Top 5 Social Media Updates for This Year and Beyond

The last decade has shown the power of social media, and it continues to thrive with users on the rise. The depth of its influence to alter perceptions and behaviors – whether at a personal, community, or global level – has been accounted for in many different narratives. In the Philippines, the usage of Facebook is a big chunk of internet users. To many Filipinos today, the internet is synonymous with Facebook.

Marketers are convinced that social media is an effective platform for customer connections. So, for this year and beyond, what could be the changes and trends we can expect to see?

1. Privacy & verified information is of importance

The past few years was filled with concerns regarding data privacy and the spread of misinformation. To address this continuous challenge, social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have been proactive in letting their users decide how to use their data within their platform and eliminating accounts that share fake content. Expect more changes as platforms continue to find ways to protect data and user information.

2. New features to drive usage and engagement

As new competitors rise up, established platforms will find innovative ways of driving usage and engagement to keep their existing users in the platform. Facebook will introduce new features with the launch of features like Automatic Placements and Facebook Watch. While Instagram will see the inclusion of the Explore Feed which will help marketers do interest-based targeting.

3. Video is the most efficient content to consume

We will see a lot of video content as Facebook encourages more video production from its users as these drive viewership and engagement in platforms. Facebook has introduced different forms of monetization to video creators through ads like in-stream ads to adapt to this trend. TikTok is also a video-centric platform.

4. The rise of social selling with social commerce

Social selling has been present on Facebook for a while, but it was done through closed buy-and-sell groups. With Facebook Marketplace, it has formalized selling on the platform by making it a feature. Other social media platforms like Pinterest and TikTok also have their social commerce features already.

5. More niche private conversations with groups

Again on Facebook, there are a lot of private groups that are active. Users are moving conversations in interest-based closed groups because it provides exclusivity, intimacy, and privacy. What’s great about this is they can’t be targeted by ads. They are on Facebook, but conversations are happening in a more private setting. On another note, some social interactions are also moving to chats and messaging, and considering it’s private, it makes advertising to these users difficult.

Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Learn more about the latest updates on social media with CDM’s Social Media Marketer Track. In this curated set of classes, you will learn first-hand best practices and strategies from social media practitioners and experts, which you can immediately apply in your career or business.