Enter the New Year in Style with 2020 Social Media Trends

Trends are always coming and going—which is exactly why you don’t see very many people still rocking platform shoes or neon headbands and wristbands (thank goodness). But style-related trends aside, there are other fads that change with the times—including social media.
 
As a PR professional, I am always trying to stay on top of the latest crazes in all facets of communications, which is why I recently sat in on Hootsuite’s Annual Social Trends webinar. After the presentation, I look forward to putting these anticipated trends into practice during 2020.
 
Trend #1 – Find a Balance Between Public and Private Engagement
 
In 2019, we saw that Instagram launched its ‘Close Friends’ feature on Stories and LinkedIn introduced its latest ‘Teammates,’ feature. We expect that trends like these will continue emerging, putting a stronger emphasis on privacy in 2020. While public social channels will still be important for social listening and brand discovery, the creation of private, invite-only groups will allow businesses to engage with their target audience one-on-one, making private social channels more direct—and debatably more effective.
 
Trend #2 – The Role of the Social Marketer will Change
 
Engagement metrics (e.g. likes) are starting to disappear, which Instagram has already been testing. There’s also been a decline in organic social reach and an increase in pay-to-play to see notable results. As we enter the new year, social marketing will collide with performance marketing, placing an emphasis on delivering concrete results and ROI. To adapt with this change, social marketers really need to have a hybrid skillset that includes storytelling, managing, and measuring.
 
Trend #3 – Closing the Social Proof Gap
 
In Hootsuite’s Annual Social survey, 70% of respondents agreed that they aren’t taking even the most basic of steps towards measuring the real business value that social media is bringing to their organization. In 2020 this needs to change! Having a presence on social media is so much more than simply just being present. Business-driven results can be—and are being made on social media every day. It is a forgotten business metric that all social marketers should be measuring. In 2020, the utilization and standardization of UTM codes will be critical in tracking and analyzing your business objectives. But, there are other means of attribution that can be found in the annual survey here.
 
These are only a few of the highlighted trends that are expected to dominate the social media landscape in 2020. Social media is a dynamic, ever-changing space and as a social media marketer, it’s important to evolve with the changing trends. After all, nobody wants to be out of style!

By Maggie Munley