As we enter another new year, your social media game has to comply with the emerging challenges and dynamics of today’s cyber age. Brands are striking a balance between private and public engagement.

Mark Zuckerberg has clearly said in 2019 that the future is private. He has shown his plans to unify WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger in response to surge in global consumer demands for more compelling, intimate, and knit social experiences.

• So, during this transition to private domains, the public feed will not be fully side-lined. The upsurge of IGTV and TikTok and Twitter’s steady growth show that building platforms for content consumption remain a strong context in social media.
• There’s data to back it up. Customer acquisition and brand discovery continue to prosper on public feeds.
• The key in this New Year will be to find the right balance. Brands need to have a broad reach through their public feed.
• Simultaneously, they must take to private channels to concentrate on deeper relationships and one-on-one engagement with their customers.
• Using public feeds to enhance reach is important. You can promote discovery and build brand awareness with broad traffic.
• Don’t depend on organic social only. Focus on influencer marketing and social advertising to enhance your reach.

Social Media Shopping

This trend began currently and it is going great guns. You no longer have to leave a certain platform or site to purchase a product.

• Now, you can go from viewing something you like in your Instagram or Facebook to sharing your credit/debit card information and buying something right then and there.
• You can do all these with a few clicks. Giving your consumers or audience that speed can cut your revenue funnel.
• More and more brands will shift in this way, and while only the larger conglomerates and well-established firms are using it currently, even smaller brands and even startups may do it in 2020.
• For digital marketers, stories will become trump cards and darlings. For some time, only Snapchat exclusively had Stories, but then Facebook and Instagram stories came to the fore. Now, even YouTube has its individual stories format.
• Stories can help you with a more authentic and deeper insight because you create on-spot videos.
• Stories also provide a huge range of scopes. Stories material disappears all too quickly, it’s also the perfect time and opportunity for marketers to use them.
• You can provide offer flash deals and sales to your loyal users/audience.
• Augmented reality is all set to become mainstream. The evolution is too gradual, with the enhanced application for product discovery, special offers, e-commerce, and more.

Social Media Wellness

It’s going to be a crucial part of your consumer engagement. Social media has evolved to become an integral aspect of your lives. More and more people are becoming familiar and savvier with the way this immersion is affecting your mental health.

• You can expect an enhanced awareness in the time you spend online. More campaigns will encourage users to take a break from the digital landscape and spend more time in the real world.
• Experts opine that brands need to persevere to make your time more worthwhile. Consumers can harness data privacy’s power and rein in and bust fake news.
• People demand integrity and honesty now. With increased rules and protocols, and pro-activeness and alertness from all major channels, the concerned topics will start dwindling.
• Subsequently, brand trust and involvement in social media will grow and strengthen over time. With sites likeBlast up, you can gain more followers, but interactions are your directive.
• The biggest thing that marketers must deal within social media is the growing acrimony and distrust in social media.
• To combat this disturbing trend, you must rely on AI and advanced analytics to quickly assess the volumes of data.
• Marketing will see more of VR and AR effectively. Virtual reality and augmented reality will become independent domains, breaking away from the entertainment realm. The 5G rise has a lot to with this.
• This technological advancement will witness integration of both the realities into application, opening new scopes for marketers.

More Security and Privacy

Privacy has perpetually been the main issue of social media and the internet in its entirety. It’s because, on an open platform, you expose your information to the platform.

• Take the example of Facebook. You sign up for your Facebook account. You must fill out some primary information about yourself.
• It also prompts you to fill up other information in the blanks. Social media giants then collect this data. It is the same for every type of social media channel.
• Nevertheless, you continue trusting these platforms, hoping they would keep your privacy secure.
• However, the recent data breach on Facebook has opened a can of worms.
• Facebook has undergone thorough major renovation and updates in terms of security and data management.
• There are numerous other platforms that are following the same footprints now.
• The video is all set to become the main content type now. It has become a huge trend and content type for people to consume.
• That’s what makes YouTube the world’s second-largest search engine. Everyone loves videos. They are an engaging and versatile format of content that not provides you with a real-life picture of things that are going on.

Enter The Private Groups

More exposure to your personal content online, coupled with many security concerns and data privacy have helped plant new seeds of connection.

• Private or smaller groups are coming up and you have gated communities to create and share content.
• It’s time to embrace some imperfection. If you know the Instagram aesthetic, you will know the ballgame better. It’s both precise and perfect. It’s not exclusive but aspirational.
• Food, beauty, fashion, and travel influencers have been extremely effective in leveraging the power and impact of visuals that sell slightly similar or relevant products.
• They endorse like-minded businesses in a disclosure format that’s yet to have some regulation.

Already, you have a rising trend to refute this aesthetic. You will see it escalate in 2020.