Lessons from 2019 social media to guide your brand’s digital content strategy in 2020

[Singapore edition]

2019 has been a minefield for brands on social media. 

Brand health index measurements turned into stock market charts. 

Celebrated by 8am, hated by 10am, fighting a fake news attack over lunch and being entirely ignored in the afternoon. 

Just a normal day in 2019. 

Opinions became weaponised narratives in the big battle for attention. 

Many brands got caught in the crosshairs of political and social events at home, and increasingly coming from abroad. More often than not, such incidents were utterly unrelated to a brand’s products or services. 

Marketers have been on their toes, as any campaign could be derailed at any moment, no matter how much planning, how many preventive measures put in place or how successful the reputation build-up had been. 

Since being in permanent crisis management mode is nowhere near a solid strategy, let’s take a look at the lessons from 2019 to get an idea where we’re headed this year.

But first, a heads-up. Nope, this won’t be a ‘Top Predictions’ article. Sorry ???♂?

Think we’re all well aware of influencer marketing being a forced choice, brands still getting memes wrong, everything is Stories and the insatiable boom of social commerce. 

We need to zoom out. Like... a loooooot...

Big picture decision-drivers’ level.

Meet Gargantua! 

The one single object everything seems to gravitate towards on social media these days: 

TRUST

In fact, it’s not a trend. Trust (or rather its absence) is an evolutionary step on social media’s coming of age cycle. 

To get a better understanding of how the fragmented ‘trust’ pieces fit together, we need to discuss five major developments from across the social media space. Collective movements that will surely impact digital marketer’s choices in 2020. 

Fact-checking, the north star in the battle of narratives 

The number of countries with political disinformation campaigns rose to 70 in 2019.

Fake news has been rampant. Governments and platforms alike are scrambling to address the situation, getting hastily new legislations and policies into place. 

Singapore brought its much discussed Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) to life and started actively issuing correction notices for posts on Facebook. 

Facebook on the other hand appointed AFP as resident fact-checking agency to manage local and regional news stories. 

Apart from AFP, a number of notable independent fact-checking services, such as Black Dot Research, have also started to provide regular public updates.

Even Instagram had to introduce features to tackle misinformation. Just in time as it turns out. The new misinformation front line seems to be drawn right in influencer territory and this will definitely have an impact on branded messages.

All these developments had fundamental implications on the daily operations of news publishers. Especially those sourcing and covering stories from across the region.  

To only name one regional hotbed of misinformation, the Hong Kong protests tsunami of fake news originating from both camps of the political spectrum is still raging on with no end in sight, spreading well beyond its (digital) borders.

In the digital age, fact-checking became a basic work skill, like using Word or Excel. Those that know how, possess a compass to navigate the internet. Those that don’t, become part of the misinformation distribution machinery.

This situation is expected to become more complex in the run-up to the string of elections taking place around the globe this year. 

Brands have to deal with these political aspects, one way or another. As such, brand messaging should be calibrated carefully, especially after all major platforms started implementing a ban on political ads. It’s going to be an entirely different campaign trail on social media than just a few years ago.

The vision of privacy-focused social networking

When Facebook laid out its master plan for the future of the platform the writings had been on the wall for quite some time.

Privacy has always been a top priority for social networking users. With continued data breaches, users keep migrated platforms. Gathering grounds are increasingly closed groups and messaging apps, in the hopes to find anonymity in large size private chat groups on Telegram, Firechat or Bridgefy.

The rise in popularity of Facebook interest groups comes as no surprise after the platform’s major algo change in 2018. As a result, private Facebook groups is where the bulk of the online conversation on Singapore socials is at right now.

Other platforms saw a similar surge in accounts turning private. Good luck finding a Singapore based public Instagram profile that’s not a brand or influencers. And private interactions on a public conversation forum such as Twitter make for a bizarre social experience:

But creating a privacy-focused social networking culture also means addressing the legal, cultural and behavioural issues of ‘dark social’. A highly complex and delicate task to tackle at this point in the evolution of social media. 

2019 gave us a public glimpse of what ‘dark social’ looks like in Singapore. Following a series of widely reported Peeping Tom cases across several educational institutions, two large scale chat groups were exposed for trading illegal and inappropriate content (SGNL, SIC).

The public discussion surrounding these cases also touched upon aspects of online bullying as a result of how incident details were exposed through private accounts. The notion came about that such a public conversation would ultimately be as flawed as the platforms they are conducted on. Which, in turn, would make brands/institutions hesitant to even act on any situation unless the volume of complaints reaches a certain threshold.

Building a healthy conversation culture - WIP

With the renaissance of Twitter also came the peak of Brand Twitter. Some argued it even went straight off the cliff with SunnyD’s “I can’t do this anymore”. Social media being social media, things kept dropping even further. Apparently, when brands act like humans it entitles humans to bully these brand accounts, just like ...well… other humans.

During the first half of 2019 we’ve seen Jack Dorsey tour several media events and podcast shows to provide insights on how the Twitter team is addressing the increasing toxic environment on its platform. The complexities of dealing with bringing down negativity on a global scale seem daunting. It’s just not as simple as “we don’t like what this user tweets, we demand Twitter to delete and ban this user.” 

Twitter announced a slate of new features for 2020 to create a more healthy conversation culture. Some may say it's too little too late. Maybe I’m just lucky with my newsfeed algo, but I do find more voices of reason interjecting to viral conversations these days. But I can’t tell whether that’s a proper trend in shifting user behaviour yet.

This also means that the age of Brand Twitter’s notorious roasting culture is likely to come to an end. 

Instagram started a similar attempt by removing the like count. The assumption at this point seems to be ‘Hiding likes = improving platform health and creating a less competitive environment’.

On YouTube, we could see a similar, creators' originated movement come about. The rising popularity of ‘With me’ videos stems from offering qualities such as being “empowering, authentic, resonating, building trust” - as Google describes it to brands.

Ultimately, brands can contribute a lot in creating a healthier conversation environment. That is, of course, if they engage in conversations in the first place. Many are still reluctant and either play it safe with silence or aim for the quick grab with polarising content.

Social & environmental movements turn into lifestyles 

I know, I know, you’ve been hearing the word ‘sustainability’ from brands left, right and center all year long. It’s almost like a never-ending Baby Shark song on loop.

But we need to talk about this in the brand marketing context as it's taking over increasing portions of the annual budget - and rightly so.

Admittedly, the over-saturation of the term in marketing comms is not helpful while brands and consumers grapple with finding their place in something that morphed from being a niche activist movement to a purpose-defined lifestyle. 

I often find that brands telling their customers to “be more sustainable” is like parents telling their children to “go clean up your room”. It’s just not the most effective way of building a trust relationship.

Having reached a galvanising point in 2019, sustainability for brands went far beyond a CSR side initiative. The annual beach clean-up event to show “we’re doing something” is just not enough anymore. Brands have to find ways to make a real impact. Change their own business behaviour in order to inspire others to do the same. Which would be the ultimate purpose of a brand after all.

Walking the talk.

Quite literal for some publishers in fact. The Guardian changed its editorial style guide to address environmental topics. A change in language, delivered with the daily news can be a powerful approach to change opinions in the long run.

But sustainability became more than using metal straws or bringing a tote bag to the supermarket. After decades of unbound capitalism, sustainable business practices are gradually stepping into the spotlight. As enabler to tackle deeper societal problems, like inclusion, aging or supply chains, finance systems are starting to adapt and provide realistic solutions at scale for social enterprises to thrive. 

In a social media context, one sustainability trend in Singapore has been around reducing waste. Several micro communities have emerged on Facebook and WhatsApp with the mission to share or regift anything from pre-loved or unused items to food.

Carousell’s ‘reboxing’ campaign is another example that connects with this movement by roping in other brands and big names to amplify the message through personal stories. 

Having a solution, supported by a finance structure is only half the battle. Getting people to change their own way of life and embrace sustainability not as an optional choice but a shift in mindset is the hard part. That’s where marketers can jump in to find ways how to use storytelling as behavioural change agent. 

The gaping divide between communities

The internet left 2018 with a big bang, ignited by YouTube’s Rewind video. A YouTubers VS YouTube brawl, that was, in many ways, rather synonymous for social media users VS social media conglomerates. A precursor to the splitting polarisation of communities that would transpire throughout 2019. 

But are these divides generational, or purely cultural? 

“Ok, Boomer”, for instance, seems to have united a number of undercurrent meme trends from the recent past. A meme movement that the New York Times called “blase but cutting”.

We’ve seen the “boomer” response on Singapore socials for some time now. Often in context with reactions to news or public commentaries that didn’t align with the value system of younger generations. It’s not exactly a political response but rather one that connects to a sense of tribal affiliation.

But there are other, more distinct and less clear-cut (sub)community divides. The question of age or generation might not even apply. 

One example would be the intensified campaigning of university and poly meme accounts that openly call out digital publishers like SGAG. There are also archive/research accounts that aim at local news reporting and media in general, documenting every attempt of copying, “stealing” or misrepresenting content. Naturally, some of the motivations behind these accounts would also link back to the fact-checking point above.

Such topical or ideological communities are often referred to as tribes, as they keep migrating, with opinions and affiliations constantly in transition. 

And as for YouTube, Rewind 2019’s new approach didn’t work out either. Even though the platform followed its very own creators rulebook - sourcing content ideas from comments. The community rather embraced Rewind renditions coming from their own midst. But there is an inherent value in Rewind as the community’s annual “culture dipstick survey” where everyone voices their grievances. Sort of like a communal bonding event before starting off the new year. 

It’s 2020 already, what now?

Congrats, if you’re still reading this far down the article, I don’t want you to walk away without a list in your hands. 

So here goes, 4 guiding principles for creating a branded content strategy in 2020: 

1. Controlled chaos instead of centralised masterplan: We need to come to terms with the realities of social media in 2020. A highly polarised, deeply fragmented and skilfully opinionated environment that can hijack any brand narrative at any moment for no reason whatsoever.
2. Be prepared: Make sure to know where the hits are coming from and how severe the impact is going to be. But don’t let it dictate or derail your long term strategy.
3. Go into publisher mode: Platform algos are content-hungry. Scaling output is the name of the game.
4. Earn the right to talk: Don’t pretend to be a gamer when you’re not. Find another tribe to build a relationship with instead. Know the place and time where what you say carries authority.

This should get you through the first quarter on this digital rollercoaster ride into the new decade. 

Good luck!

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What were your observations from 2019 social media trends?

What do you think 2020 will look like for brands?

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