With the years passing by, expansion of social media is becoming inevitable. New and sophisticated technology is changing the way people access social media. New apps and software are user friendly and allow users to communicate with each other in a fun interactive way.

Marketing trends do not just change because of new tech or apps with exciting new features. Your marketing content, medium used to deliver it and response from users is also a huge factor behind the ever-changing trends on social media like Facebook and Instagram.

Marketers need to be on the lookout of preferred content and strategies so they can use it to plan their social media marketing line of attack. I have sorted out some of the trends for Facebook that are definitely going to be a hit during 2016, so try to incorporate them in your new strategy.

Facebook:

 1.   Mobile Friendly Content: 

Facebook mobile app has been downloaded over one billion  times, 745 million people use Facebook use it on their smart phones and tablets per month.  Research also shows that 38% of Facebook’s monthly average users (MAUs) are mobile only.  This means that over 500 million people access their Facebook profiles only be their cell phones.

 This is why Facebook has started to focus on making their mobile layout better. The goal is to build an interface where users can easily navigate between different pages in a limited space. The timelines and profiles have been made brighter and cleaner so that all information is available and nothing gets missed out or appears lost.

2.  Facebook Advertising: 

Facebook advertisements are becoming very powerful and effective, because of the customized options marketers have. Instead of focusing on advertising the whole brand, product targeted ads let you upload your whole product catalogue and create different campaigns for them individually.

The product ads reach only to targeted customers when you put their Facebook unique identification number and email address in the columns.

3.  Visuals and Facebook Videos: 

Visual content and live video streaming is exploding on Facebook. Everyone appears to be a scriptwriter or video producer these days and frankly, the truth is, everyone and anyone can be. All you need is a smartphone with good camera quality and boom. If you are trying to give it a more refined professional look, rent or buy a beginner DSLR, which is straightforward and super easy to use.

There was a time when editing used to be hard and tricky and companies needed professional videographers to create even a simple 30-second clip. Now you can edit videos through online editing tools, which are able to do all the tricky work for you.

4. E-Commerce through Buy Button: 

In one of its newly introduced features, Facebook added two new sections to business pages. One section enlists products while the other one has a list of services offered by the business.

Users can open and view these products and services to get a better understanding of business and whatever it sells. They can then buy the products / services they like and want directly through Facebook’s buy button, without getting into the hassle of doing the whole process all over again on website.

Mobile commerce is higher than desktop commerce. This means that business now have the opportunity to earn huge profits resulting in higher conversion rates, when people use Facebook on mobile and make buying decisions.

5.  Business via Messenger: 

Messenger has become an individual app used to communicate privately with friends, clients, influencers and customers. The instant messaging app is thriving and companies are using it to facilitate B2B and B2C dialogue exchange.

It would not be surprising if messenger becomes the new email marketing, where businesses not only communicate with individuals directly and personally, but it also presents a great opportunity to act as social media customer service.

A month ago, messenger announced that websites could utilize the app to support integrated live chat boxes.

Instagram:

1.  Fashion Blogging: 

Instagram has always been a hub to show case your fashion style and take fun selfies with friends. However, when it comes to building a brand, it is so much more than an app to upload selfies and caption it with hashtags.

Creating high quality content that is coherent with your brand is a huge challenge for fashion bloggers, whom earnings come from the number of likes and reposts received on insta posts.

You need to be consistent with the content without missing your timeline. If you are not posting at a right time when your maximum followers are online, your pictures and videos will get lost immediately and people would only be able to find you when they individually visit your profile.

2.  Alternative to Websites: 

One of the biggest pro for Instagram is that it serves as a complete website for any kind of business. You can put your bio and contact information so people how to approach you. In case you need to post text content, just convert it into .jpg or .jpeg, resize it according to Instagram’s requirement and post it away.

You can also post short tutorials or teasers that are fast-forwarded so in little people understand the whole thing.

3.  Instagram Advertising: 

A while ago, Instagram ads were highly curated and limited. Not everyone had the opportunity to invest in Instagram advertising, no matter how much they wanted to.

The advertising feature was opened to everyone at the end of 2015 and it created a little uproar in Instagram community, where users complained of having their feeds filled with unwanted spam-like advertised pictures.

4.  GIFs: 

One of the main reason behind .gif visuals is their spontaneous and interactive nature. Apple live images work the same way and this trend is surely going to boom in this year. You can loop lengthy videos into five seconds .gif that will not only give the whole experience but is also exciting to watch.

Marketers surely are going to incorporate them in their Instagram media strategy.

These were some of individual marketing trends for Facebook and Instagram that will be promoted and used throughout the year. Some mutual trends will be impacting the strategies for both platforms which are listed below.

Common Trends for both platforms:

1.  Influencer Marketing: 

We have talked repeatedly about how influencer marketing is a huge trend in social media right now. The impact of influencer marketing is not only high but it is direct and immediate.

Leveraging online influencers to promote your brand and reach global audience is the fastest way to kick start your business. People trust their favorite personality and credit the opinions and recommendations of social media influencers; therefore, anything coming out of their mouth becomes famous.

All you need to do is find an influencer that belongs to the same industry as you, and knows about the business you run. Work on building a long-term relationship with them and pay them instead of paying for unnecessary ads.

2.  Customized Content for Target Audience: 

Every brand’s social media strategy in 2016 is going to focus on curating highly customized content for their audience and customers. Many marketers believe that personalization is the future of marketing.

It is not difficult to create personalized content for audience, if you have enough information about them. People upload everything about themselves on online apps and social media profiles. Although privacy clauses of Google and social media sites are very strict, buy using right softwares you can still collect accurate data without compromising the privacy of users.

3.  Return on Investment (ROI) Focused Strategy: 

In 2016, Facebook and Instagram social media strategy will mainly focus on creating content that brings sale. You cannot grow your business with just reach and engagements, if it is not bringing any profits.

If your goal is to build awareness, you are probably fine with engagements… in fact more than fine. Nevertheless, at some point you need to start creating sales that bring revenue and that is where ROI content strategy comes in.

Digital and social media trends keep changing with time and tech. New technology means newer methods of advertising and reaching people, so you always need to be prepared and be flexible with your strategy.

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