7 New Social Media Trends Companies Should Follow to Engage Customers
Social Media Trends can help any company to grow by 10X if used correctly and timely. And the wonders of social media marketing are no surprise to anyone. After all, people spend a good part of their day on social media, browsing feeds and posts.
Given the importance of social media today, brands have flocked to social forums to connect with their target audience.
They send targeted ads, run sponsored posts, and captivate audiences through intriguing social media posts. As competition is spiking on social forums, brands need to stand out from the crowd.
For that, you have to create a brilliant social media marketing strategy. Instead of running conventional ads to gain more followers, think of something out of the box. Perhaps, you can integrate virtual reality that allows users to try your products.
Similarly, engage with audiences through live sessions to build trust. Most importantly, you have to stay on top of the latest social media trends to fuel your strategy.
If you aren’t aware of the latest evolutions in the social world, let us help you. Here we are unfolding 7 new social media trends companies should follow to engage customers.
1. Conduct Live Sessions
Nowadays, people want quick responses to their queries. Instead of sending messages and waiting for answers, they prefer to have real-time conversations with brands.
After all, communication is the key. To keep up with changing demand, consider conducting live sessions on Facebook or Instagram. You can inform people beforehand about when you would be coming live so that everyone can attend.
You can showcase your product offerings in those live sessions, address customer concerns, and answer queries right on the spot.
Most social media marketers believe live sessions to be the future of media since it offers convenience and captivates users. In addition, live sessions encourage people to take action, leading to impulse buying behavior and boosting revenue.
2. Embrace Virtual Reality
Due to the lockdowns and the need for social distancing, people are finding opportunities to interact with brands virtually.
Surprisingly, virtual reality (VR) is one of the trends that can provide a real-time experience to people. For instance, if you sell clothes or accessories, allow people to try out the products from the comfort of their homes.
Lately, the renowned cosmetic brand Sephora has come up with this feature, allowing people to try different makeup products.
In the coming years, Facebook would be leveraging the Oculus VR platform to beta-test the virtual world. Before every brand jumps on the bandwagon, try integrating it into your social media campaigns.
It would offer a unique experience to digital users, improving conversion prospects and profitability.
3. Hop onto Social Commerce
The social media industry is putting every effort into improving the user experience. As a result, we would be seeing more features and tools that make it easy for people to shop online. Recently, Instagram has developed an option for shoppable posts.
It allows brands to add product tags, enabling smooth checkout without leaving the platform. Following that, Facebook has also launched shops so that people can buy without accessing the website.
It might not look like a big thing, but it’s the perfect tool for marketers to expand revenue streams. Social commerce shortens the customer journey, reducing the number of abandoned transactions.
So, without any second thoughts, add the ‘shop now’ button on your social media posts.
4. Post Stories
According to Sprout Social, more than 500 million people react to Instagram stories every day. Hence, they are likely to become a dominant content format in the coming years. However, brands have to take a more organized approach towards stories.
Spamming the social media stories with posts on your feed won’t bring any business. Instead, the customers will skip stories altogether. Therefore, you have to create new and unique content for these stories.
For Instagram, post boomerangs or videos since they tend to outperform average photos. Similarly, try to make the stories interactive. Perhaps, you can add a poll, question, or rating emoji. Once people start responding to your posts, it would improve overall visibility.
5. Keep in Touch with Social Media Communities
Although social media communities aren’t new, they have gained a lot of traction now. These are social groups created by brands to provide a networking platform for their customers.
People discuss products, ask for reviews and recommendations from other group members. Alongside bringing existing and prospective customers together, these groups engage them in a meaningful way.
Moreover, brands can utilize their social media communities to launch new products. They can reveal a sneak peek of products on these forums and see how people react to them. You would gain valuable consumer insights, allowing you to develop products and services that align with audiences’ tastes.
6. Personalize Ads
For social media campaigns, personalization is a pretty new trend. You have to start customizing your social media feed for as many target segments as you prefer.
You can begin by setting demographics, age, location, target market, interests, and gender to find prospective clients. Likewise, you can leverage personalization trends for the delivery of social media ads. The AI-enabled models let brands show suitable ads to the right people at the right time.
After all, personalization has reached a level where social media forums understand the types of products people prefer. Hence, make the most of these personalized campaigns and improve the conversion rates.
7. Launch Purpose-Driven Campaigns
Today, people have become super conscious about sustainability and conserving resources. They actively participate in causes to make this world a better place and help people in need. As individuals want to help others more than ever, they also expect brands to pitch into this cause.
So, how about you launch purpose-driven social media campaigns? It doesn’t have to be a colossal initiative; even small acts such as a plantation drive or plastic reduction can put a good word.
Besides this, you can also take inspiration from leading companies like Unilever. To help tackle the pandemic, they distributed soaps, sanitizers, and food to support vulnerable families.
Such initiatives leave a lasting impression on audiences, enhancing your brand image. However, you should always know when to back off if the issue is sensitive.
Final Thoughts
In today’s fast-paced world, new trends will be dominating the social media landscape. Instead of sending messages, people will interact through live sessions and videos. Similarly, they would be receiving personalized ads based on their search history to encourage more purchases.
If you want to capitalize on these revenue-generating opportunities, start integrating these trends in your social media marketing campaigns.
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