Social media is continuously evolving, changing, and transforming, which is why it’s essential to stay on top of social media marketing trends and updates so your company can remain competitive in its industry. The internet marketing company Tampa locals trust the most, MyCity Social, is helping marketers understand how falling behind in these trends could have a catastrophic impact on their business’ growth as well as their revenue. Social media marketing has the potential to launch a business and help it grow in endless ways. In fact, without this type of marketing, it is almost impossible to succeed in the 2019 market. Keep reading to find out more information about the updates that could help change the way you do business.
Social Media Updates and Advice From the Internet Marketing Company Tampa Businesses Trust
As a new year starts, there are new updates that happen with social media, and it doesn’t just stop there. Technology is continually advancing and changing, which means there are always social media updates that you need to stay on top of as a business owner because if you don’t, you will most definitely be left behind. People’s wants and needs are changing none stop, and this means that social media is making changes in order to keep up with them. Some things that influence these updates are the developers’ ideas, user requests, politics, and the rise of social awareness. Social media never sleeps, which is another one of the reasons it is continuously changing. As a marketer if you fail to stay on top of the social media development and changes you will without a doubt, be left behind. On the other hand, there are those times that there is no real significance to the changes that are made, so it is equally as important to filter out the changes and updates that mean something and ignore the ones that mean nothing. A social media marketing company can help you recognize the things that may affect your campaigns, organic reach, paid results, as well as your choice of social media networks.
Even though we’re not entirely done with 2019 there have been enough changes made that make it a necessity to evaluate some networks and figure out how these updates can have an impact on your business and marketing campaigns.
- Google+: The most crucial update concerning Google+ is that it no longer exists. As of April 2019, all profiles and pages that were a part of the network have been deleted permanently. The reason Google made the decision to get rid of this network is that it wasn’t being utilized as much as they thought it would and it was challenging and costly for them to maintain the network to meet the small percentage of users’ expectations. Most business owners couldn’t care less about this change since most of them didn’t use it, to begin with, but it is still vital that it is pointed out.
- Facebook: This social media platform has probably been one of the most controversial and scandalous ones, which means it has gone through a significant amount of changes. Some of the most prominent were the custom ads becoming transparent. Facebook decided to do this because they wanted the users to have more information about why they were being shown specific ads. Each ad now comes with a “why am I seeing this?” button that will explain the name of the business that shared the user’s information on Facebook as well as that business’ potential involvement. You also now have the ability to take a look at all active Ads in the Ad library on Facebook. This update will also allow you to see how your competitors are advertising through Facebook. Another change that has been made to this social media platform is that you can no longer target for certain ads. This was done in an effort to fight discrimination, which means companies can no longer target ads for a certain audiences. For example, if you are putting out a housing, employment, or credit ad, it is impossible to target it by age, race, or gender. Facebook stated that this was done after they spoke with and set up agreements with civil rights organizations in an effort to protect people from discrimination. Another change that was made was the News Feed algorithm was updated. You may have noticed that “close friends” is something that appears a lot more on your News Feed. Well, this was done to make Facebook seem like a closer-knit community where close friends are prioritized over others. Facebook uses the new algorithm to analyze what you have in common with an individual and evaluates how you interact with them to figure out whose posts you care about most. They also used this update to prioritize which business pages and groups you see on your News Feed. Videos are another thing that has been getting a lot of attention lately, and Facebook didn’t let this go unnoticed. So they have decided to update their video algorithm as well. Since May of 2019, there have been a number of factors that are changing the way videos are ranked. The first is loyalty and intent. This helps determine the videos that people are seeking out. Video viewing duration is another factor that is affecting video ranking. If a video captures someone’s attention for at least a minute, they are prioritized. The originality of a video is also playing a major part in how they are prioritized videos that are unoriginal or repurposed are being limited. Finally, videos that are three minutes or more are being favored over shorter videos. Facebook knows that small businesses need a little extra boost to succeed, so they have introduced new tools to help them gain recognition on the platform. Facebook understands how busy business owners are, and unfortunately, a lot of time social media campaigns end up getting a little less attention, so the network has introduced automated ads. This update allows you to create a marketing plan for your business simply by answering a few questions about your business and your goals. The tool will then create six different ads for you, make target audience suggestions, recommend budgets, and send you instant notifications about how your ad is performing. It’s no secret that people get annoyed when they have to visit more than one website to book appointments or services and Facebook knows this, which is why they created a new feature that allows customers to book services directly through Facebook. As a business owner, you are always able to send appointment reminders, update your service menu, show available, as well as manage existing appointments. You are also able to sync your Facebook appointments with your business’ calendars. Since videos have continued to grow in popularity. Facebook introduced a number of new video editing tools including automatic cropping, video trimming, image and text overlays, single image templates, new fonts, new stickers and templates for different seasons, and creating multiple videos. Although notifications don’t seem to be too significant, they do play a huge role in user experience, especially when marketing is concerned. Facebook has now allowed you the ability to clear and mute all notifications and has made it so you can choose if you want to see notification dots or not. You’ll even have the ability to see dots for some categories and not for others.
- Instagram: There hasn’t been many changes or updates made to Instagram lately, but there is one that can help businesses promote their brands. You can now turn a sponsored post from an influencer into an ad. All that needs to be included is a caption stating “Paid Partnership with [company name].” This allows you as a brand to target certain ads to different audiences. In order for this to be effective, you’ll need to coordinate with the right influencer who will be seen by your target demographic. There are other small updates and changes being made to Instagram as well, but none that are going to have a significant impact on businesses just yet.
- Twitter: This social media giant decided to release a new desktop design that features more options for customization. One of the biggest differences is the navigation bar is now on the left side of the screen instead of the top. The sidebar has bookmarks, lists, profile, and a new explore tab. Direct messaging has also been updated. You can now see conversations and sent messages in the same window, and there are a new variety of themes and colors to choose from. Another update that many users are pleased about is that Twitter has now limited the number of accounts a user can follow in one day. The reason the network decided to make this change was to help fight against spammers, so now a user can only follow 400 accounts in one day instead of the previous 1,000. Although some businesses weren’t too happy about this change, Twitter argued that the 400 limit shouldn’t affect your marketing at all, unless your only method is spamming.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn has now established an update known as “Lookalike audiences.” What this does is it takes your image of a customer persona and combines it with data it collects to find your target audience. It helps you find people that are similar to the ones that have already looked into your brand and who have shown an interest in what you are selling or providing. Another change this network has made is interest targeting. They now target users based on “a combination of your audience’s professional interests and topics” through a search engine. Not to mention, this is all done in a way that respects every user’s privacy. In an effort to stay competitive with other social networks, LinkedIn has now updated the way users can react to posts. This was done in an effort to increase the overall engagement of LinkedIn, and businesses could get genuine feedback on their posts.
- Pinterest: When it comes to social media networks Pinterest is definitely the most low key, but a lot of brands get a large number of customers from this platform, which is why Pinterest decided to make some updates that would help sellers expand their reach. One of the changes that was made is that visitors can now see a new section that will allow them to shop for more products from a specific brand. Users can also enjoy personalized shopping recommendations. Also, companies now have the ability to upload their entire catalog to Pinterest, so their products are shoppable through the site.
Contact the Internet Marketing Company Tampa Businesses Trust
MyCity Social has gained recognition throughout the Tampa area as providing social media marketing businesses can trust. We pride ourselves on having extensive knowledge in the internet marketing field, which has made our clients come to us again and again for tips and advice from our top landing page creator. We make it our top priority to help businesses reach their full marketing potential through unique and strategic tactics. Call or visit us today to find out how we can help you!
