As marketers, you are always looking out for new and better ways of doing things to grow your business. Learn how you can benefit from your customers’ changing behaviors. Social media marketing trends today are changing as customer’s tastes and preferences change. You need to keep up to date with these changes so that you don’t miss out on better opportunities to grow your profits.
According to VC firm SignalFire, 50 million people around the world consider themselves to be independent creators. Social media today is growing fast. It’s not just the number of users, but also the amount of time they spend on social channels that has increased. Today’s average daily usage is 142 minutes per day, with users sending an average of 4 hours on social media each day.
Major Social Media Trends, Best Practices and Tips
Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks in the world, with averagely one billion users per month. Millennials are the highest percentage of users. They also hold a large share of buying power in the market, with 91% of millennials preferring to shop online. These insights, together with the big size of Instagram’s audience, mean the channel will remain popular for a longer time to come.
New Home Favorites and following feed Views
Instagram has confirmed three new feed options which will soon be available in the app: Home, Favorites, and a chronological Following feed. According to Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, there will be some new changes for Instagram. There will be three different feeds in Home. These will be;
- Home- Which will be the same, with content ranking from your most favorite as always.
- Favorites- For people that you don’t want to miss content from your friends, family, favorite celebrity.
- Following- This will be a feed for just the accounts that you follow.
These new feed options, and other previous changes on the platform, show that the most important thing for creators now is their relationship with followers. Factors that affect what users see on the platform are affected by the popularity indicators of the post, how frequently the user has been interacting with your account, how many posts the user has liked and their engagement with other posts in your account.
Increased focus on Instagram video content
Since the short-video format debuted on Instagram in 2021,many creators and brands have noted a higher engagement. Their follower counts and engagement rates have increased. One Instagram creator says she gained 2,800+ followers by posting a Reel every day for a month.
According to the Verge, Mosseri says “the company is looking to lean into entertainment and videos after seeing its success from Tiktok and YouTube”.
Live videos are so much work. Anyone who has done it can agree, especially when it comes to managing the comments. Instagram launched Live Moderator, where creators can assign a moderator and give them power to manage comments on their behalf.
Videos on Instagram will also have an auto-generated captions tool, where you have the option to turn them off or on. This is meant to empower people with hearing disabilities.
Another thing is, Reels was launched globally on Facebook. Creators and brands can now share their Instagram Reels as recommended content on Facebook. This will increase visibility and reach.
Also, users can now send some love by liking your stories without sending a DM. As users like your stories they will be ranked as a favorite for them. Be creative and make videos that people will enjoy.
Stricter Consequences for unethical Marketing
The first Instagram breach was an Instagram post by Anna Heinrich. This was the first social media influencer post found to be in breach of advertising transparency rules by the Ad Standards. She reportedly shared a paid ad without making it clear that was receiving money by doing so. This was after stricter new guidelines were introduced in February.
Heinrich, who has 381,000 followers, has since updated the post to include a “paid partnership” label.
The second influencer found in breach of code of ethics was a Melbourne influencer Rozalia Russian, the former ballerina dubbed the woman who “reigns supreme as Australia’s ultimate style crush”. This was after she posted a photo of a hand holding bottle of Tom Ford Soleil Blanc. The complaint was that the post was advertising yet there was not a clear acknowledgement of the fact. However, she was later found not in breach of code of ethics when it was ruled out by The Ad Standards Community Panel that “simply tagging the brand did not sufficiently indicate the post was sponsored, and the complaint was upheld”.
You need to be aware of the underlying legal and ethical implications that help guide our practices, communication efforts and online behavior. With strategic efforts you can use social media to improve your business and gain more profits. However, if you misuse it and ignore the guidelines, you can end up in serious legal consequences on you and your business. Develop a social media policy, empower your team as well to avoid losing your time and money.
Remember, According to Legalzoom, social media law is a developing area of law. It comprises both criminal and civil aspects. There are legal issues related to user-generated content and for the online sites that host or transmit such content. Therefore, as a business owner who is using social media to gain customers, be careful and educate yourself on all the legal issues involved.
Monetization via Subscribers
Earning through subscribers is not easy, with YouTube, you must have a least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year. Once you reach that, you can apply to YouTube’s Partner Program and monetize your channel through ads, subscriptions, and channel memberships.
Subscribers consume your content for free. You as the creator get paid through ads. Your subscribers can also consume your content through paid subscriptions and channel memberships. Content can be found for free and in plenty. Why would anyone want to pay to get the same content? Yet, people do.
Up to 65% of people in markets around the world are willing to pay for content they would otherwise get for free. A platform such as Patreon, a membership platform, where fans pay a few coins per month or per post that you release and you the creator gets paid every month. People actually pay and join these membership programs. Another example is Telegram, if you have many followers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or even YouTube, you can direct them to your private Telegram channel or group. You can use these private channels to sell ads, sell your product or services. You can even offer a paid subscription for premium content.
Users will go for paid subscription, even when they can find the same information elsewhere for free, for several reasons including
- Convenience – You get what you are looking for in one place.
- It Removes Any Guesswork – What you find is the actual answer to your questions. You will not need to look for answers elsewhere. You are confident in the information provided. Also, the creators will always provide thorough guidance for their members.
- Paid content always provides value for money.
- It has become the new normal. According to a survey, 90% of Gen Zers are willing to pay for content and other insights.
- People don’t value free content
- Paid content allows the to support their favorite influencers, brand or communities
- Also, who wants to watch ads?
Conclusion
Social media keeps evolving, as are the ways the user interacts with it. A while back we used social media to check on family and connect with old friends. Now it has morphed into a very big platform where it’s now used to also create and run a whole business. As an entrepreneur, it’s important to keep up to date with these changes so that you can adapt to new ways accordingly. Your business social presence is very important for its very existence.