What Happened in Marketing This Year + What It Means for 2020

Hey there #BossFam! 👋🏻

We’ve been MIA for a while, but we’re here now!

Seeing as how we’re coming around to that time of year again, we thought it might be time to reflect on the year and everything that happened in marketing.

We won’t keep you waiting any longer. Here are the 10 of the biggest updates and changes in the marketing world this year:

1. Instagram Removed Likes

• Why? Instagram says it’s so users will focus less on the number of likes and more on the quality of the content.
• Our Thoughts: As fellow content creators, we’re huge fans of this update! Quality of your content is ALWAYS more important.
• What It Means for 2020: Your followers will no longer see the like counts when viewing your post, but you will. Instead, they’ll see a few people who liked it followed by “and others”. Not much else will change, to be honest- only more high-quality content circulating the web. And who’s going to complain about that?

2. The Rise of the Chatbots

• Why? Chatbots are nothing new. But if there’s anything we learned in 2019, it’s that chatbots are in. By 2020 (next year!) it’s thought that 4 out of 5 businesses will use AI chatbot technology.
• Our Thoughts: Chatbots are convenient, helpful, and overall pretty awesome. But let’s be honest- when you have a problem that needs to be fixed, the last thing you want to do is negotiate with a chatbot. You want a real person to help you fix the issue! Human to human contact is still absolutely necessary and you should always have someone on call that’s ready to help your customers with their needs.
• What It Means for 2020: We have a chatbot on our site right now (try it out!) and we would definitely recommend utilizing them wherever possible. For some industries, like banks, chatbots are an integral part of the online customer service experience. Why pay an employee to answer simple questions about account balances when a bot can do it for you? That being said, we cannot stress this enough: be there for your people! Don’t leave them out in the cold with a bot!

3. Privacy…

• Why? Here’s the lowdown: it’s the end of 2019 and users have been sharing their information with big businesses and internet giants for a while now. They just didn’t know how much they are actually sharing. Facebook recently came under fire from the public and the government for a privacy breach of its user’s data. You probably already know a bit about this controversy, so we’ll keep it short: privacy is more important than ever to your users.
• Our Thoughts: Not much to say here. Have good morals. Be a responsible businessperson.
• What It Means for 2020: Governments across the world are putting forward new regulations left and right to protect users. We’re still trying to figure out how to navigate this new digital society, so it’s understandable that issues like this will arise. Hopefully, it’s not too long before we can figure it out for good.

4. More Power To the Creators!

• Why? Facebook and Instagram (who are both owned by Facebook Inc.) rolled out new content creator tools earlier this year. On the one side, we have Facebook’s Creator Studio, which has been out for quite some time now. This digital space provides content creators with a more in-depth overview of their post insights and strategy. To top it all off, Facebook also walks you through every single metric to help creators have a much better understanding of what the data can do for them. In the Creator Studio, you can also manage and post to your Instagram account without leaving the same page. A bonus feature of the Studio is the ability to schedule IGTV videos. On the other side, we have Instagram’s Creator Accounts. Users now have the option to switch their profile to “Creator”. This is rather significant because platforms are now starting to recognize Influencers and Business Owners as two totally separate categories. Upon switching to a Creators Account, users will see more detailed insights, better messaging, and more ways to help users find them.
• Our Thoughts: It’s about time! We’re all for this update, but we have one reservation about this change- not all external publishing platforms work with a Creator Account. Be sure to check that yours does before you make the switch!
• What It Means for 2020: Get ready to see more influencers! Maybe? Either way, both sides now get better analytics and content creation tools. Yay for us!

5. Disney + and Other Streaming Services

• Why? Netflix sailed off into the consumer network all the way back in 2007 and changed the way we watch TV and movies. But they’re not the only fish in the sea anymore. Not by any means! Disney + and the latest (dare we see greatest?) addition to the streaming service world. Quick side note- Disney + hoped for 8 million users by the end of this year but instead, they got 10 million in the first few days after release. It took HBO almost 3 years just to hit 5 million!
• Our Thoughts: Disney + is awesome. (Not sponsored.)
• What It Means for 2020: While we’re happy to have access to so many incredible shows and movies on so many different platforms, it’s starting to get a little overwhelming (and pricey). It’s hard to say what the next few years of streaming services will look like. Will we see bundles? Or mergers?

6. The Fight Against Fake News

• Why? This year alone, Twitter banned political advertising and Facebook revamped its News Tab. Why? It’s all in an effort to eliminate Fake News and other harmful political advertisements from circulating the web (and our brains).
• Our Thoughts: We see no major harm in this change, but it’ll be interesting to see what kind of impact it has on the next election.
• What It Means for 2020: If all goes well, you can expect to see much less fake news on most platforms. Unfortunately, there’s no feature that stops your great uncle from sharing his opinion on the matter, so we’ll just have to hold out a little longer on that one.

7. Instagram Ecommerce

• Why? You may have noticed a few changes to some of the retail accounts you follow. Specifically, a little purse icon on some pictures. This is just one of the many changes that Instagram made this year to give businesses a little more leverage with their social media. As of now, users can shop for and purchase products directly from Instagram. How cool!
• Our Thoughts: We’re not in retail, but we can tell you that this feature has been a lifesaver for both consumers and retailers.
• What It Means for 2020: Shopping just got that much easier. And for businesses, cutting out half of the user flow is going to have a huge positive impact on sales. Everyone’s happy!

8. Selling Followers is Illegal

• Why? In case you didn’t know, some people buy followers or likes to boost their influence on social media. Not anymore! This year, the FTC ruled that selling followers and likes is illegal!
• Our Thoughts: Can’t you tell we’re excited about this?! We’re not sure what’s worse: buying your influence or stepping barefoot on Legos for eternity.
• What It Means for 2020: The numbers you see on profiles and posts are now, for the most part, 100 percent accurate. This same case also ruled that fake reviews were illegal, so expect to see more truth all over the place next year. Thank goodness!

9. Algorithm Changes

• Why? We’ll keep this short and to the point. Facebook’s organic reach is next to nothing, the News Feed is changing and Stories are king. Clickbait and fake news are also out the window. On to Twitter: your feed is no longer chronological. Instead, it’s organized by relevance. Twitter is also removing bots, trolls, and a lot of political advertisements. For LinkedIn, virality will occur more frequently as your content reaches your second and third-degree connections. Instagram users cannot buy followers or likes anymore and like Twitter, your Instagram feed will also be sorted by relevance. Your Pinterest feed will also be sorted by relevance, among many other factors.
• Our Thoughts: There’s so much to know about Algorithm changes that we included a resource. Read through and get a good sense of what you need to do to beat the algorithm next year. These algorithms are always being updated, so be sure to stay up to date on them as much as possible.
• What It Means for 2020: You will need to tweak your social media strategy pretty regularly to keep up with social media algorithm changes. Maybe revamp your strategy once a quarter, or as soon as you see that a platform has updated its algorithm. You can stay up to date on these changes on websites like Social Media Today.

10. Let’s Not Forget When Everyone Got Old…

• Why? Uh… earlier this year an app called FaceApp was released. It uses VR technology- similar to those Snapchat and Instagram filters we all love, to edit a photo of your face and make you look like you aged quite a bit. Celebs and users all over the internet were posting pics of their face edited to look much older. It was a weird moment.
• Our Thoughts: Still not sure how we feel about it.
• What It Means for 2020: Not much. It was just a really weird viral moment that we couldn’t forget about.

That’s all folks!

• – Boss Creative