In the last quarter of 2016, we published an article on Yahoo that discussed in detail the social media trends that made the biggest impact that year. Fast forward to 2019, we’ll assess those trends again to find out if they are still of great importance in shaping the landscape of social media this year.
Here are the most famous social media trends in 2016 that are still highly relevant or widespread in 2019.
· Mobile
· Live Streaming
· Stories
· Gamification
With these trends still rampant these days, what have you done as an entrepreneur to use them to improve the visibility and marketability of your products and services? Let’s take a look at how these trends have progressed after three years.
4 Social Media Trends That Are Here to Stay for a Long, Long Time
When almost everyone is now hooked on social media, there’s no reason to ignore popular trends that can affect how your prospects or target audience use and consume information online. You can use these trends to study your target market, and boost your digital marketing strategies.
1. Mobile
Of all the trends from 2016, mobile is probably the top trend still these days. Mobile is everywhere. Three years ago, digital media time spent on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices was already at a staggering 68 percent.
In 2019, emarketer.com predicted that mobile will surpass TV as the medium attracting the most minutes in the US. In the first month of this year, it was reported that 3.26 billion people use social media on mobile devices. These figures show how mobile has become the ultimate choice of device among users all over the world.
Because of the shift of preference of most digital users (from desktop to mobile), just recently, Google has officially rolled out mobile-first indexing for websites worldwide. This recent algorithm update has a great impact on websites that don’t have mobile versions or those that don’t have a responsive web design.
Read: Google Mobile-First Indexing: What are the Important Things You Need to Know?
2. Live Streaming
Interest in live streaming apps first started gaining attention way back 2015 when Twitters’ Periscope gained popularity. In 2016, live streaming was tagged as the future of social media and marketers at that time expected this trend to gain more popularity in the coming years.
Fast forward to 2019, the prediction did come true. According to Livestream, 80% of consumers prefer to watch live videos from a brand than read a blog. From 2016 to 2018, the key phrase “Facebook Live Stream,” enjoyed a 330% increase in searches. Neil Patel also reported that 63% of people aged 18-34 watch live streaming content on a daily basis.
Another important report from Livestream.com states that 67% of audiences who watched a live stream purchased a ticket to a similar event the next time it occurred. And, Go-Globe predicted that live streaming will account for 82% of all internet traffic by 2020.
With these statistics, there’s no reason for you to not utilize Facebook live, YouTube live, or any other live streaming platforms where most of your target audience often hang out.
3. Stories
In 2016, Snapchat was the leading platform for Stories that disappear after 24 hours. They actually pioneered the publication of this type of content. But, fast forward to 2019, giant social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook stole the limelight.
According to Social Media Today’s report, SnapChat has now gone down to 4th place in popularity. Stories from Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp are now the most popular for mobile users. This means that if you are solely focusing on SnapChat in 2019, it might not be the best course of action for your digital efforts and years to come.
These days if you want to reach your target audience through Stories, Instagram and Facebook’s nearly a billion (combined) active daily Stories users can bring you ample opportunities.
4. Gamification
The rise of gamification has already been documented several years before 2016. Fast forward to 2019, gamification is still expected to grow. According to Mordor Intelligence, the global gamification market was valued at USD 5.5 billion in 2018, and it is estimated to witness a CAGR of 30.31% over the forecast period (2019-2024).
They explained that the exponential growth in the number of smartphones and mobile devices has directly created a vast base for the gamification market.
Here are more details about gamification from Mordor Intelligence that every business owner should know:
(1)The growing penetration of smartphones has vastly expanded the opportunities for gamification. Americans are known to check their phones 80 times a day, on an average. The shift of both consumers and employees from desktop to mobile phones/ internet devices offers a lucrative platform for banks to capture consumer interest, with a stronger chance of conversion/ usage.
(2) A study on the utilization of gamification in companies observed that it is usually done in the most generic of ways. They use point systems, leaderboards, and badges onto any process, without creating thoughtful experiences that balance competition and collaboration. This negligence of creating the meaning of this approach is anticipated to result in 80% of the efforts in companies that have employed them.
The first step to gamify your social media campaign is to think how your target users think. What makes them tick? What makes them do what you want them to do? Use reward triggers to encourage repeat users, create a sense of urgency, give them points every time they purchase your product or use your service, use leaderboards to encourage them to keep on using your product, and to reach the highest user status.
When you take a closer look at all these social media trends, you can tell that their continuous popularity is all because of one factor – mobile. This mobile trend has paved the way for many other trends, and these aren’t going away soon. With this knowledge, it’s clear there’s no other way to survive but to go mobile or die.
Want to level up your mobile marketing and don’t know where or how to get started? Contact the Mobile Marketing Experts at KISS PR. They have almost two decades of experience in helping entrepreneurs grow their business through cost-effective digital marketing strategies. Call them at 972-437-8942 for a free consultation.
