January 31, 2020 - by fusionmedia Blog

Last week, Fusion’s social team rounded up some of the key trends and developments they expect to see in 2020. This week we continue with some other social media movements that are expected to play a key part in any brand social media strategies this year.

Interactivity

93% of marketers agree that interactive content effectively engages consumers (versus 70% for static content). – WooRank

Want to get your audience to engage and interact? Involve them in the creative.

Polls, quizzes, question stickers, live videos – anything that asks the audience a question, and prompts them to actively engage, is always going to provide value for both sides. And now with the option to include interaction tools on ads, brands are utilising these methods to serve bespoke creative to their audiences.

Bandersnatch, the interactive Netflix film, where the viewer controlled the narrative, has been the inspiration for some big brand social creative.

Samsung used this model of interactivity to launch its latest Galaxy phone. They created a series of interactive, immersive, and interconnected Stories, taking the audience on a Bandersnatch-style adventure to carry the Galaxy Note 10+ 5G to its destination. But only moments into the task, someone snatches it away.

This creative style, consisting of a series of decisions using 20 individual Instagram accounts and 50 Stories in total, enabled users to see the phone’s special features; and all of it was shot on the new Galaxy.

Pay To Play

We already know this, but with changing algorithms and platform updates, it’s essential to use paid social to compliment organic activity.

With Ads Manager platforms being easily accessible, easy to use, and with the option to utilise small budgets, it’s easy to see how paid social has become the third largest advertising channel worldwide.

Social media ad spend reached $84 billion worldwide in 2019 – finally overtaking print advertising spend (Zenith Media).

Organic content isn’t dead, but paid needs to be factored into social strategies to strengthen the overall proposition and message in today’s digital ecosystem.

Merging TikTok and Stories

It’s the (kind of) new social kid in town. The one that was the most popular of 2019, but the platform that many of us are still a little unsure how to use and where it’s value lies in the overall mix for brands.

It’s hard to ignore TikTok; 43% of all downloads of the app happened in 2019 and it surpassed 1.5 billion global downloads, with over 500 million active monthly users heading to the app regularly. 41% of all users aged between 16-24 years old, thanks to its entertaining, short form video content formats, creativity and innovation.

Instagram has realised how much TikTok is capitalising on the Millennial and Gen Z markets, bringing out a quick succession of new content creation formats within Stories, as we’ve already mentioned. And what’s really interesting to see is how content creators and everyday users alike, are using TikTok’s video editor for creating Instagram Stories content; the editor is streamlined and makes it easy to transform quick and basic 15-second clips into something engaging and dynamic.

So, what’s next for TikTok? It’s recently launched a dedicated team to aid publishers in monetising content on the platform, and to also explore branded content opportunities.

Who to watch if you’re new to TikTok, as a brand or a general viewer?
– Liverpool FC for their behind the scenes footage, training ground moments, fun first-team player challenges and goal celebrations.
– NBA for comedy, memes, more comedy and motivation
– Washington Post for a TikTOk style take on news

If you’re looking to tap into the 16-24 year old demographic, and the next generation of consumers generally, TikTok could be worth exploring as part of your content mix to ensure you’re active where this audience is engaging the most.