2020 Will Be The Year Of The Voice Strategy
The majority of people searching for information on the web still trust search engines but the way people search for information online is changing.
Increasingly, people are using voice search on their smartphones, tablets or voice assistants (like the Amazon Echo or Google Home devices) to search for information on the internet.
According to comScore’s forecasting, 50 percent of searches will be performed through voice functions in 2020 and the majority will be done without even looking at a screen.
Just as marketers have optimized content for web 2.0 and mobile, they will have to start optimizing content for voice search as well. To quote NewsCred, “If you’re a marketer, “What’s the Alexa strategy?” will be a question you’ll be expected to answer.”
Mobile Responsive Websites Are A Must
I can hardly believe I am still singing this same tune! But just in case, the message hasn’t been 100% absorbed, let me say it again.
Without a mobile responsive site, not only are you losing out significantly in the organic search rankings, but Google has made it very clear that it will penalize sites that are not mobile responsive.
Google says 61 percent of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing with 40 percent visiting a competitor’s site instead.
If you haven’t implemented a mobile-first strategy yet, make it an urgent priority in the coming year.
Messenger Apps Will Continue To Evolve
Did you know that more users use social messaging than actually the social media itself — especially younger millennials?
There are now more people using the top four social messaging apps (WhatsApp, Messenger, WeChat, and Viber) than the top four social media apps (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn).
Facebook Messenger alone is on the phones of over 1.2 billion people, with Facebook saying that there are now more than 2 billion messages sent between businesses and people on Messenger each month.
As the use of social media messaging platforms grows, the potential for improving customer experience will also expand exponentially.
The combination of messaging platforms with chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI)will make it possible for companies to engage in more relevant, personalized and helpful customer conversations at scale.
Video Content Is Here To Stay
Video is long past the status of a hot new trend, but it still remains an important trend in social media marketing.
If a picture says a thousand words, a video tells a million.
Video marketing can help you tell your story in a more entertaining, educational and inspiring way so if it’s not already part of your strategy, get on board with video this coming year.
TikTok Continues Its Meteoric Rise
With more than 800 million monthly active users and a median age of 16–24, TikTok continues its incredible rise.
To quote Hootsuite’s social trends report for 2020: “Whether or not it lasts, TikTok’s popularity brings valuable insight into the future of social culture, content, and collaboration. Social marketers should keep an eye on TikTok while using these insights to adapt their strategies on established networks for the next generation on social.”
Stories Will Continue to Grow In Popularity
Nowhere is the concept of stories more evident than on Instagram where over 400 million people use Stories daily. Introduced as a sort of successor to Snapchat’s “self-destruct” style of content, stories are no longer seen as a novelty. At this point, they’re a staple of Instagram itself.
Similar to Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories — user-generated slideshows and video collections — are short (around 20-seconds) pieces of content created on your smartphone and available for up to 24 hours.