Current Trends In Digital Marketing

The following discusses current digital marketing trends in relation to my role as Social Media Manager. I examine how I applied industry context to my role, and how I could have explored such trends more thoroughly.

The application of social media is considered a vital aspect of a successful digital marketing strategy. Social media allows organisations to interact at no cost on a global scale, engage quickly in real-time as well as target audiences efficiently with user-specific features such as hashtags and geotagging. Indeed, there are 800 million active users on Instagram (Benson, 2018), meaning that social media is a powerful tool to increase and maintain engagement with a brand.

To better understand my role, I researched current trends in digital marketing. My findings are outlined below.

Live Content

Live content is a feature of social media that allows users to report or share content in real time. It’s “the fastest growing segment of internet video traffic” (Fallah, 2018), with one-third of users watching stories each day (González, 2018). This marketing feature is effective as it offers “real-time user engagement” (Fallah, 2018) that is free and relatively quick to produce.

As stated in my critical reflection, live content is a feature I could have better utilised in my role as Social Media Manager. I found it difficult to create content that was regular, unique and engaging for Instagram Stories. Nonetheless, research into current marketing trends has highlighted this as a feature that could have improved engagement with our audience. It’s an aspect of digital marketing I will certainly consider for future social media management roles.

Video Marketing

According to research, incorporating video into a digital marketing strategy improves engagement with a brand (Dave, 2019). This covers everything from live story content to promotional video material. The live streaming feature is also growing in popularity on Instagram, with 82% of consumers preferring a live video to a social post (Rinaldi, 2019).

In reflection, milk could have made greater use of audio-visual technology to fit current digital marketing trends. On social media, this feature was neglected in favour of visual content. I lack the production skills to produce good quality audio-visual material. Learning such skills would have been time-consuming and unrealistic for the short running of the module. If I were to approach this feature again, I could have incorporated an audio-visual marketing strategy through Instagram Stories – sharing live, behind-the-scenes videos.

Influencer Marketing

The rise of the social media influencer has become a significant trend in digital marketing. Influencers endorse a product or service, sharing content with their own cohort of followers. This, in turn, encourages further interaction with a brand. An interview with an Instagram Influencer and business mentor, Fab Giovanetti, can be viewed here. This trend encourages engagement as an organisation appears important for being promoted by a social star with a significant number of followers (Tasner, 2018).

A potential social media takeover – when social accounts manage another account for a set period of time to “increase brand exposure” (Chen, 2018) – with Bath Spa University was proposed. However, this never came to fruition as a result of poor management. In reflection, connecting with other accounts of a similar genre could have improved awareness of milk by engaging with a wider audience. Connecting with local influencers could have also achieved this goal. It’s a digital marketing strategy that should have been given more consideration by the marketing team.

Bibliography

Benson, Z. (2018) 10 Reasons to Use Instagram for Your Business. Available at: https://www.business.com/articles/10-reasons-to-use-instagram-for-business/ (Accessed: 14 February 2019).

Chen, J. (2018) How to Run a Social Media Takeover From Start to Finish. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-takeovers/ (Accessed: 3 May 2019).

Dave, N. (2019) 11 Digital Marketing Trends You Can No Longer Ignore in 2019. Available at: https://www.singlegrain.com/digital-marketing/11-digital-marketing-trends-you-can-no-longer-ignore-in-2018/ (Accessed: 3 May 2019).

Fallah, G. (2018) 10 Digital Marketing Trends for 2019 you Should Know. Available at: https://www.digitaldoughnut.com/articles/2018/december/10-digital-marketing-trends-for-2019 (Accessed: 3 May 2019).

González, P. (2018) The Important Role Of Instagram Stories In Your Marketing Strategy. Available at: https://instagramers.com/news/the-important-role-of-instagram-stories-in-your-marketing-strategy/ (Accessed: 16 April 2019).

Rinaldi, J. (2019) Where is Video Marketing Going in 2019 and Beyond? Available at: https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/video-marketing-in-2019-infographic (Accessed: 3 May 2019).

Tasner, M. (2018) Five Digital Marketing Trends To Watch In 2019. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/12/05/five-digital-marketing-trends-to-watch-in-2019/#499e80e75468 (Accessed: 3 May 2019).