We spend on average two hours a day on social networks, most of them on mobile phones. No wonder that “mobile first” ad optimization is an alpha and omega for marketers. Every year, Facebook proves that it is number one in the area of social networking and constantly comes up with more possibilities and uses. There will be another year full of expected trends and news, so let’s look at them.
For several years, Facebook has repeated that the popularity of videos is steadily growing and, according to experts, in 2020 we can expect a lot of news related to videos, TV and Facebook Watch. Both Facebook and Instagram adapt their formats to this, for example live videos and enhanced possibilities of interactive stickers in Stories. In general, authentic content is attractive, as evidenced by the fact that the live video had a median average of interactions of more than 2x higher than the second post type – images.
According to Socialbakers, Facebook strives to make the customer’s entire shopping journey on Facebook smooth and simple – from the first contact with a product to post-purchase customer service, ideally everything kept within its family of applications. And this is closely related to a large part of the predicted news for 2020.
Facebook has been working on connecting these platforms since last year, and in 2020, made it one of the top priorities. For now, Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct are linked up in Facebook Pages Manager inbox and Facebook Watch is linked to IGTV. If it manages to finish this year, we can look forward to sending messages across these platforms. For Facebook, this means an integration of technologies and a better overview of the security and privacy of users’ conversations.
Some users in the USA already have access to paying or sending money directly via Facebook, and this year the news could reach even our country. The main advantage is the payment of goods directly via Facebook or sending money between friends. You can also pay to non-profit organizations or buy concert tickets. Adding your preferred payment method and payments history is a matter of course. Facebook Pay will be available not only on Facebook, but also on Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger, depending on the individual settings of each user. Find more information on Facebook Pay.
More purchases made directly from social networks is one of the predicted forecasts for 2020. The purchasing process should be much smoother – you do not have to wait for the eshop to load, add the goods to the cart and pay with the chosen payment method. Moreover, after the introduction of Facebook Pay, it will be even easier. According to Socialbakers, the volume of posts related to shopping issues is growing rapidly, so this year we expect more innovations in this area.
For now, paying via Facebook Pay is possible in the US and only for those merchants who use Facebook checkout. It is certainly very convenient for the user when the product can be paid and on its way to the customer just in a few seconds from the first contact with it.
Online shopping is also related to the need to improve individual parts of the purchasing process, for example the one in which the customer tries things on. Last year, some brands selling cosmetics and sunglasses were able to try this feature on Instagram, and this year Mark Zuckerberg plans to bring augmented reality (AR) to other segments as well as the ads across other platforms.
Virtual reality (VR), in contrast to augmented reality, transforms the real world into a 3D world. Facebook is aware of its strong potential and therefore devotes a great deal of effort and investment to developing its own products, such as Oculus, Facebook 360, React 360, Quill or Portal. VR can be used both for fun and communication with friends and for learning, exploring new places or worlds. In the coming year, we can certainly expect more news and improvements in the area of virtual and augmented reality. Read more about augmented and virtual reality at https://tech.fb.com/ar-vr/.
Online customer service and chatbots are almost inherently connected. Their algorithms are constantly improving, they can answer customers’ basic queries or answer multiple users at the same time. Properly configured chatbot can save time and costs for entrepreneurs’ customer support. Facebook is not idle here and is preparing other tools and solutions that will help to improve chatbots and customer service even more.
This was a part of the expected news for the coming year. Last year, most predictions were fulfilled, so we will be excited to see what innovations Facebook will bring to a successful end this year.
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