Did you ever wonder what could possibly be the next era of digital marketing? Almost every year you view a new list of trends and you are asked to let go of the previous ones. In a year, a trend that brought a great revolution is changed and replaced. As a marketer, how does it feel when that happens? Is it taxing? Well, change is constant and forcing yourself to not keep up with the trends will only make you fall behind from the competition.
However, there is one medium of marketing that will never go out of trend or let alone be a fad – social media marketing. The justification to this statement is not a one-liner because it took multiple years for social media channels to earn the reputation they have today as a marketing medium. To elaborate it further, here is why social media marketing will never be treated as a seasonal trend.
Chatbots
Chatbots did not emerge across multiple online platforms as a trend. Initially, websites started to integrate intelligent chatbots and assistants to replace real-time customer support. Soon Facebook introduced an in-built chatbot for its pages.
Now brands do not have to hire page moderators or assign extra work to social media managers. Whenever a customer has a query, the chatbot will be dealing it with pre-defined answers to their queries. It will not consume time from both ends and the user will not be left waiting as well.
That is the power of artificial intelligence in building social media what it is today. AI will only gradually improve because these chatbots are even being used for marketing purposes, content promotion along with assisting with customer support.
Stories
Public and private user Stories were initially introduced by Snapchat. Over time, the feature earned great popularity and multiple renowned social media channels added the feature to their platforms.
Now you will hardly see a social media site that does not have the Stories option. Surprisingly enough, even YouTube has added a similar section. What was introduced as a personal content sharing feature is now an impetus that drives marketing campaigns. Since these short clips are engaging to watch, an approximate of 400 million users on Instagram and 191 million users on Snapchat reportedly use the feature.
The engaging and interactive nature of these short videos is now the center of attraction for many users, especially millennials. Today’s world is becoming fast-paced and people do not have the time to read heaps of content. So to keep your consumer base engaged, Stories are the new trend to quick and effective social media marketing campaigns.
Augmented reality
Augmented reality is no longer a technology elusive to us. It is in our smartphones as in the form of photo filters or geo-location tags. Smartphone behemoths like Apple and Google have introduced AR Emoji Animoji just for the sake of personalization. Even Facebook Messenger has the option to enable AR-generated filters during video calling.
As for its scope in marketing, brands such as Michael Kors have added the option to try on products in an AR environment before you make a purchase. That has brought a decline in in-person purchasing and has proven to save time, money and location restrictions that bound the customers from shopping at their ease.
Live Videos
Live streaming is not only limited to YouTube or Twitch. Social media platforms such as Facebook now have the option to live stream videos and soon other notable social channels started to do the same. A Facebook ads agency can help in customer acquisition and lead generation.
While marketing your products in a live video cannot be as effective as an advert but you can surely earn customer attention and keep them engaged. Showcasing your company’s culture, a new product launch or an interactive video where you answer customer queries allows the viewers to deem you as a credible brand.
You can choose to get to know your customers better using YouTube but since your audience will already be massively following you across your social channels, choose to resort to social media for streaming live content.
However, to fully leverage the potential of live streaming, ensure you are connected to high speed internet from a reliable internet service provider. Once that’s taken care of, you won’t face lag and connectivity fluctuations ever again.
Influencer Marketing
The trend of influencer marketing began to rise along with the growth of social media platforms. Now conventional modes of marketing are used less and gradually becoming outdated.
How is that correlated to influencer marketing? All it requires for a brand is to find an individual with thousands or millions of followers and build an association with them. This is somewhat related to affiliate marketing but done so on social media.
The brand gives their affiliated influencer discount coupons along with free products to test or market. The influencer then showcases the products to their social media followers. But influencers that already have stable fan-following become very selective in the sponsored or PR posts they accept.
This dilemma for brands led to the trend of micro-influencers. Admittedly, they do have a smaller number of fan-following but affiliating with them helps brand in the long run. Not because they are affordable to sponsor rather these influencers tend to focus on building a loyal fan base with their engaging posts. So, as a brand, collaborating with them will benefit you in the long run.
Conclusion
While the advent of social media was to serve as a socializing and collaboration medium, it ended up playing an integral role in turning into a powerful marketing platform. The success social media has brought in the marketing domain is massive. There is no way the traditional marketing types hold any competition against this innovatory change. It is only meant to grow and expand further and introduce new inclusions to the realm of social media marketing.
Salman is a prolific environmental writer, and has authored more than 500 articles in reputed journals, magazines and websites. He is proactively engaged in creating mass awareness on renewable energy, waste management, sustainability and conservation all over the world.
Salman can be reached on salman@cleantechloops.com
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