4 Monumental Social Media Trends for 2016!

It’s already the end of January and you’re panicking that you haven’t finalized your social media strategy ready for the year ahead right? Don’t fret; we’ve compiled 4 key updates that you should be considering for 2016.

With over a quarter of the population now using social media, it’s more important than ever to utilise this key marketing tool. But the Internet is a noisy place; and we wouldn’t want you wasting your efforts yelling at the wrong crowd. Hone in on your target audience, remember your brand’s tone of voice and read up on these key trends set to take pace this year.

Twitter Inventions

Once overlooked as an advertising platform, Twitter has made several attempts to lever its strategy in a different direction in order to keep up with its competitors. This year’s biggest update will be a character count expansion, dubbed ‘Beyond 40’ by Twitter insiders. Its current 140 digits are about to be dwarfed by a 10K limit, much similar to its already existent direct message feature. Keep an eye out for testing of this by the end of Q1.

Newly Twitter owned, Periscope, has finally begun to merge seamlessly with the social media giant. iOS users can now see real time Periscope videos live in their stream, without having to download the separate app. Android users, sit tight, this version is in construction. GoPro have just announced their exciting new collaboration with the video app, it allows sports enthusiasts to share their extreme footage, fast. This exciting development will build on the channels unique offering and surely keep their users highly engaged.

Moments made its first appearance in October 2015. It’s real time trending news feed features a sponsored ad, but at $1M a pop many brands have been isolated. The tab has recorded low levels of engagement so I think we can expect to see some creative updates to this aspiring element.

Video

Video has fast become the largest growing type of content shared across social media. A recent report by Cisco, states that by 2019 video will account for 80% of all global Internet traffic. Woah, that’s a stat not to be taken lightly. Facebook also claim that their native videos have peaked at 8 billion views per day.

Thriving Snapchat are hot on Facebook’s tail, averaging at 6 billion daily views. These astounding figures have trebled in the last six months alone. Video pioneers YouTube should not be left out of the mix. Although they no longer command the highest number of views, they do retain the record for the number of hours spent watching videos. With a subscription base of almost a third of all people on the Internet, this is an option worth considering for trusted, reliable results.

Messaging Apps

Did you know that four of the world’s six largest social platforms are messenger apps? This is a rapidly growing market so be sure to consider this avenue for your next marketing ventures. Facebook still commands the highest amount of traffic, followed by their own WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and then china based WeChat.

Although it’s not in the power player’s league just yet, Snapchat deserves a mention here. The rapid pace in which it’s grown heralds a new era for the younger based messaging app. It’s currently drawing in 100 million daily active users, and with it’s new advertising platform and separate ‘Discover’ and ‘Live’ stories, we expect to see big things in 2016.

Buy Buttons

This year Buy Buttons will be accelerated into the limelight as marketers realise their full potential and focus on turning those leads into conversions. Pinterest has finally joined social mammoths Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the one click revenue-churning world. By working with payment processors such as Apple Pay it has allowed the user to purchase an item without the need to leave the page. Interestingly, Pinterest is not however taking a cut of the Buyable Pin, instead it’s decided to create a revenue stream from selling promoted pins to retailers. For those of you in Ecommerce, this channel is well worth considering while this relatively cheap process is in operation. It’s doubtful it will stay this way for long.

We love keeping up to date with the latest social media trends and utilising them for our clients. See how we could excel your social media marketing efforts into the fore in 2016 by giving us a call on 01273 208913.