ACH
9 Social MediaTrends
to Watch in 2020
Arik C. Hanson
ACH Communications
Jan. 14, 2020

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ABOUT ARIK
• 20+ years experience;
solo since 2009;
@arikhanson
• Blogger, podcaster,
e-newsletter maker,
UST professor

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What trended in 2019
• Instagram = brand’s new home base
• Stories!
• Social shifts from one-to-many to one-to-one
• Social media advertising -- more saturated than ever!
• Huge privacy concerns
• TikTok emerged

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What about 2020?

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#1: Brands will have to better
prepare for the Internet Flash Mob

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How can you prepare?
• Have messaging ready to go to address anticipated
negative responses to your campaign
• Prep at least one spokesperson
• Don’t release your campaign right before the
holidays (or a long weekend)

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#2: More brands will “challenge”
followers on TikTok (but then
what?)

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Then what?
• TikTok doesn’t lend well to the “feed” environment
• It’s harder to develop really good TikTok content
consistently (especially for brands!)
• As more brands adopt/experiment with TikTok it will
become tougher to ”break through”

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#3: Community management makes
a comeback

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Action items
• Take back community management!
• Respond to EVERY comment—they are precious!
• Show some personality (but align with brand values)
• Think about how to repurpose your best comments
into other content

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#4: The beginning of the end for the
newsfeed

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Why?

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Why?

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Why?

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Instead:

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Instead:

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Instead:

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#5: Brands will stop measuring
“engagement”

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Why?
#1: They’re not doing it now anyway!

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Case in point:

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This is what brand
“engagement”
looks like in 2020

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This doesn’t seem to line up…

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Why?
#2: Engagement metrics are actually GOING AWAY!

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What should you do?
• Re-examine your social media metrics? Should
engagements still be in the mix?
• If you do continue to measure engagements, could
you develop a rank/order system to give some
engagements (shares/comments) more weight than
others?

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#6: Less is (WAY) more when it comes to
content marketing

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Stats:
• Aug. 2019: 50 tweets
• Avg. engagements per post: 9
• That includes one post that had 98 engagements on
its own
• Total number of followers: 19,400
• Engagement rate: 0.0004

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Is it worth it?

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On the flip side…
Kohler posted just
19 times in ALL of 2019

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Action steps
• Less is (usually) more when it comes to social
content
• Post and AMPLIFY
• Quality > Quantity

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#7: Internal influencers > external
influencers

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Trust in external influencers is
starting to wane

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It’s easy to see why…
Robots!
Bait-and-switch

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Meanwhile… internal influencers

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vs. brand posts

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Sleep Number = 14,154 followers
vs.
Shelly Ibach = 4,074 followers
Angela Gearhart = 3,302 followers

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Advice?
• Identify your top internal influencers and work with
them to be creative content partners
• You don’t have to create a formal Employee
Advocacy program—a few simple process steps can
go a long way!
• Don’t put too many eggs in the external influencer
basket. Yes, it’s still a hot segment, but we saw a
few red flags in 2019.

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#8: Companies will start more
podcasts that compliment traditional
tactics

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Podcast numbers are UP
• 51% of Americans have listened to a podcast
• 32% of Americans have listened to a podcast
monthly (up from just 15% in 2014)
• Nearly FOUR TIMES more people listen to podcasts
every week than watched the Game of Thrones final
season premiere.
• Source: Edison Research

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Consider
• Building podcast off existing editorial content
• Feature article topics = a podcast interview episode!
• Podcasting gives your content more depth

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#9: Employer brands go mainstream
on social

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1999 Job Seeker

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The 2019 Job Seeker

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WHY an Employer Brand on social?

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67% of U.S. employees are disengaged at work (Gallup)

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The quit rate (the
rate at which
employees
voluntarily leave
their jobs) is 2.3%.
Highest it's been in
15 years! (Gallup)

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51% say
they're
actively
looking for a
new job or
are open to
one (Gallup)

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• 79% of job seekers say they are likely to use social
media in their job search (Glassdoor)
• 73% of millennials found their last position through a
social media site (The Aberdeen Group)
• 67% of social job seekers use Facebook to search
for jobs (Recruitics)

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STORYTELLING—I CAN SEE MYSELF
WORKING THERE!

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FOCUS ON PHOTOGRAPHY—
NOT JUST HEAD SHOTS

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#TEAMSLEEPNUMBER

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ENGAGE EXISTING EMPLOYEES

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9 Social Media Trends
• #1: Brands will have to better prepare for the Internet
Flash Mob
• #2: More brands will “challenge” customers on TikTok (but
then what?)
• #3: Community management makes a comeback
• #4: The beginning of the end for the newsfeed
• #5: Brands will stop measuring engagement
• #6: Less is (WAY) more when it comes to content
marketing
• #7: Internal influencer > External influencers
• #8: Companies will start more podcasts that compliment
other comms vehicles
• #9: Employer brands go mainstream on social

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arik@arikhanson.com
Blog: arikhanson.com
Podcast: TheTalkingPointsPodcast.com
E-news: http://www.arikhanson.com/subscribe/