Over the years social media has grown into an important business tool as more and more businesses have taken advantage of it to connect with their target market. Because of the role that social media now plays, some of its trends affect businesses in more ways than one.
While there are lots of different types of trends on social media, the five that are most noteworthy for businesses are:
- Live video
In the last year or so live video has taken social media by storm because of its potential to reach and engage viewers that is second to none. The impact of live videos is something businesses can’t afford to ignore, and it represents an opportunity for you to engage more of your followers while also growing your following at the same time.
- Chatbots
Due to the rise of AI and machine learning along with businesses recognizing the importance of responding promptly to social messages that they receive – chatbots have grown in popularity. Businesses tend to use chatbots for a wide range of reasons, including to gather information that can then be used to produce more targeted videos and other content. At the same time you could also use them to provide guidance, take orders, or distribute information.
- Mobile optimization
For some time now the majority of social media users have been checking their feeds on mobile devices and as such mobile optimization is an important trend for businesses. The benefits of choosing to optimize videos for mobile are clear cut, and videos with square or vertical aspect ratios have higher engagement levels.
It is worth noting that mobile optimization involves more than just the aspect ratio, and your aim should be to create videos that provide a good viewing experience for mobile users with smaller screen sizes.
- Bite-sized content
Overall viewers on social media heavily favor short videos that are ‘bite-sized’ and will give them quick and easy access to the information that they want. For businesses this trend can increase engagement, but at the same time condensing topics to short videos that are 15 to 60 seconds long can be a challenge and often requires creativity.
Although the 15 to 60 seconds range is recommended for social videos, the ‘optimum’ duration for your videos can vary depending on the platform, target market, and type of content. For example how-to guides that are published on YouTube and target users aged 30+ are often able to retain viewers even if they are 2 ½ minutes in duration.
- Focus on engagement
As you may have noticed a lot of the trends listed above involve engaging viewers – which is a trend in and of itself. Simply put businesses have realized that views or follower counts alone aren’t as important as being able to engage their target market on social media and encourage them to react.
Needless to say there are lots of other trends on social media, including an increased emphasis on AR and VR, 360-degree video, and temporary content. That being said for businesses the 5 trends listed above are the most noteworthy, as they are most likely to affect them and allow them to more effectively reach their target market.
At the end of the day the name of the game for social media right now is engagement, and regardless of whether you record desktop, create animation, livestream, or produce other types of content – it should be aimed at engaging viewers. The trends listed above should help with that goal, and provide you with ways in which you can start engaging viewers more effectively.
Founder Dinis Guarda
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