Social media is changing every day. New features and trends seem to always be on the rise leaving digital marketers to constantly adapt to ensure content follows best practices and is aligned with current trends.

This year in particular has spurred various changes and new trends within the marketing and digital communication industries. While some of these can be attributed to the Coronavirus pandemic, others are simply the result of implementing new tools and moving toward a more value-based, human-focused approach when creating content.

Keep reading to learn about three social media trends that have gained traction in 2020.

1. Use of Social Media Monitoring

Social media monitoring or social listening is the act of watching your audience’s engagement and post content on your various channels. This gives you insight into what they are interested in, what they are responding to, and ultimately, what you should post about more.

Remember, social media is rooted in relationships, which means listening and engaging is required by both parties. By monitoring your channels and compiling and analyzing findings, you can access helpful insights into your audiences’ interests, preferences, and sentiments toward your brand or business. You can also collect information about products, services, people, issues, trends, and more.

There are various tools such as Hootsuite Insights, Brand24, Cyfe, BrandMentions, Falcon.io, Sprout Social, and several others (including us!) that can help you manage and track your social media listening. While they range in price and offerings, there are some cost-effective options that could make a good fit for you.

When you have a better understanding of your audience, you can more adequately create and share content/messaging that will resonate with them (and create the action you want – leads, sales, etc.).

2. Focus on Value

Through the years, social media channels have been used largely by businesses and organizations to showcase products and services as a way to generate sales.

Lately, there’s been a more noticeable shift from this self-promotional content type to a more value focused strategy. Now more than ever, individuals have turned toward online resources like social media to get information and access resources – not to be sold.

An example, Samantha Scott, APR, our firm president likes to use is this. If you met with a member of your audience biweekly or even monthly for coffee but only talked about your business, its offerings, current sales, etc., how do you think the other party would respond? They’d probably stop getting together with you! That’s not a dialogue or a relationship. Yet, that’s exactly how many businesses treat their interactions on social media and how they produce their content. Avoid this approach.

As a business owner, you likely have expertise on certain topics, which puts you in a position to help others by providing insights, tips, etc. For instance, perhaps your company helps people with their finances. Therefore, you might share tips with your audience for saving money during an economically challenging time.

Whatever it is, try to focus more heavily on content that can be seen as valuable by your audience. In doing so, you can help establish strong relationships with your followers so that they look to you as their trusted, go-to source for information.

3. Integrate Human Interest

By design, social media is very human-centered. People connect with people. They want sincerity, context, compassion, and community, especially right now amid the ongoing pandemic. 

The shift toward integrating more human interest stories in content is evident. Companies are increasingly sharing posts focused on their employees and customers that showcase positive and even heartwarming vibes.

Consider shaping your current strategy to include more human interest content over dry product and service descriptions. Humans have always responded better to other people and organizations that show they’re human too.

Social media is likely an integral tool within your overall marketing and digital communication strategy. Therefore, it’s important to stay up to date on changes and trends happening online, across all platforms. This way you can ensure that your content creation approach is strategic and geared for optimal performance and engagement.

If you’re interested in improving your social media content or if you need help managing your business’ social media and other digital marketing, contact us.