How Digital Marketing Influenced by Social Media Trends

Social platforms have evolved into the major medium of marketing due to consistently rising user base. Today, the total number of social media users globally is accounting for whooping 3.80 billion, which is only expected to rise further.

One of the intrinsic characteristics of social platforms is that they keep molding and updating themselves according to prevailing trends.

Therefore, this characteristic has made people stay glued with social applications. Moreover, there are a handful of social media platforms available today with a consistent user base. 65% of Millennials and Generation Z have opined that social platforms play a huge role in their purchasing decisions.

Social media marketing has a considerable impact on all other digital marketing branches and has garnered an inevitable place. Let us have a glimpse of the latest digital marketing trends and the way social platforms have adapted to it.

Social Platforms Determines The Fate Of Your Business:

A recent survey by AdWeek has noted that 67% of people are going through the social media page of a brand before purchasing its products. The same goes for start-up and medium scale businesses. So, the way you present yourself on social platforms will play a pivotal role in building your brand’s image.

Hence, be very cautious about the posts you upload to your social media handles. Today, the social platform has turned into more of an e-commerce search engine application. People get to know about new arrival, mostly through social applications.

Facebook for Business and Instagram Shops are sections that are completely dedicated to commercial purposes. Facebook is rolling out new features on these sections for the comfort of the sellers.

The sellers can highlight the cost, including a short description of the product. In addition, the launch of carousel ads(multiple videos or images in a single ad) on Facebook and Instagram offers a better shopping experience to the customers.

Hence, people will be delivered with complete detail about the product they are viewing so that they don’t have to approach anyone to know further about it.

It is predicted that by 2023, globally renowned brands will have 70% of their total sales through social media channels. So, the majority of brands will discard other digital marketing channels and will have their complete focus on social platforms.

Enhance Your Personalisation Marketing Through Social Platforms:

In 2020 and the coming years, the brands that give importance to personalization marketing only will be able to generate profit and sustain in the business. Because in this internet era, people receive information from all corners of the world instantly.

So, they get easily enriched about the product they are looking to buy. Hence, they want the product to be crafted according to their wish.

People generally pour out their thoughts and opinions on social platforms. They share their thoughts about the movies they watched, the pros and cons of the products they purchased on the social platforms.

So, you can easily know about the expectations of your target audience through social platforms. For instance, just check the comment section of any of the posts on your competitor’s social media page.

You will come across negative and positive comments from the customers. It will give you a better understanding of the expectations of the customers.

It will help you to craft your social media posts accordingly and roll-it out in the feed of your prospects. Following such a measure will help you to achieve a higher conversion rate at ease.

Social Messaging Platforms ‘The Dynamic Conversational Tool’:

In recent times, brands are looking forward to having a conversational approach towards the audience. The reason behind this motive is that they could understand their customers much better by interacting with them.

A stranger you met at your college or workplace turns into your best friend or a life companion only through constant interaction. So, brands and businesses are utilizing social messaging platforms as a medium to converse with the people.

Facebook Messenger and WeChat have 1,300 million monthly active users and 1,203 million monthly active users, respectively. In general, people spend an average of 15 minutes on these messaging platforms every day.

A recent survey suggested that 10 billion messages are sent between Business on Facebook and people every month. People also feel comfortable sharing their thoughts with service providers through these messaging platforms.

• How Social Messaging Platforms Helps In Turning A Prospect Into A Customer?

Let us consider a person who landed at your website has left without taking any action after viewing the pricing page. So, most probably, the reason behind not taking any action is that the product’s price could be beyond his budget.

Hence, you can approach him through the messaging application by sending a customized advertisement. He could be more open to you about his thoughts on your service and his expectations due to the privacy that is available on the messaging platforms.

Since the chat is directly between the customer and the seller with no third-party knowing about it, people don’t hesitate to speak their minds out on these messaging platforms.

• The Arrival Of Chatbots:

Chatbots are gradually gaining importance in customer service due to their conversational nature. Nowadays, people approach their service providers mostly through social platforms rather than going with telephonic conversation or dropping an email.

Chatbots are capable of providing instant replies to customer queries. They are capable of solving 55% of basic customer queries. Renowned brands like H&M and Domino’s have their own Facebook Messenger Chatbots to answer customer queries and offer relevant suggestions.

These chatbots converse more like a human by shooting questions like, ‘Just try out our new arrival, It seems to be matching your interests,’ ‘Your order is on the way. Kindly bear with us for a few minutes’.

The human touch of these chatbots in their interactions is being utilized by brands for effective conversation.

Thus, when brands are focused on conversational marketing, social platforms lay a pathway to carry it out effectively.

The Rise Of Ephemeral Content:

In today’s fast-paced world, people want everything to be accomplished as early as possible, more like preparing instant noodles. Because they value time as much as they value money. The same applies to marketing.

If you describe your product in an article format with around 500-1000 words, people are less likely to give it read as it consumes their considerable time. But, things are different with ephemeral videos.

These videos, which last less than a minute, have grabbed people’s attention due to its minimum duration. Snapchat stories, Instagram, and Facebook stories are the perfect examples of ephemeral videos.

Marketers have opined that Instagram stories have 4x higher engagement than standard posts. The way a brand leverages the stories section will play a massive role in taking its business to the next level in the coming years. However, the challenge in front of the marketers is that they must convey the message in an intriguing manner within that short duration.

A recent survey suggested that 68% of people came to about a new product only through short videos, whereas text-based articles and blogs conquer only 15%. So, brands are looking to make use of this ephemeral video feature in multiple ways, such as enhancing the brand reach and making people aware of the launch of new products.

The Way Social Media Marketing Gained The Trust Of People:

The success of a product solely depends on the level of trust it can garner from the people. A prospect will turn into a customer only if he believes that buying the product will benefit him. The purpose of every promotion across any channel is to build trust among the viewers about the product. Social platforms also possess the characteristics that facilitate building trust for your brand. The most prominent ones among them are,

• Influencer Marketing
• User-Generated Content

How Are Influencers Playing A Huge Role In Social Media Marketing?

Today, everyone, from a start-up to a renowned global brand, follows a common marketing tactic on social platforms known as ‘influencer marketing’. The majority of top brands and mid-level businesses have collaborated with an influencer to promote their products on social platforms. It is predicted that influencer marketing will turn into a $7 billion industry by 2021.

The reason behind the growing importance for influencers is that they have gained the trust of people effortlessly, which brands are trying to build and sustain over many years. These influencers have gained an excellent reputation for them among the people by delivering engaging content. Moreover, they always stay connected with their audience by going live and interacting consistently. So, brands are looking to leverage influencers as a medium to convince people to buy their products.

The Rise Of User-Generated Content:

User-Generated Content is the digital version of word-of-mouth marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing is always lauded as the most powerful means of marketing due to its ability to convince people easily. Social platforms have a vast space for user-generated content. Brands are encouraging people to post product reviews on their social media handles. Moreover, people also feel privileged to post their thoughts about the products they have purchased in their social media handles. Such posts will enhance brand awareness and turn into the testimony of the quality service provided by the brand.

Today, millions of people from various parts of the world are present on social platforms and surf them every day. The factors mentioned above ease the process of gaining their trust for brands and businesses.

How Social Platforms Impacts On Other Branches Of Digital Marketing?

Social platforms have a considerable impact on other branches of digital marketing. Its vast user base could be regarded as one of the reasons behind it. Let us have a glimpse at how social platforms influence its counterparts of digital marketing.

• Email Marketing:

Email marketing is still considered as an efficient marketing channel. It helps brands to get in touch with a prospect personally and to build a bond with him. In today’s scenario, social platforms act as a lead generation tool as it eases the process of spotting the prospects.

Just have a look at the Facebook or Instagram page of any brand or even a small-town company. People carry out various activities in these pages, such as reviewing the company, posting their opinions, and shooting out their queries.

Through this, you can have a better understanding of a prospect that will help you create a more relevant post and reach him through the mail. Thus, social platforms act as the backbone for email marketing.

• SEO:

Social platforms can be used in improving the SEO ranking of a website. For instance, Facebook and Twitter, the major social platforms with a consistent user base, are known for their ‘readable’ users. Sharing blogs on your Facebook and Twitter pages with backlinks to your website will drive more traffic to your website. Thus, such measures will assure quality traffic to your website alongside increasing improving the SEO ranking of your site.

Final Thoughts

Social platforms have the capability to bend down and transform according to the prevailing trends in marketing. Moreover, social platforms also open doors to new ways to reach the audience. Recent surveys suggest that global brands will have 75% of their sales through social platforms by 2023. Hence, social platforms have garnered an undisputed place in digital marketing, thus introducing new trends and adapting to the prevailing trends.