In the fast-paced internet age, social media trends and site status rise and fall quickly—traditionally, OG sites like Facebook and YouTube maintain relevance with the older set (i.e., not Gen Z), while new ones emerge regularly with more youthful appeal. New research fromprofessional marketing video firm Animoto sizes up the state of social media as a new decade begins.
Video is a particularly hot content trend on social media, and according to the firm’s new survey, which includes input from 1,000 consumers and 500 marketers who work at companies that have produced at least two videos in the past year, YouTube and Facebook Stories are emerging as two of the places brands need to be in 2020.
YouTube was rated the #1 purchase driver on social media
The comparatively new Facebook Stories also stood out in the survey results, ranking in the top 3 social media platforms to watch videos from brands in 2020.
Other findings include:
- 73 percent of marketers uploaded 2 or more marketing videos to YouTube in the last month.
- 72 percent of marketers post branded content to Facebook Stories once a week or more.
- 59 percent of marketers surveyed have run video ads on YouTube in the last 12 months.
For brands, getting positive ROI for their marketing efforts has as much to do with the quality of the content as it does with sharing that content on the right platform
“The idea isn’t to abandon other social platforms—knowing YouTube and Facebook Stories are on the rise gives small businesses and marketers a leg up,” said Jason Hsiao, chief video officer and co-founder of Animoto, in a news release. “It’s an opportunity to share high-performing content where their audience is showing up day in and day out. That’s likely why businesses are beginning to leverage the power and reach of these growing platforms.”
Animoto surveyed a representative sample of U.S. adult consumers and adult marketers at companies that have created at least 2 videos in the past year to learn about social media and video marketing practices. The web-based survey was fielded August 15, 2019 through August 20, 2019, with a sample size of 1,000 consumers 18 years or older and 500 video marketers (at companies of 3 employees or larger). For the consumer survey, the margin of error was 3.1%; for the marketer survey, the margin of error was 4.4%.