Changes in social media typically aren’t sudden or unexpected. They are relatively predictable. For example, the connection between social media and SEO have been much discussed in the internet. Businesses gradually realized how they are both linked and started devising an SEO strategy that complements their social media marketing efforts. This in turn changed the kind of services people demanded from SEO companies in Dubai. This wasn’t a change that came over night.  

Likewise, marketers weren’t surprised when Google announced that they are shutting down Google +. 

These changes, both big and small, bring forth new marketing trends for businesses with social media profiles. There are trends that have already started creating a buzz and then there are trends that are only gaining traction. Either way, we will be seeing a lot of trends that will catch marketers’ attention next year. 

Here are a few major ones that would significantly impact the social media marketing Dubai sector in 2019. 

Wider social listening practice

Social listening is not something new. It’s all about crawling social media platforms and the web to find brand mentions. Marketers practice this trend mainly to find untagged brand mentions across blogs, forums and other sites and mentions of industry keywords.

Social listening for these purposes would certainly be widely adopted by marketers next year. However, many would also be leveraging it for lead generation and social selling. 

Live video content

There is a reason why YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. Internet users simply like watching video content where they are visually shown something they are interested in. They don’t have to spend time reading when there is a video about it. According to expert marketers, video content will cover 80% of what the average internet user consumes online. Live videos are particularly effective for marketing. Facebook now notifies people when a page or a person they follow or are friends with is going live. Live videos attract social media users more than almost any other content, and also increases the trustworthiness of a brand if used effectively. We will be seeing more brands delivering exciting content next year in the form of live videos. 

Accommodating AR/VR/MR

Brands have started incorporating immersive video experiences in their websites, and the AR/VR/MR technologies help make it happen. AR and VR are the hottest trends today that both businesses and consumers find interesting. As more devices that support these technologies are rolled out, brands will have to rely on more effective means to leverage them for profit. In 2019, we might see brands developing their social channels to accommodate these technologies and leverage them in their social media marketing efforts. 

Conclusion

The social media marketing industry in the Middle East along with the growing search engine optimization Dubai industry will be experiencing radical changes that would benefit both enterprises and online consumers. Digital marketers are about to get plenty of new and exciting opportunities to market their brands across social media channels. A number of unique social media channels are also expected to gain some traction in 2019 which makes things even more interesting.