Hootsuite Leads the Global Media Management Sphere with 17 Million Loyal Customers and Almost 80 Percent of the Fortune 1000 Using Their Product. Hence, When They Talk About Social Media Trends, Marketers All over the World Listen

This is Hootsuite’s third report of this sort where they have predicted trends for the coming year — trends that have given marketers sleepless nights. Social media is the number one channel for marketing initiatives and marketers have to get it right in order to sync-in with annual business goals. Hootsuite summarizes their rather extensive report for marketers in order to inform them about how 2019 looks like. These trends are:

Trust

With all that’s happening around the world, social media users are in no position to blindly trust sharing their data. Hence, when brands develop content they should try and be as genuine and authentic as possible. Gaining consumer trust has become of utmost importance.

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Changing Ways of Consuming Content

Nowadays, stories are far more popular among social media users than content generating out of the feed. Hence, as an important example, content developers should build content keeping in mind newer ways of content consumption.

Advertisement Swarm

Brands are increasingly trying to outsmart each other by constantly upping the ante when it comes to infusing advertisements in digital channels. As convinced as brands might be of this strategy, Hootsuite predicts that it is not going to work. What will work is consumers getting true value from advertisements, which has not really happened in 2018.

E-commerce and Mobile Platforms

2018’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday saw a phenomenal surge of shoppers buying from their mobile phones. Hence, making shopping interesting and interactive on mobile phones will be a key area for brands to focus on in 2019.

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The Rise of Messaging

The top 4 messaging applications clock 5 billion users globally. Consumers are saying that they feel far more comfortable directly messaging a brand than on social media. Hence, marketers need to search for newer technologies and opportunities for cross-integration.

“In many ways, 2018 was a tumultuous year for social media,” says Hootsuite CMO Penny Wilson. “Concerns around privacy have led social media users to more private channels such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat, creating unique opportunities for businesses to develop 1:1 relationship with customers, particularly as those customers increasingly prefer messaging for interactions like support. Combined, these trends represent tremendous new opportunities for brands to establish deeper, more authentic, and longer-lasting connections with customers in 2019 and beyond.”

Hootsuite’s findings have surfaced from the third quarter of 2018. The data was collated from Industry Mavens and Hootsuite’s clients.

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