Facebook IQ: consumer shifts shaping 2020
2020 feels so close, yet you might have missed the trends indicating the significant consumer changes expected by the start of the new decade. Facebook's Global Director Anna Mack and Global Content Strategist Toma Beczak talked about what's happening now on the social platform and what this points towards for the future.
In a nice detail, the main forecasted shifts were categorized into five alliterative topics: culture, communication, commerce, connectivity and community.
Culture
Sex doesn't sell. Gender roles have dramatically changed online, with social movements like #MeToo making real in-roads into the traditional roles of sex and sexuality.
"International Women's Day was the number one most discussed moment of 2017. (Also last year) There was a 15% increase in conversation surrounding the spectrum of gender".
The linear transitions of aging are less distinct, with people finding ways to balance the holidays, family life and socializing with business.
Millennials and Gen Z care. A lot. Their buying power is strongly motivated by their morals and values. This has also given rise to the omniculture identities; where diversity has become so common place in this generation's lives that they now accept it as everyday. It is not a barrier to communication like previous generations have seen it.
How we work is about the change. The email inbox is fading out of existence due to our more flexible working hours and spaces. We will see a rise in project based working, meaning more direct contact will be favorable over the email chain.
Communication
Shocker: content is consumed fast. Users on Facebook are able to recall content they viewed in 0.25 seconds, and 41% of this content is consumed on mobile.
In one year, 80% of the content consumed was video with moving content holding the consumer gaze five times longer than static content. More so, live videos have 10 times the engagement compared to other video content.
With the growing popularity in VR and AR, it's importance and usefulness is starting to be understood by the wider world.
"54% of people believed you would never miss an important event ever again".
The applications for VR and AR are only just starting to be utilized; consider Grandma not being able to travel from Queensland to Victoria for her grandsons birthday. Through VR, she could experience the birthday in full effect wearing the headset. The concept of mixed realities is also starting to permeate the online world, with VR and AR seamlessly blending into our real lives in real time.
Commerce
Mobile shopping is taking over, with one in three users preferring to shop on their mobile device. Unfortunately navigation and UX design have not caught up and are acting as a major barrier for consumers.
"1.14x users now shop for convenience rather than price".
Those who have started to design for an efficient mobile experience have become a part of convergence of commerce; where the moment of discovery and purchase have become one fluid thing.
In the last two years, instant messaging with brands has increased 67%, with users messaging brands two billion times each month and a 5.6x increase in brand chat bots.
Connectivity
We are in a time of the "internet of things"; more and more devices are connecting to each other and exchanging data to perform uniform actions. 8.1x year over year people are buying items that are part of this internet of things network. By 2020 every person will have at least two connected devices, with the main point of entry being a person's home.
One in four people only connect to the internet through their mobile device and though we have so much choice and distraction, the top three apps on your phone are where you spend 80% of your time. As the world gets more connected, emerging markets who are now gaining access to smart phones will soon be some of the biggest contributors to the GDP. This is because we will see a large growth of independent businesses in previously remote and impoverished areas being able to sell their goods and services on a mass scale. This highlights the importance of considering mobile natives.
Community
From connectivity and content, comes community.
"41% of users say they can feel closer to families who have watched the same content as them and 39% say they have more to talk about with other people because of watching content".
Because of this sense of connection, the rise of meaningful groups online has developed even greater importance. People are willing to join digital tribes who share the same interests, and in this way brands can facilitate meaningful conversations with true loyalists, develop innovations and insights born from these passionate groups.
A need to belong is being solved by the internet, as an online connection is the first step before people facilitate real life connections. These connections are categorized into one-on-one, besties (more personal than groups), groups, national issues and global activism.
Key Takeaways
Reimagine familiar frameworks; traditional values do not fit into modern culture and communication
Create content for context; always be thinking about how users are viewing your content and what interests they have in their day to say life.
Make it mobile central; it's obvious and it's only going to keep growing.
Listen to the full talk here https://schedule.sxsw.com/2018/events/PP78892