Socialbakers, the unified marketing platform for social media marketers, released its top social media predictions for 2020. According to Socialbakers, 2019 was the year TikTok exploded and influencer marketing gained traction, especially with marketers in beauty, fashion, e-commerce and auto. In 2020, the company predicts that influencer marketing will continue to grow and that social commerce will achieve lift off thanks, in part, to the growth of shopping-related content, experiments in VR-powered shopping experiences, and the rise of bots for customer service.

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According to Socialbakers, these are the top five social media predictions for 2020:

1. TikTok will continue its meteoric rise

In October 2018, TikTok was the most-downloaded photo and video app in the Apple store worldwide and it officially hit one billion downloads in 2019. “Expect TikTok to continue its meteoric rise in 2020 thanks to its aggressive marketing campaigns and investment in geographic expansion,” said Socialbakers CEO, Yuval Ben-Itzhak.

● To support its growth and continued geographic expansion, TikTok is adding to its offices in London and Mountain View (CA) and recruiting talent directly from top technology companies.

● But for all of its hype, TikTok is not without some controversy. TikTok has been using popular videos submitted to its platform as part of its ongoing, external promotional campaign without informing or compensating the creators. More recently, the app has been drawing increased scrutiny from US lawmakers who worry that it could constitute a national security threat.

“In short, TikTok is the platform to watch in 2020,” said Socialbakers’ Ben-Itzhak. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has acknowledged TikTok’s success and attempted to compete by launching Lasso in November of 2018. Unfortunately for Facebook, Lasso has struggled to attract users. As of February 2019, it had only attracted 70,000 users in the US.

2. Influencer marketing will grow, not wither, as others have predicted.

“Consumers are increasingly seeking out reviews and trusted voices when making purchasing decisions,” said Ben-Itzhak. “This has created a huge opportunity for influencers and brands to team up to create authentic connections with audiences.”

Large consumer brands in beauty, fashion, e-commerce, and auto leaned into influencer marketing in 2019 and found that their efforts drove business and moved the needle. Leading brands like Estee Lauder, Boss and Burberry have explicitly stated that they believe influencer marketing is playing a key role in driving their success on social media. Expect them to increase their investment in 2020 and help make influencer marketing a $10 Billion industry by 2020.

According to Socialbakers data, in the last year:

● Influencer sponsored ads grew by more than 150%

● The number of influencers using the #ad (to denote sponsorship) more than doubled

● Micro-influencers became more important and now comprise the majority of influencers (over 75% of all influencers in North America are micro-influencers).

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3. The time for VR/AR is Coming

Virtual Reality (VR) has long been associated with the gaming world or with high budget Hollywood movies. “While some tech-savvy marketers have experimented with VR, most make the mistake of underestimating its potential by seeing it only as an attention-getting gimmick,” said Ben-Itzhak.

“At Socialbakers, we know VR presents a huge opportunity for marketers as it can engage and excite audiences, build brand awareness, and drive product discovery and purchase,” he added. “Imagine giving customers the opportunity to browse products through virtual clothing racks and virtual showrooms and then giving them a lifelike experience with the product before leading them to a purchase. While it may be 5-10 years before we see it used at scale, VR technologies promise to be a powerful weapon in the retail marketers’ arsenal. Expect to see more experiments in 2020,” said Ben-Itzhak.

4. Social Commerce Prepares for Lift Off in 2020

According to Socialbakers data, shopping-related content — including shopping experiences leveraging VR — is rapidly proliferating on social media. Platforms are responding by adding more e-commerce features.

Instagram already launched Instagram Shopping for selected brands, giving businesses an immersive storefront for people to discover and explore products as well as a link for purchases. Facebook’s family of applications — WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Facebook Groups — already offers tools for customer care and community management so that all marketing funnel activity — from product discovery to post-purchase customer care and evangelism — can happen on social media. Facebook is even launching its own cryptocurrency, Libra. “The year 2020 could be the year that social commerce takes off as more and more customers make purchases directly from social media platforms instead of heading to a shopping site’s app or to an online store after discovering a product on social media,” said Ben-Itzhak.

5. Battle for Ad Spend: Facebook vs Instagram

Who will win the battle for ad spend in 2020, the behemoth Facebook or current darling Instagram? (Answer: Facebook, as the company owns both platforms!)

Socialbakers recently analyzed data to determine where ad spend is going and what to expect in the New Year. “Our data showed that while marketers have been increasing their spend on Instagram, more than 60% of all total ad spend is still allocated to the Facebook News Feed,” said Ben-Itzhak. “The Instagram feed comes in a distant second at 20%,followed by Stories at 10% and the rest of the top 5 – Facebook suggested video, and Facebook instream video – combine for about 10%. All in all, brands are spending only about one-third of their total budgets on Instagram, which is the most engaging platform. This raises the question — are brands really getting the most engagement out of their investment?” said Ben-Itzhak.

Socialbakers’ believes there is a lot of potential value in Facebook suggested video, which has the second-highest click through rate (CTR) at nearly 0.8%, but only a few percentage points of relative ad spend.

“The imperative for marketers is to focus on optimizing advertising content and personalizing their ad experiences. Settling for blanket strategies across channels is not going to bring in the desired results,” said Ben-Itzhak.

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