The Most Boring Article About Digital Marketing Trends You’ll Ever Read
Now that the pandemic is over (somewhat) and the dust is starting to settle, let’s look back on the digital trends that we previously mentioned in our articles and see how they are today. Are they still applicable, on trend, or are they now outdated? Let’s find out.
Firstly, let’s go back to what we had identified about the Digital trends of two years ago. Due to the lockdowns, social distancing and restricted movements, at that time there was a huge shift to online platforms. Because of the pandemic many companies have come in terms with the volatile business environment, and embraced various forms of digital transformations.
Live Streaming – The potential of online live streaming has been gaining popularity over time, and live video content is no longer a novelty. Because of lockdowns around the world, many people have the time to watch live streaming videos on various platforms. According to Statista.com around 482.5 billion hrs was spent on live streams in 2020 globally. There is a driving growth in live streaming and it’s a good tool to market your business. Today live streaming is booming and growing in the market, 63% of people between the ages of 18 and 34 regularly watch live streaming content (Source: Statista). Compared to on-demand content, people watch live video for 10 to 20 times longer (Source: Forrester).
Social Media Stories – When Instagram first put the story feature on the app many used it as a good marketing tool for their brand. Meta even added the feature to Facebook but now stories are still useful but a bit outdated on the digital marketing trend. With the popularity of Tiktok that grew a lot in the past 2 years, Meta made their own version for Instagram called Reels. Similar to the format of Tiktok, so many creators and business owners jump ship to use this tool for their brand and to reach out potential customers. Meta added this Reels feature into Facebook in 2021 and Instagram in 2020.
Influencer Marketing – Social media has been dominated by a huge number of influencers who are getting paid by ridiculous amounts to promote brands. And some get lucky to be viral and be famous. This trend is still going on today. 76% of brands are planning to raise their budgets for influencer marketing in 2022, and for good reason. Consumers of today use the internet to interact with brands, provide one another with product feedback, and influence one another’s purchases. Brands can participate in the entire shopping experience of consumers by engaging influencers to drive the conversation, from product research and discovery to checkout.
Technology Adoption – With augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) being adopted in social media. Facebook, also known as Meta, has started this direction for a long while now with Facebook Horizon. After their rebranding to Meta, they improved it and started to create their own metaverse in preparation for Web 3.0.
Social Commerce – The concept of Social Commerce is simple. It typically involves businesses selling their products or services on social media platforms rather than through a standalone eCommerce website. Social medias like Instagram where you can easily tag a price tag of a post of your product, and Facebook that has facebook marketplace as well as Facebook live selling feature. More than half of adults in the US are predicted to make a purchase on social media in 2022, when social commerce sales in the US are projected to total $45.74 billion.
Final Thoughts
It is a given that digital trends are constantly evolving, so you have to constantly be up to date on the trends. Trends tend to come and go but some will stay for a while and along for the long ride. The trends we listed above are what we predicted and discussed in previous articles, some are still trending and growing, and some evolved to be better. The pandemic really changed how we adapt things as we go deeper in the digital age.
So the moment of truth….
We mentioned influencer marketing, social media stories and social commerce trends in our 2020 article, and we’re glad to say all 3 trends mentioned have come to pass in varying degrees, not that anyone is keeping tabs. 😉