The popularity of social media isn’t fading anytime soon. But the way businesses are leveraging social media is changing. You want to keep your social media marketing efforts current to drive more traffic to your website and convert more visitors into customers.
Neil Patel has 17 charts to show you where social media is heading and how to best prepare for the dynamic world of social media marketing. To save you some time, the most important stats are summarized below to help you make the most of your social efforts in 2019.The Top 7 Social Media Trends
1) Facebook Leads the Way
Facebook is the most popular platform leveraged by the businesses surveyed and is also number one for first touch sales. First touch sales are the traffic source where people first found you; i.e. they are scrolling through Facebook and click a link that directs them to your site. However, this doesn’t mean they are a customer as soon as they land on your page. Make the most of your social media strategy by providing valuable content that will convert Facebook leads into customers.
2) The Free Ride of Sharing Content is Over
Average social media shares per blog post were on the rise from 2009 to 2015, but now are on a steady decline. However, this doesn’t mean you should ignore platforms like Facebook in terms of your blog distribution, because Facebook gets an estimated 19.2 billion visitors a month.
Keep in mind that major platforms are clamping down on the organic reach your posts see. In 2009 traffic was almost 100% organic compared to 25% today in 2019. One of the new social media trends is paying for ads to get the reach you once saw for free. Your content creation strategy could include experimenting with the ad products on Facebook and other platforms that you use in order to reach more of your ideal customers.
3) Grow Your Organic Social Media Traffic with Video
Out of all the content types to be uploaded on social platforms, companies spend the highest percent of their time posting images, yet live videos yield the highest engagement. When your followers are engaged, there’s a higher chance that your content will be seen.
Highly intriguing live video is a great element to add to your inbound marketing strategy. Inbound is all about sharing valuable information that solves problems for your target audience. Use live videos on social media to ensure your content is seen.
4) Bots Are the Best Bet to Boost Engagement
Chatbots, also known as messenger bots, are far surpassing videos and status updates in terms of engagement. A chatbot is software that provides customer service help, usually by collecting data and answering questions. Chatbots are a much more user-friendly experience than FAQ pages.
Social media chatbots are a widget that directly responds to inquiries from your audience and nurtures them through the sales funnel, directing traffic to your website. Once on your site and ready to fill out your contact submission forms, the lead has trust in what you offer. You can leverage chatbot software using HubSpot to convert more visitors into customers.
5) More Languages Means More Traffic
Think globally and act globally by publishing your posts in more than just English. In 2009, over 75% of social media traffic came from countries with English as the main language; today it’s under 50%. Leverage this globalization trend in social media in your inbound marketing strategy with persona development.
Personas are a fictional representation of a specific part of your target market. It includes their goals, needs, hobbies, and challenges. Don’t forget to add their native language. For example, you can have one that is a buyer from Russia or another who is a manufacturing manager in China - each will require a different approach. When you develop a persona, consider crafting your content strategy to ensure your message reaches your global customers on social media.
6) Sales from Social Media
On average, a social media visitor or someone who stops by your website, becomes a customer after 6-8 visits, according to Salesforce. It will take some effort to get people to keep coming back to your social media accounts, so start playing the long game.
Social media marketing is a crucial part of any successful inbound marketing strategy. Engaging with customers on different platforms is how you start to build a relationship. All your interactions on a particular platform leave a trail of communication for others to see. Transparency builds trust, which helps convert more visitors to customers, and ultimately grows your bottom line.
7) Get Window Shoppers to Buy
Social media visitors, or simply people who land on your social media accounts, are best converted into customers through landing pages. Over 50% of businesses surveyed say this is true. Second to landing pages was email at just under 40%.
To put this data to work for you, acquire an effective tool like HubSpot. HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing software, including email campaign execution, marketing automation, lead generation, analytics, content calendars, and SEO suggestions. HubSpot will keep you converting social media visitors into satisfied repeat customers by optimizing where social media directs them to next.
Capitalize on Social Media Trends Today
There is a lot to contemplate about future social media trends, but it’s worth taking the time to understand so you can achieve the engagement levels, and ultimately the sales numbers, your company needs.
References:
https://neilpatel.com/blog/social-media-trends/
