TikTok shakes up the status quo, employers take center stage in a divided world, and brands strike a balance between public and private engagement among the most important social trends

Hootsuite, the leader in social media management trusted by more than 18 million customers and employees at 80 percent of the Fortune 1000, released its Social Media Trends 2020 report. The company’s fourth annual report on global trends in social media reveals the biggest opportunities for brands to deliver winning social marketing strategies in the coming year.

“The new year is a time to refocus and energize your strategies for the year ahead,” says Hootsuite VP Corporate Marketing Henk Campher. “The social trends we’ve identified at Hootsuite provide the sharpest tools needed to create the most exceptional and meaningful employee and customer experiences in 2020 and beyond.”

Brands are starting to act more like people on social, sometimes interacting 1:1 and sometimes in groups. The key is for organizations to make the experience seamless across both worlds.

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Brands are also taking a stand on the most important issues facing our planet, becoming beacons of trust to their employees, who in turn are using social to amplify their company purpose.

And TikTok, the short-format video sharing platform, is shaking up the social media landscape in unexpected and delightful ways. Even if TikTok’s Gen-Z user base isn’t your target, marketers should think about diversifying their audience targeting beyond just the major social platforms.

“Combined, these trends represent tremendous new opportunities for brands to establish deeper, more authentic, and longer-lasting connections with customers, with social at the center of everything they do,” adds Campher.

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Hootsuite’s 2020 Social Trends for businesses large and small to seize include:

1. Brands strike a balance between public and private engagement: The rise of private behaviors like 1:1 and group messaging has not diminished the importance of public social media feeds, which remain a critical space for brand discovery and customer acquisition. The key is creating multi-touch, personalized, and seamless experiences across both worlds, while balancing automation at scale and human connection to build deeper customer relationships. 

2. Employers take center stage in a divided world: As our world becomes increasingly divided, employees are looking to their organizations to take a stand. Globally, employers are significantly more trusted than NGOs, businesses, government, and the media. Progressive organizations will take advantage of this new role, building strong internal cultures while amplifying their company purpose with employee and customer advocacy. 

3. TikTok shakes up the status quo: With more than 800 million monthly active users and a median age of 16-24, Tik Tok continues its incredible rise. Whether or not it lasts, TikTok’s popularity brings valuable insight into the future of social culture, content, and collaboration. Social marketers should keep an eye on TikTok, while using these insights to adapt their strategies on established networks for the next generation on social. 

4. Social marketing and performance marketing collide: As social marketers face pressure to expand the scope of their skill sets, established champions of brand awareness and community building must also become fluent in performance marketing, finding a balance between driving short-term conversions and long-term strategies to build brand equity, customer happiness, and differentiation. 

5. The social proof gap closes: New social commerce features are bridging the top and bottom of the sales funnel, creating a wealth of data around the conversion side of the customer journey. This bottom-of-the-funnel data can now be added to brand awareness activities, giving an invaluable holistic view of how people move through the entire buying journey.

Conducted in the third quarter of 2019, Hootsuite’s Social Media Trends 2020 report is based on a survey of more than 3,100 marketers and interviews with industry specialists. The research report includes not only the trends, but also Hootsuite’s recommendations for seizing the opportunities that the trends represent, along with comprehensive examples of best-in-class brands getting it right.

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