What are the trends in social media marketing for 2019

The social media marketing teams and managers at the top of their game know that this discipline is an ever-evolving one. New platforms, technologies, and shifts in how the market uses them dominate social media marketing better than any of our best-laid plans. With that in mind, here are some of the changes that might just be the hottest trends in 2019 and what it can mean for how we market across social media.

Brands to continue to take social media marketing capabilities in-house

In house marketing teams will continue to bring in the skillsets that allow them to behave like "agencies" broadcast and video will continue to be top of the list. This does not diminish the role of the agency, many in house social media marketers will continue to work with 3rd party agencies to deliver quality campaigns.

As more budget is put towards internal content creation brands will also be able to monetise audiences in the same way traditional publishers have.  Social media teams will expand to take control of paid social, influencer outreach enabling brands to have a more integrated approach to marketing and becoming less segmented and silos.  

Influencer marketing takes centre stage

It’s been on the rise for a while, but now, more than ever, online creators are starting to truly replace traditional media stars as voices worth capitalising on. Companies are likely to rely less and less on their own internal advertising efforts, instead benefiting from the pre-built audiences and emotional connection that podcasters, Youtuber’s, and other top creators already have.

Return of Long-From Content

Long form articles will make a return, for those who do not already ensure long form content is a part of the marketing strategy, search engines will reward you for this. Marketers will have a greater pool of more in-depth content to promote on social channels. We also expect with the changes taking place on LinkedIn at some point in 2019 the return of the LinkedIn article. Remember though, the content still needs to be useful otherwise you will loose traffic as we are all time poor and will only read long articles if the content is interesting.

Social listening offers more data than ever

Tools that follow trends, alert you to certain hashtags, and track keyword usage are already being employed by most serious social media marketing firms. However, social listening is set to take these tools to the next level. They offer extra depth in analytics. Sentiment analysis can help you quickly grasp whether brands, events, and news are having a positive impact in discussion nor a negative one. Meanwhile, influencer search allows you to see which of the most popular and followed voices on the internet are talking about your clients and their products, so you can quickly capitalise on the social momentum.

Greater implementation across the net

Social media accounts are starting to be used more thoroughly as the consumer’s online ID. Instead of creating profiles, more sites, apps, and services allow users to sign in using their social media, connecting their account to other channels and networks. This allows social media platforms to capture even more data, meaning that marketers will be able to more specifically target users with ads that are more likely to be relevant.

5G: The new king of mobile internet

The game changer!!! With the first devices and networks rolling out over the latter half of 2018, next year will be the year that 5G is likely to start dominating. Promising faster speeds, more stable connections, and less battery consumption than 4G, it’s going to accelerate the use of video content on social media since people will be able to more readily access it on the move. What’s more, people on the move are more likely to become active users rather than passive consumers of social media, since stable connections will allow them to more reliably engage online. This could lead to a greater focus on less pre-made content and more reactive marketing, including more user-generated content.

Interfacing new worlds

Augmented reality and virtual reality have had something of a shaky start. However, much like we saw with mobile phones, the technology is getting smaller and more portable, but at a much faster rate. What’s more, 5G is allowing these technologies to stay connected where past mobile networks simply didn’t. This could mean that new social media platforms could arise in these entirely new spaces or we could see the existing platforms remoulded to fit them. As a result, social media marketers might start looking at mobile spaces differently, with more space to display pictures and content that’s more in-depth than the usual responsive design schemes allow.

Start adapting to these emerging trends now, and you will be one of the first in the field to truly capitalise on all the ways social media is set to change when 2019 comes around.

Regulation

With Europe and the US pushing for tighter controls and accountability from Social Media platforms, will 2019 be the year we see government begin to take action with the platform giants, taxing the profits is already on the cards!

We also think that many areas will continue to grow, the rise in the use of stories and user generated content for brands will continue, as well as the use of video. One area that we expect to see some more traction is the use of regular “show” being created to capture audiences, we have seen many great examples this year and this is surely set to continue.