brands the power to share their content in bite-sized chunks which will appear directly in their users’ story feeds and delete itself after 24 hours. Using stories also means more people will see your content as they are always at the top of the feed and it’s the first thing people see when opening the apps.
Shopping
Shopping in-app is becoming a lot more popular on social media platforms such as Instagram. When you upload a picture of a product, you can tag it which will show the product name and price, and also attach a link to the landing page. It’s a great way of providing a direct link between the consumer and the website, meaning the consumer journey is shorter.
Fewer likes, more trust
In 2019, ‘Instagram likes first disappeared in Canada in May, and then expanded to several more countries, including Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand, and more recently, the United States’. This decision was based upon the aim to take the pressure of receiving likes in relation to mental health, to make Instagram ‘a safer, more inclusive space’ and to make the platform a more trustworthy place.
Privacy
Privacy is a big thing for 2020 when it comes to sharing content in social media. Instagram has recently introduced a function to create a list of close friends that you can share posts and stories with. This gives you control over who sees your content and allows you to filter through your followers and give certain users more access than others.
AR Instagram filters
‘An Instagram Stories AR Filter is just superimposing virtual computer-generated and/or video effects on top of a real-world image, creating a combined image’ and you may have already seen these filters in action on your stories feed. Recent augmented reality filters such as ‘Which Disney character are you?’ or ‘Which Pokemon character are you?’ have taken the world by storm. They are engaging, extremely shareable and inclusive. Plus they’re a lot of fun and can be a great way to spread brand awareness to the masses.
