4 Social Media Trends to Look Out For in 2019

As we start the year, we have our eye on a few trends that we think will engage audiences and make a name for themselves throughout 2019. These trends are technologically advanced, solidifying their place at the top of trends at the turn of the decade.

Shoppable Posts

The popularity of Shoppable posts continued to expand with the increase in availability in Instagram stories, ads and in-feed posts. Along with global support and accessibility on mobile, the audience’s path to purchase has become further streamlined. Instagrammers are 60% more likely to buy a product that is available on a social network than any other platform. In addition, 78% of American consumers have discovered retail products to buy on Facebook which is why Facebook ads are a strategic part of our marketing strategy for our retail clients. As we gear up for 2019, we have already begun to discuss how we can leverage these new features to enhance the customer buying experience for our clients while adding our own innovative and creative GreenRoom twist.

Instagram Story Features

Over the past year, we saw Instagram’s software further propel Instagram stories’ popularity by allowing users to expand their social narrative through Story Ads, Story Re-shares and Story Polls. With a heavy focus on the value of video content on Instagram, a format that delivers 1,200% more shares than images and text combined, updated features to Instagram Stories were well received by the industry as a whole. These new features allowed businesses to foster better relationships with their audience and gather deeper insights on their desired target audience’s behaviors and interests. In addition, these new features allowed individual users the opportunity to express their creativity in an exciting and interactive new way.

User-Generated Content

People ages 21-38 champion authenticity above all other attributes on social, which has led to the rise of brand-supported crowd-sourced content. This is brand related content that is voluntarily produced by its customers. With an average of 60 million images uploaded to Instagram daily, UGC is among the trendiest and most scalable way for markets to showcase products, celebrate fans and drive revenue to their page. GoPro leverages UGC by sharing customer content to show just how you can put their cameras to good use- from skydiving and surfing to deep-sea fishing and car racing. This trend has become especially popular on Instagram because major brands are reposting user-generated content as part of their content strategy. This relationship builds brand credibility and urges customers to become brand advocates. 56% of consumers are more likely to buy a product after seeing a positive customer-generated post about it.

Dual Tone Creative

As 2018 ends we saw duo tone designs integrate into facets of many industry. Companies ranging from Hulu, to Beats by Dre have been leveraging the trend, combining two contrasting colors to convey a mood, message or story. As seen below the Hulu show Future Man uses a duo tone creative in their ads contrasting red and blue to divide the banner in half. This strategy was created to visualize the contrast to the show’s plot with past and present day. The goal of duo tone is to create a visual that demands attention using colorful contrasts. In a space where brands are constantly competing, this edgy style of creative is allowing brands to stand out, refresh current content and provide more diversity within their color scheme.

Keeping an eye on varying trends is a necessity because it important to know not only know what is trending creatively but the best way to leverage that trend on different social platforms. We specialize in tracking trends through social listening strategies in order to activate on a trend in real time. It remains critical that we’re always true to a brand’s ethos but would be remiss if we didn’t recognize the trends and leverage them where appropriate. It is important be vigilant and have a strong understanding of the merits of our clients and their overall goals that will generate success in the social space.