Engagement Will Take Centerstage in 2020
User growth isn’t what it used to be. As social media saturation takes over, the number of users coming onto each platform is going to look less and less impressive, at least for established platforms, moving forward. 2020 kicked off with eMarketer stating that for the first time ever Instagram US user growth has dropped down into the single digits. That trend isn’t an outlier. That decline’s going to continue moving forward.
Instagram has had meteoric growth, especially after it started copying Snapchat on a feature-for-feature basis, but the joyride is slowing down. Now, it will likely be joining the ranks of Snapchat and Twitter in posting more deliberate, modest user growth gains. This is to be expected. When you get so big, getting bigger gets harder and harder.
Reach + Engagement
That leads to changes moving forward. Platforms, Facebook-owned ones in particular, are going to shift from emphasizing their user bases for advertisers as that will become the expectation to emphasizing audience engagement. These platforms have the users they have, and, for the most part, that’s going to remain relatively stable. Where they can win over advertisers is by showcasing just how engaged their user bases are.
The Engagement Emphasis Playing Out
Snap Inc. wrapped up 2019 with the announcement that it will be launching Bitmoji TV, an animated piece of content living within Discover that will feature narratives starring users’ Bitmoji avatars and the avatars of their friends. This announcement shows that Snap wants to appeal to user egos and leverage its Bitmoji acquisition to a greater degree, all in an effort to spark greater user engagement. That engagement will be bolstered within Snapchat Discover, a section of the app that’s mostly been tabloid-style content. This could elevate that section with more narrative-driven content, build a new level of user engagement and further entice advertisers to consider reaching audiences there.
Without a doubt, 2019 was a huge year for Instagram and ecommerce. There’s no reason to think this trend won’t continue. Ecommence on Instagram grew 118.3% in 2019, with 15.8% of interactions on the platform being commerce-related. Instagram’s making a pitch to advertisers—don’t just reach people here, sell to them, too. Social selling has been part of the social business conversation for years. Instagram’s pitch is that it’s now here.
There are and will continue to be exceptions to this overall trend. For example, TikTok is at a different stage than other platforms and is working to ramp up its user base, while it’s ad products remain base options at best. Overall though, the platforms that are established are moving on from “How can we get more users?” to “How can we do more with the users we have?"