2019 Social Media Marketing Predictions and Trends
First, let’s review what happened and started becoming a social media trend in 2018.
- Stories grabbed hold and took off (IG and FB)
- Live video not as popular as it had been
- Facebook Watch grew in popularity
- LinkedIn video became a thing
- Instagram launched IGTV
- FB Ads continue to grow with expansion to IG
- Google+ announced it will go bye-bye
- Influencer Marketing gained in popularity
- Mobile marketing even more prevalent
- Cambridge Analytica and GDPR Sagas!
Let’s move on to the 2019 Social Media Marketing Predictions.
I came up with 6, but there are so many more that could have been on the list.
#1 – Influencer Marketing, Micro-influencers
My thought is micro-influencers will grow even more than influencers, but influencer marketing will still continue to grow.
- Increase Reach to a new audience
- Increase brand reputation
- Save money
- Drive engagement and Traffic
- Make Sales
- Micro-influencers will be a big focus
#2 – Instagram and Facebook stories
My prediction is that these will get more engagement on Instagram than what is posted in the feed. They will be of high importance in the upcoming years.
- Stories will continue to grow
- Stories will become more important than your feed
- Facebook Stories are starting to be used more
- LinkedIn and YouTube just launched Stories (copycats)
#3 – Authenticity
Being authentic is nothing new, but for bigger companies, it is still a difficult task. People connect with people…especially real people.
- Videos do not need to be perfect
- Show Behind the Scenes
- Use Stories to show your authentic side
- Introduce your team
- Develop your own Lingo
- Share your Stories / Case Studies / Reviews
#4 – Messenger marketing
Have you heard the news? Facebook messenger, Instagram messenger and WhatsApp are integrating their platforms by the end of 2019. Learn more about this here.
- 1.5 Billion Users Worldwide
- 90+% Open Rate
- Messenger marketing will expand to more platforms
- Becoming more mainstream for Businesses
- Should be used on top of Email Marketing Campaigns
(Side note: #5 and #6 have been and will continue to be my top focuses for 2019!)
#5 – Facebook Ads
Facebook and Instagram ads will:
- Continue to be most cost effective marketing
- Continue to improve targeting
- Continue to become more expensive
- Safe to still be awesome… due to the expansion to IG platform
Instagram ads will have:
- More targeting options for Instagram Ads
- More people will catch on to Stories Ads
- IG will become more of a pay to play and less organic
#6 – Video
Here are most of the Social Video Platforms:
- Facebook (Feed and stories)
- Facebook Watch
- Facebook Live
- Instagram (Feed, stories and Live)
- IGTV
- LinkedIn Video
- YouTube
- Snapchat
Facebook Video:
Feed:
- Square still works well
- NEW! Recommend under 15 seconds for short videos
Stories:
- Facebook Stories are on Pages now
- Seen more use of Stories
- Facebook is pushing their Stories
- Added Highlights
Instagram Video:
Feed:
- Must be less than 1 minute
- Should be square
- Test performance against graphics
Stories
- Need to be under 15 seconds
- Tall (Vertical)
- Can now upload up to 1 minute videos and it will automatically clip into 15 second videos
IGTV
- Launched in June of 2018
- Vertical Long-Form Video Platform
- Predict Instagram will put more energy to make IGTV a bigger part of their platform
- Votes are out on this one
- Might be a dud or might still take off
LinkedIn Video
- Currently gets the most organic reach
- LinkedIn launched video late so playing catch-up
- Prediction – less organic reach and move to more pay to play
YouTube Video
- Still the BIG DOG of Video!
- Owned by Google – #2 Search Engine
- Ads have improved tremendously and very affordable (My #2 Favorite to FB ads)
- Best Platform for Long-Form Video
To Review the 2019 Social Media Marketing Predictions
1. Influencer Marketing
2. Stories
3. Being Authentic
4. Messenger Marketing
5. Facebook and Instagram Ads
6. Videos are still HOT on Social!
Where will you focus in 2019?
Listen to full podcast episode where we discuss these trends and predictions.
Below is the full slide presentation I created and presented at a few events.
