Digital disruption is a hot topic among marketers.
While the biggest websites in the world have held a tight grip on their places for years, seismic shifts in the marketing landscape have begun to unsettle some digital giants.
It seems the future isn’t as certain as it was before.
Over the past two years, Facebook has been hit with one storm after another, from fake news and Holocaust deniers, to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The backlash has been epic, with traffic being decimated, falling dramatically from 8.5 billion monthly visits to around 4.7 billion in just two years.
CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, hasn’t been immune to the damage either, as his personal net worth fell by a jaw-dropping $15 billion in July. It was the biggest single-day wipeout in the history of U.S. stock market losses.
However, don’t get the tombstone out just yet.
Facebook is much more than their own namesake property, as the parent company still owns WhatsApp and Instagram.
One is rapidly becoming the world’s favorite instant messaging platform, while the latter is arguably the hottest platform in social media right now, thanks to the world’s new-found obsession with visual content.
Facebook might be down, but it’s not gone which is good news, as they have some serious competition on their hands.
Have you heard?
Content is no longer king.
By 2019, video content will account for some 80% of all internet traffic. So, it’s no surprise that YouTube is bigger than ever, and Facebook is pushing video hard. Its new Watch platform is Facebook’s very own TV channel.
Research shows that the YouTube video platform now has more than 1.8 billion active monthly users, putting it in 3rd place behind Facebook and Google.
Interestingly though, it is growing at twice the rate of Facebook, with user numbers up 20% from 1.5 billion over the past year.
And then there’s Amazon.
Currently fourth among the digital giants, Amazon is dominating retail, with expectations that they will account for at least 80% of total growth of the entire ecommerce market this year.
The rise from online bookstore to far-reaching technological behemoth has been astonishing. In just three years, revenue has surged from $149B in 2015 to $258B this year, increasing 29% since 2017.
With these big changes among the major forces, companies must consider how to adapt in the new digital marketing landscape.
Facebook made big changes to its algorithm this year, with a desire to reconnect people with their friends and family, and thus retain their user base.
What that really meant for companies was it became even more of a ‘pay to play’ platform than it already was.
Social media is abundant with opportunities to build targeted audiences for your brand.
However, the changes mean that to really reach a large audience, you need to use paid advertising.
The cost of Facebook advertising is on the rise, having grown 70% since 2017. Marketers continue to pay it though, as denoted by the 40% bump in overall spending.
It seems that rising prices are little deterrent for ambitious marketers, as many companies realize the overall ROI of targeted ads is worth investing in.
Amazon too has hiked their prices, with Prime membership growing to $119/year, with almost no negative impact on traffic and sign-ups.
CEO, Jeff Bezos, revealed this year that subscriber numbers have topped 100 million, making it a worthy rival to Netflix.
The digital marketing landscape is always shifting.
Facebook looks set to slip behind YouTube and the unstoppable force of Amazon.
Video marketing is undoubtedly the way to go now, regardless of your industry.
The younger demographics have helped Instagram grow by 80% since last year.
To remain relevant to your audience, decide on the best platform for your brand and build a video content strategy that appeals to your audience’s needs.
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