The rocky start to 2020 only seems to be getting more out of control which means that social media and internet trends are making a major shift to accommodate the crazy times.  With so much happening all across the country, it stands to reason that social media marketers will be looking for a major shift in trends this year.

Here are some of our social media and internet trends for 2020.

Here One Minute, Gone The Next

Ephemeral content, as it’s known in the social media realm, is short-lived often once-seen posts by users or brands that have a short shelf life.  Apps such as Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram all utilize stories where users can post content only for it to go away in a specified amount of time–typically 24 hours.

This sort of short-lived social media plays to the shorter attention span of most social media users as well as gives the creators more creative liberty.  Expect to see ephemeral content continue to rise over the course of 2020.

Social Selling Is on the Rise

Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest dominate the social media market for advertisers and give users a healthy dose of sponsored posts geared towards selling more products and services.  As users gravitate towards social media for news updates, local marketplaces, and general distraction from the outside world, this social commerce approach will prove to be a useful marketing tool.

Bear in mind, however, that simply leveraging sponsored posts or social media campaigns can be overwhelming to users who don’t want or need a certain product or service.  Politicians, for example, are increasingly using social commerce to attract voters who otherwise haven’t been polled or part of voting in the past.  While this tactic is logical from a business approach, it takes a very keen and highly targeted ad to succeed without wasting precious marketing dollars.

Video Will Continue to Rise

Data and research tell us that video increasingly dominates social media, but attention spans continue to decrease.  And while Cisco estimates that 82% of all online content will shift to video by 2022, strategically leveraging video around embedded advertisements and shorter attention spans will be a challenge to marketers.

Nevertheless, video is a pillar of online content and the cornerstone of social media content across virtually all platforms and it’s not going away anytime soon.  Marketers who are only sparingly using video to promote products, properties, or services are underserving of a potentially endless supply line of new leads and new customers.

Social Media will Dominate Customer Service

Customers are reaching out to brands to help more often than many marketers realize through social media and internet-based chat apps on websites.  This sort of interaction means that marketers and customer service reps will have a growing need to integrate all of their customer interactions under one roof.

Software such as Podium, Birdeye, and Capterra pride themselves on interaction management from lead to sale and beyond by assisting brands in reputation management and gaining legitimate reviews.  These sorts of software suites are majorly impactful for helping brands be more customer-focused and customer service minded without adding dedicated customer service or back end support staff.