Social media marketing seems to just be crossing away from the infancy stage into true adulthood. The guessing aspect of what targeting, bidding, and creative works best have vanished and social media marketing has been locked down to precise methodology. However, even with social media marketing methodology become more precise, digital marketers still have to keep up with the rapid changes to social media platforms. The rapid pace of the Internet is undoubtedly responsible for countless new social media trends coming to life in 2015.
Here are the top 5 social media trends in 2015:
1. Facebook became a massive video platform.
2015 was a huge year for Facebook when it comes to video. Just how huge did video become for Facebook though? Here’s how: 50% of daily active Facebook users are now watching at least one video per day on the network and in the first quarter of 2015 there were a staggering 4 billion views (up from 1 billion views in the last quarter of 2014!). This trend means that if a company that creates videos is not posting their videos to Facebook, they are missing out on being able to take advantage of a massive video platform and not reaching as many potential consumers as possible.
2. Messaging apps keep getting more popular.
Messaging apps became the cornerstone of our communication in 2015, especially for the younger demographic. Apps like Snapchat, Whatsapp, Line, and others are becoming peoples lifelines to their friends and family members. Messaging apps are a great opportunity for marketers, which is why we’re seeing company after company making accounts and engaging with consumers on apps like Snapchat. If you haven’t tried using Snapchat for your brand in 2015, we suggest giving it a go in 2016.
3. Pinterest is getting more popular with men.
Men started using Pinterest a lot more in 2015. Since 2014, Pinterest has seen a 96% increase in mens fashion pins and a 118% increase in car and motorcycle pins. Pinterest is becoming more than just about women’s fashion, baking, and home design. Marketers should consider growing their presence(s) on Pinterest with content targeted at men. Pinterest is a great place to drive traffic back to a website and help your target audience discover your brand(s).
4. Social networks are starting to feel like search engines.
Google is still the King of Search, but social networks are becoming bigger players on the search engine front. Consumers are now looking at social networks like Yelp, YouTube, and Facebook more than ever for product or company reviews which means it’s becoming more important for marketers to consider how their target audience is going to be influenced by what they find about a company on social media.
5. Instagram became huge.
Instagram surpassed 300 million active users making it a bigger social media platform than Twitter. On top of that, Instagram now allows brands to advertise on it which makes it a great community for marketers to leverage to grow their brands. Instagram is becoming arguably more important than Twitter for marketers with Forrester reporting that Instagram posts generate 120 times more engagement than Twitter. Next year, we can expect Instagram advertising to expand significantly and if you aren’t advertising on Instagram you’re missing out on a boost to your social media advertising efforts.