What is Changing in Social Media Content in 2020?

The new year is nearly upon us, and it seems like content will be getting an overhaul in 2020. We’ve already seen the beginning of these emerging trends as smartphone penetration expected to reach nearly 45% by 2021, more people will have access to the latest digital trends taking over, such as video consumption and voice to text.

So, for all of those looking for tips for writers in 2020, we’ve compiled a list of the changes most likely to happen to social media content in the coming year.

Video Will Overtake Other Forms of Media

Despite Bing’s best efforts, the second place position for web searches is actually YouTube. Going hand-in-hand with this data, over 80% of global internet consumption is coming from videos. What’s even more important to content creators, is the fact that the videos are fun and engaging, while being easily digestible.

Another huge perk is the fact that every platform is designed to make videos shareable.

As mobile devices make up nearly 50% of internet usage and the majority of these devices have cameras on them, creating content for public viewing has never been so accessible. This also makes it easier to produce genuine content, because, while it’s nice to have a high-end production, the evolution of these mobile devices is covering a lot of ground for their shortcomings so there doesn’t need to be a lot of investment in the creation.

[image via: https://www.drumbeatmarketing.net/]

So it’s easy to see that social media content in 2020 is going to be considerably video heavy.

AR Will Start Popping Up

Augmented reality (AR) is a relatively young technology being picked up by companies to help with sales conversions and digital marketing. AR aims to bring a new visual dimension to a brand’s accessibility.

As brand engagement continues to move over to digital mediums, AR is opening a new channel for these companies to interact with their user base, helping to guide them along the marketing funnel.

Content will begin shifting into even smaller bites, as they have to be easily consumed through the screen of a phone unless of course, Google Glass resurfaces.

This will be most noticeable when entering a store’s physical location. When scanning a product’s QR code, you’ll most likely be introduced to comparable items, other products that were purchased together, or any other tidbit of content related to the item.

Tighter Security of Personal Data

There’s always been an understood exchange between social media users and the platforms in terms of personal data. While it did take some for surprise that when you give your personal information willing to company, they would end up using it in some form.

While it’s true that they lured us in slowly by tempting us with quizzes to see which TV show ‘Friends’ character we were, we gave the information freely all the same.

This tactic is par for the course when it comes to these social media platforms.

However, we still believed that these companies would uphold ethical standards, and protect our information from ne’er-do-wells.

Well, after congressional hearings and exposed data breaches, it seems that these social media platforms will start becoming stricter in terms of their data management.

The social media leader, Facebook, is going to impact content, as they roll out the platform’s new tool, Off-Facebook Activity. This tool provides the user with the ability to choose if third-party data collectors can access their profiles. So if a user wants, they can now finally hide their search history and store purchases from their profile. The keyword is ‘hide’ because the information is still connected to your profile, others just won’t be able to access it.

The Rise of AI

No longer relegated to sci-fi theory, we’re starting to see the budding industry of artificial intelligence (AI) being adopted by companies.

Being in the field of exponential technology, a technology that either double every year in capability and performance or halves in cost, AI is going to steadily grow until it eventually runs equivalent to a regular human brain.

Even in its current state, social media platforms have already been injecting AI into their algorithms and Chatbots.

The AI-driven algorithms rank and disperse content, compiles information, and profile users.

Content writers are going to have to keep up with the ever-changing algorithms, as the more data is being filtered through social media the more that AI is going to sort, use, and adapt to it.

One of the main changes you’ll see in content is what type of data is being derived from AI-powered Chatbots. Currently, you pretty much now when you’re texting to a robot, however, every year we get closer to a bot that can pass the Turing test, the test that determines how easily an AI can pass as a human.

More info on our Iris Writing International infographic below: