Social media is one of the fastest-growing industries in history. It has given a chance to most business owners to market their products and services for brand awareness. The advantage of social media is that it’s growing faster than the internet. If you look at Facebook, it was launched in 2006, and today, it has over 1.5 billion users. It is expected that in a decade, almost half of the population will be having a Facebook account, therefore crucial to be big on the platform. This can be done in the form of gaining many Facebook likes.
Social media has now turned to be an effective marketing strategy. Companies and individuals are using it to reach their target audience. The commonly used social media for marketing are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linked In, Instagram and Pinterest. However, people find other social media platforms useful, such as Reddit, Snapchat, Tiktok medium, Quora, Tumblr, and Periscope.
Before moving further, let’s define some terms used in social media:
- Social media marketing refers to creating content in social media platforms to drive user engagement and allow sharing.
- Content – this simply means anything you’re posting on a social media platform. It could be a picture on Instagram, status on Facebook, a tweet, or something you are pinning on a Pinterest board.
- Hashtag – it’s a common form used in adding meta information to social media channels. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter use hashtags. It allows you to define a topic with a mark or content as part of the trend.
- Shares – these could be described as social media currency. They are significant for social media marketing. This is where people get your content and distribute it to enable others to see it.
- Engagement – it is the act of people interacting with your content after you post. It’s like a comment, reaction, or a share.
Social Media Trends
Now, after covering some definitions, let’s look at various social media trends.
- Organic reach is down
One of the current social media trends is that people are not getting much feedback. Sometime back, you could use social media to post compelling content. That could easily grow your social media following.
If you are marketing your products, you could receive loads of comments, shares, likes, and friend requests because of your amazing content. This isn’t the case today.
It has become challenging to use social media in building an organic following. To get a higher following, you have to pay for ads. And this isn’t experienced in Facebook alone, but also other social media platforms.
The trend makes it hard for users of social media to grow their organic platforms. That’s why you have to spend money on adverts.
- Social media is business
Social media platforms are here to make money through you. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms are taking this opportunity to get money from you.
When you pay them, they can now connect you to paying customers. And it’s something they do perfectly. Therefore, when opting to market your business through social media platforms, measure your efforts and see what will work or won’t work.
- Social Media Turned to “Pay to Play”
Organic reach is now challenging to get. Your business has to pay to play. Social media algorithms have prioritized advertisements, and that has led to more businesses willing to pay. Between 2014 to 2016, the social media advertising budget doubled. In 2018, it collected over $89 billion.
It should not be a surprise anymore. This is because these social media companies are getting their money from adverts. It is the reason why to use social media; it’s free. That’s because companies will pay a huge amount of money to reach the target audience.
- You become a product
Today, social media has turned users into products. If you want to get these products, you have to pay.
If you pick the right social media platform to market your business and invest in it, that won’t be a problem.
Fortunately, some social media sites provide you with reasonable advertising costs. And the better you prepare your ads, the less you can spend.
- Channels are emerging
Most entrepreneurs have continued to create social media websites. This is a possibility that has become endless.
Additionally, this is a trend that won’t slow down. More new ways are being developed in reaching customers, communicating, and pulling leads. This has resulted in innovative marketing strategies.
On the other hand, channels have changed, and how you use to market your products has changed more. Since more social media platforms are finding their footing, expect to experience merging different marketing channels.
- Tools are Merging
You will realize that it’s not only channels merging. More social media tools are merging to help with your business marketing.
Fortunately, these marketing tools are seamlessly integrating with giants to help you with marketing.
One of these tools is MailChimp. This is an email marketing software you can use to create Facebook ads.
You can use it to target your email subscribers or create a lookalike audience who is already your subscribers. Learn how to reach a younger audience online with this Social Media strategy for museums .
The more it becomes easier to integrate SaaS companies and social media platforms, the easier it makes you target your audience.