Hello, 2020! There’s a lot of buzz around this year being a big deal for the digital landscape and the way people get and give their information. Several of the updates we saw in 2019 were put in place to gear up for the digital evolution that’s to come this decade. We took a closer look at our social media crystal ball to make a few predictions about the social media trends we can expect to see in 2020.
Fake News Nuisance
Facebook has taken a beating in recent years for their lack of transparency when it comes to data and content. This issue has been particularly present around political news and stands in the spotlight during election years. Since 2020 hosts the next presidential election, Facebook has received even more pressure to deal with their “fake news” burden. We predict that 2020 will bring more pressure for Facebook to regulate organic (unpaid) content that qualifies as propaganda although the platform has taken a few strides in the right direction through privacy restrictions and some transparency measures for ads and paid content. The real debate for Facebook will be the line between “fake news” and First Amendment rights.
Regaining Trust
Twitter is classified as a news app, and the platform has tried to stay true to that identity even though most people say they get their news from Facebook. Along the way, Twitter has had to deal with similar “fake news” issues as Facebook, but in late 2019 and leading into 2020, the platform has taken steps to stop misinformation. Political ads have recently been banned and regulations around who can engage with a tweet have been put into place. We predict these changes will allow Twitter to become a dominant site for news after gaining more trust from users, especially if Facebook fails to regulate their content.
Influencers 2.0
In 2019, Instagram announced their test to do away with “like” counts on posts. Although this was quite a shock to the Instagram community, influencers have embraced the change and are optimistic about what it brings for 2020. The “like” metric is a key performance indicator (KPI) for influencers and the average user alike, but this elimination opens the door for other KPIs. We predict that the value of an account will come from more transparent metrics, such as comments, share and saves where the engagement is performed by the right audience instead of a potential bot or tap-happy scroller. As the influencer market grows, we also see an increase in e-commerce. It will be interesting to see how the platform will continue to evolve and adapt to this expanding trend.
Socially Networking
Usually last to the party, LinkedIn has started expanding their engagement capabilities with the ability to react to a post, add hashtags and extending video capabilities. This year will bring LinkedIn a bit more up to speed with the other social media platforms by rolling out another phase of LinkedIn Live to more users. This streaming component will provide users the ability to watch live events, presentations and interviews on both mobile and desktop. We predict this change will cause an uptick in virtual conferences, meeting attendance and webinars through a user’s LinkedIn professional community.
Only time will tell if we have 20-20 vision for what’s to come this year from our favorite social media platforms. Whether it’s security measures, increasing e-commerce or more real-time content, we’ll be ready to roll with the punches and incorporate the new, exciting capabilities into our digital strategies.
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