Where It’s Going and How to Keep Up with It

Trends to Watch in 2019

The year is young — now is a fine time for businesses to start doing the right things, to take charge of their social media strategy by evaluating trends and revisiting and refining their plans. Positive changes made now will position the business for better outcomes all year long.

Gone are the days when companies can treat social media as an afterthought or a supplemental marketing channel. Today, social media platforms are where a business has an opportunity to consistently demonstrate its value and reinforce its voice. They are the go-to places where customers ask questions, offer accolades and air complaints. No business can ignore the significance of its social media presence, because it influences how people perceive its brand.

I’ve always been cautious about making social media predictions because the ideal social strategy is unique for every business. However, there are some online marketing trends worth businesses considering as they evaluate what tactics will grow their business.

1. The growing importance of personal branding to business branding. Especially for small businesses, putting a real, human face to a business name helps build loyalty. A brand that’s more relatable and has the human element naturally garners more trust — and trust is essential for building relationships.

One way to humanize a brand is to promote the personal brand of the business owner or a high-level leader. This tactic has become a staple for many organizations, as demonstrated through guest blogging, podcast and webinar appearances, and other publicity opportunities. Through allowing people to get to know the character and expertise of company leadership, a business can strengthen its brand reputation.

Businesses that embrace this in 2019 will have a distinct advantage over companies that hide behind their logo.

2. Long-form content for making an SEO impact. While word count is not the only thing that can impact how prominently an article will appear on the search engine results page, SEO experts say long-form content will be able to provide an edge. Although Google doesn’t penalize blog posts if they fail to reach a certain word count threshold, it stands to reason that a high-quality article with 1,600 words will likely outrank a highquality article with 500 words. It’s for that reason we’re seeing more publishers requiring guest authors to submit articles with a minimum of 1,000 or more words.

We’ll see more company blogs embracing long-form content and incorporating it into their content strategies. Therefore, businesses that have found they aren’t getting SEO traction with short posts may want to “go long” and add longer articles rich with information and insight that will attract readers and give Google a reason to rank them more favorably.

3. Acceleration of personalized marketing. With more companies digging into their data and using it to create customized marketing campaigns that target individuals’ interests at different points in the buyer’s journey, the pressure is on. Customers have come to expect brands to tailor special offers and discounts to their wants and needs. To accommodate that expectation, more businesses will need to consider targeted advertising and retargeting campaigns on social media channels. I anticipate that social platforms will continue to refine their targeting offerings as the demand for individualized content grows.

4. Video’s prominence as the preferred form of content. In a survey by Wyzowl “The State of Video Marketing 2018,” 97 percent of marketers said video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service and 76 percent said it has helped increase sales. Additionally, live streaming video will continue its emergence as a powerful way to engage people on social media. In fact, according to statistics compiled by Go-Globe by 2020, 82 percent of internet traffic is expected to be live video.

Video’s prominence is tied closely to the first trend, personal branding’s influence on the business brand. Video allows a company to put a face to the business. It enables prospects and customers to get to know who leads and works in a business. Video gives businesses an opportunity to show not only what they do but also “who” they are.

Also, social media algorithms might give video posts better organic reach than other types of posts.

5. “Pay to play” — the path to more exposure. In 2012, brands could expect, on average, approximately 16 percent of their fans would see their updates, according to an article on Hubspot. Fast forward to today, and that reach has plummeted even more.

With the diminishing organic reach of business content, most companies will need to invest in sponsored posts, boosted posts and social media ads if they want to stay top of mind. Fortunately, social media advertising doesn’t have to break the bank; a small amount of money can go a long way, and this trend should continue well into 2019.

CHANGE: AN EVER-CONSTANT TREND.

The one trend business can always count on resurfacing year after year is they must — to some degree — adjust their social media approach to gain broader awareness and increase engagement with customers.

The thing about trends is, following them doesn’t guarantee success. While businesses are wise to pay attention to social media trends, they should — before jumping on the bandwagon — carefully evaluate if incorporating them in the marketing strategy will be consistent with their brand and practical for their business.

How-tos for Social Media — Dos and Don’ts for 2019

Achieving goals of any sort involves doing more of the right — and less of the wrong — things. Marketing and social media goals are no exception. How can you better ensure your social media efforts will help you accomplish your brand’s objectives in this new year?

DOS

Think first. Then post. Remember that what you post on your personal social media accounts can affect how people view your company. Think carefully about how posts that issue commentary on hot-button topics like religion, politics or gender issues might impact your relationships with customers, vendors and others in the business community.

Let them hear your voice. On your blog and social media channels, let your readers see your personality shine through. Many people follow bloggers because they like what the writers are saying and how they’re saying it. Share your unique insight and strike a conversational tone that engages readers.

Be real. Show your audience that you have real people behind your logo; it will make it easier for them to relate to your brand. Some ways to do that are to introduce members of your team, show videos with “behind the scenes” glimpses of your staff doing what they do best, and take photos of your team at special events and activities. Also, consider promoting the personal brand of your business owner or a high-level manager to put a face to your business name. Many organizations are doing that, and it’s an effective way to facilitate loyalty and trust.

Set realistic expectations. Realize that social media alone can’t grow sales. Yes, it can help immensely by building your brand reputation, generating awareness and increasing visibility of your business. However, many other areas of your company impact customer acquisition and revenue growth. Examples include the performance of your website, the quality of your products and services, your sales team’s skills and your customer service. You must pay attention to your business as a whole for social media to succeed.

Write for your readers. Focus your content on what will help your audience and write it in a way that they will understand. Simplifying your content doesn’t mean you have to dumb it down, but avoid overly complicated wording and sentence structure.

Put personalization into practice. Customers expect that brands will tailor deals and discounts to their unique interests and needs. Consider embracing the potential of targeted advertising and retargeting campaigns on social media to cater to the demand for individualized content and offers.

DON’TS

Engage with haters, trolls and other negative influences online. Battling them is — and always will be — a lost cause. If you do, you’ll waste time, energy and creativity that you could be using to build your brand and serve your customers.

Try to be everywhere and do everything. Not every social media platform will deliver results for your business. And by trying to maintain too many channels, you’ll become overwhelmed and dilute your effectiveness on those that matter most. Stay active only on the accounts that give you the best return on your time and effort.

Post without proofreading. If you publish posts with careless grammar and misspellings, it will reflect poorly on your brand. Before making posts live, review what you wrote and fix mistakes. Review the content again after you publish it because sometimes sneaky errors can slip by despite initial proofreading efforts.

Ignore your followers’ questions, comments and messages. Although this seems like a logical no-no, it happens often. Ignoring your audience is the fast track to causing hard feelings, missing opportunities and damaging your brand. Keep tabs on activity on your social media accounts and respond promptly to your followers.

Use AI as a substitute for human interaction. Marketing automation saves time, but never use it as a replacement for person-to-person communication on social media. Your followers expect to develop a relationship with your brand, which can only be done if you’re genuinely, humanly engaged with them.

Dwell too much on your competition. Watching your competition is essential, but more critical to your success is developing your business and delivering excellent service to your customers. Leverage and nurture your brand’s unique strengths and capabilities rather than trying to be a carbon copy of another company.