By Clara Ma
Abstract: It is not a surprising fact that social media marketing has served as a crucial tool for brand awareness. Digital advertising, whether through an influencer promoting a brand or through advertisements sandwiched between content, have become nearly ubiquitous across nearly all social platforms. This article delves into three recent trends in social media use that provide insight for present or upcoming marketing strategies for brands to leverage.
Less is More: The Rise of Nano-Influencers
One trend in the digital marketing landscape are brands’ growing reliance on advertising from “nano-influencers.” Nano-influencers are content-creators with between 1000 to 10,000 followers whose platform typically channels authenticity and personalized digital content. Nano-influencers are distinct from micro influencers, another category of content creators who are described as having 10,000 to 100,000 followers. From an advertising perspective, there are many advantages to working with smaller influencers. Firstly, nano-influencers charge far less than larger influencers, reducing marketing costs. Even though they have smaller reaches in audience, nano-influencers tend to produce content with larger impact to the individual viewer because they tend to cultivate a close-knit community on their platform compared to influencers with a larger following base.
Nano-influencers’ smaller following base encourages a personal digital platform, allowing followers to feel part of a genuine community, boosting followers’ engagement with the account. A study by the Influencer Marketing Hub shows that on Instagram, nano-influencers generated an average engagement rate of between 1.70% and 4.84%, whereas larger influencers with between 100,000 to 1 million followers averaged at 1.06%.
Not only are consumers more influenced by nano-influencers, but brands display a strong preference for working with smaller influencers over larger ones. In 2024, a study shows that 44% of brands say that they are most likely to work with nano-influencers, showing a 5% increase from 2023. Trailing behind, the preference for working with micro-influencers has decreased between 2023-2024 from 30% to 25.7%. Thus, nano-influencer marketing has demonstrated success in attracting both consumers and sellers for their high engagement, brand of authenticity, and low price point.
TikTok as Search Engines
If you’re in the hunt for an atmospheric birthday restaurant in Philadelphia or affordable online shops, chances are you would search through social media apps over traditional search platforms like Google or Chrome.
Consumers have exhibited a growing reliance on social media search functions
and brands are reacting by shifting their digital advertisement to rank higher in search results on traditional search engines like Google and Bing. However, it’s likely that brands will shift their focus in search strategies to social media search, placing less emphasis on traditional search engines.
A study performed by Google found that roughly 40% of Gen-Z use TikTok and Instagram over Google for search functions. Consumers are rapidly becoming more reliant on social media platforms, namely TikTok and Instagram, for search. For example, if looking for places to eat for dinner in Philadelphia that fit a certain criteria, it’s nearly equally likely for Gen-Z’ers to use TikTok over Google for search. The appeal for social media search is that consumers can watch short form, personalized content that consolidates the creator’s content and the general public’s reactions through comments and likes. As such, searching via social media is seen as a more transparent method of obtaining recommendations because of its seamless blend between creator and consumer opinions.
Brands can take advantage of this trend by integrating more keywords that makes it more likely for their content to gain traction when consumers perform search functions. Additionally, in an article by Forbes, they note that while shortness was critical to attract consumers before, the increasing reliance on social media search will result in brands to employ more keywords and descriptive data, so as to rank higher on search results.
In-App Purchasing, TikTok Shop, and More
Social media platforms have also driven sales and brand awareness by allowing users to make purchases directly through the apps. One prime example of this is TikTok Shop, a feature launched on the Tiktok app in August 2023 allowing creators to advertise and sell their products in the same app. In effect, consumers blend browsing and purchasing together without the interruption of transferring to another storefront site, causing a natural loss in potential customers in the process.
One important component about this trend is that consumers are becoming increasingly attuned to marketing strategies due to the increased marketing presence on social media platforms. Therefore, it is critical that brands produce content that is both eye-catching, but also relevant to their audiences. It is insufficient, for example, for a brand to post the same advertising content on both Instagram and Facebook, as they are two separate platforms with entirely different audiences. The integration of in-app purchasing opportunities in social media has also made many consumers more aware of marketing ploys, and thus, brands should focus on crafting marketing content that is specific to the platform’s demographics.
Overall, social commerce is a rapidly growing dimension of brand marketing. If brands take advantage of these trends in social media use, they have the potential of reaching far larger audiences and boosting their sales.
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