The end (or the beginning) of every year can be an excellent chance to look back on the past and think about the future. A new year represents an opportunity to rethink and reassess your work and your performance. It’s an opportunity to think about what you have been doing right and think about what you may have been doing wrong.
Now, that is all focused on the past, but you must also look toward the future. For this reason, you need to pick up on the newest trends that are just appearing or trends that you believe will come about sooner rather than later. Indeed, the times are changing, and with them, so is the landscape of technology and the internet. Below are certain social media trends we believe will be relevant in 2019, trends that will take hold and become part of regular internet dealings.
Table of Contents
Mobile content
Mobile websites have been here for some time. In fact, most people will be, at best, annoyed if they visit a page that is not optimized for mobile browsing. But, what we expect for 2019 is that mobile will evolve more. The standards will be higher; the pages need to be more fluid, and they need to be mobile-optimized and mobile-friendly.
Anything from the size of the font and links to how the whole thing is designed. Before, it was enough to have a minimalistic version of your website fit for mobile users. Now, they expect something a bit more stylish, something nicer.
(More) Videos
Video content has been a mainstay for years on websites. However, what will be different in 2019 is just the amount and types of video content that will be available. Things like Live Video, for example, are already taking hold. People want something more tangible, more real, and less processed. The quality of the videos, both in terms of content and resolution, will be more important than ever as well.
Deep relationships with your audience
Social media has become a regular part of our lives. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine the world before the advent of social media platforms, before Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This also means that the consumers and the visitors are catching on. Fake and condescending Facebook pages and Instagram personalities are pretty much a cliché now. What people want now is a connection. We all are much better at detecting lies over the internet, something the events of the previous year have definitely shown.
Indeed, social media is about relationships and communication. You want to be authentic; you want to be real. This can range from getting influencers and representatives that actually care about the brand and the culture to simply communicating honestly with your clients. Many serious companies, like Eight Clients Social Media Management, for example, are going with the less is more approach, working with a few people and getting the most out of their work. Quality over quantity is key here.
Even the little things can mean a great deal. For example, responding to customer complaints and issues in a timely manner can present you as somebody who cares, and who is genuine. It nurtures loyalty and improves your brand’s look.
People’s main issue with developing relationships with their customers over social media is not using it socially. We are being coy, but what we mean is essentially not social platforms just for visibility and traffic. It’s to Interact with people, be present, and get in contact.
Work with influencers
Influencers are interesting and relatively new job professions. These are essentially people who, over social media platforms, have some sway over the thoughts and feelings of the general public. They are often experts in their own field or charismatic individuals who give out good advice.
An influencer can boost any marketing campaign easily. They most often have a minimum of three thousand followers on a certain segment of social media. If they truly believe in your brand, they can review it and give out recommendations, and even set up their own marketing campaign.
Making social media social again
At what moment did social media stop being social? There was once a time when the internet was a beautifully chaotic and anarchic collection of groups, websites, forums, and tribes. Nowadays, it seems this has somehow disappeared. Of course, all this still exists, but they have fallen to the wayside completely. We expected this to turn around in 2019.
These old niche forums, these old Facebook tribes, are coming back. As we mentioned in another point above, people crave connection and communication; everybody is nostalgic for the good old days of the internet. By promoting groups, chats, and internal message boards, you can take back old communities and connect with your target audiences more easily.
Conclusion
In 2019, we expected real connections, quality over quantity, a deeper relationship between company and client. Essentially, all the trends boil down to companies becoming more human in their business dealings in 2019.
