Career Advice

August 15, 2024 by Julie McGrath

The Still Ready for Work programme supports people aged 50+ to remain in work, to change career or to source employment. It helps individuals to stay motivated, confident and connected as they prepare their next steps in to the world of work.

The programme offers a range of services to help people over 50 with all aspects of their working life including: regular online employability workshops; e-learning covering a range health and wellbeing topics; and one-to-one job search support from a consultant.

Participants can sign up for or as many or as few workshops as they wish and, following the workshop/s, they will have access to the other Still Ready for Work offers: e-learning and one-to-one support.

All offers as part of the Still Ready for Work programme are free for participants, delivered by professional trainers or facilitators, and are lively and interactive.

Online Workshops

The workshops below, which cover four key job search topics, are run regularly and facilitated by an employment and recruitment specialist.

Participants can pick and choose which sessions they wish to register for or sign up for all four. Attendees are welcome to engage and ask questions throughout the session, or simply use the session to listen and receive information.

The four sessions on offer are:

How to create a digital CV and cover letter

Learn more about why it is essential to have a digital version of your CV, and how to identify and highlight strengths, skills, and experiences that are relevant to the job you are applying for. Attendees will discover why quality over quantity is important when making job applications.

16 January | 2:00 – 3:30 pm Register now

How to use recruitment agencies and job boards to work on your behalf

Learn how to team up with relevant recruitment agencies that can work on your behalf when seeking employment. This workshop will cover networking both online and offline, and provide tips that will help set you apart from other candidates.

18 January | 2:00 – 3:30 pm Register now

How to use social media to find new job opportunities

Learn how to use social media to identify new job opportunities and how to automate the job searching process. This workshop focusses on the top three social media sites used for employment and covers the importance of having an online social presence to secure a new job.

23 January | 2:00 – 3:30 pm Register now

How to succeed in online and face-to-face interviews

This workshop will help you to prepare for various interview formats and learn more about both verbal and non-verbal communication. The workshop covers online interview formats including pre-recorded interviews, and what you need to consider and do in order to succeed.

25 January | 2:00 – 3:30 pm Register now

January 1, 2024 by Julie McGrath

Basic digital skills and competencies and why do today’s learners need them?

We’re now in the age of the 4th industrial revolution, which primarily marks the implementation of smart technologies, these changes are happening faster than ever. In some cases, new industries have developed entirely; an obvious example is the software industry. But even in sectors that have existed for centuries, including industries as diverse as farming and finance, technology is now widely used to streamline processes and better adapt to an increasingly interconnected world. In this context, today’s graduates not only need to have a sound understanding of their subject area but also how to apply this knowledge in digital contexts.

What are digital competencies?

In a world that’s more digital than ever, a good understanding of technology is obviously key. A report from the European Commission showed that 93% of European workplaces across all sectors use computers and 94% use broadband internet. This means that almost every job requires basic digital skills such as being able to use the internet to find information, communicate with colleagues and customers, buy goods and services and so on.

However, the importance of digital skills for learners goes beyond just understanding how to use various software and hardware. After all, it’s likely that they’ll be obsolete in 5 years or even less. Arguably even more important are attitudes that allow workers to embrace digital technology and associated changes throughout their careers, such as creativity, collaboration and flexibility.

How can today’s learners develop their digital skills?

It can be tempting to think that many millennial and gen-z students already understand digital tools and possess the necessary attitudes to be successful in today’s workforce. While this may be the case for some, we should remember that not every student has the same digital access opportunities and that others may be very used to technology for entertainment, but less knowledgeable about workforce competencies. Regardless of comfort level, students benefit from being able to practise and develop their skills in a range of contexts.

Institutions can support students in developing and refining digital competencies in several ways. Attitudes such as creativity, collaboration and flexibility can be supported through group work, projects, interviews, and presentations. These activities give learners an opportunity to participate in scenarios similar to those that they’ll encounter in the workplace or in everyday life.

How do we bridge the digital divide?

As government and businesses continue to make their services “digital by default” there is an increased need and urgency to ensure that everyone has access to and the ability to use the Internet. Being digitally competent is now a necessary part of modern life and no one can afford to be left behind.

Regardless of age or ability, we believe going online has digital and social inclusion benefits for everyone. Bridging the digital divide would improve digital literacy, digital skills, social mobility, economic equality, and economic growth.

For more information on how we can help please get in touch: hello@digiskills.agency

January 15, 2022 by Julie McGrath

COVID-19 has accelerated three broad trends that may reshape work after the pandemic recedes

The pandemic pushed companies and consumers to rapidly adopt new behaviours that are likely to stick, changing the trajectory of three groups of trends. We consequently see sharp discontinuity between their impact on labour markets before and after the pandemic.

1. Remote work and virtual meetings are likely to continue, albeit less intensely than at the pandemic’s peak

Perhaps the most obvious impact of COVID-19 on the labour force is the dramatic increase in employees working remotely. To determine how extensively remote work might persist after the pandemic, we researched its potential across more than 2,000 tasks used in some 800 occupations in the eight focus countries. Considering only remote work that can be done without a loss of productivity, we find that about 20 to 25 percent of the workforces in advanced economies could work from home between three and five days a week. This represents four to five times more remote work than before the pandemic and could prompt a large change in the geography of work, as individuals and companies shift out of large cities into rural areas and small towns. We found that some work that technically can be done remotely is best done in person. Negotiations, critical business decisions, brainstorming sessions, providing sensitive feedback, and onboarding new employees are examples of activities that may lose some effectiveness when done remotely.

Some companies are already planning to shift to flexible workspaces after positive experiences with remote work during the pandemic, a move that will reduce the overall space they need and bring fewer workers into offices each day. A survey of 278 executives by McKinsey in August 2020 found that on average, they planned to reduce office space by 30 percent.

Remote work may also put a dent in business travel as its extensive use of videoconferencing during the pandemic has ushered in a new acceptance of virtual meetings and other aspects of work. While leisure travel and tourism are likely to rebound after the crisis, it is estimated that about 20 percent of business travel, the most lucrative segment for airlines, may not return. This would have significant knock-on effects on employment in commercial aerospace, airports, hospitality, and foodservice. E-commerce and other virtual transactions are booming.

Many consumers discovered the convenience of e-commerce and other online activities during the pandemic. In 2020, the share of e-commerce grew at two to five times the rate before COVID-19 (Exhibit 2). Roughly three-quarters of people using digital channels for the first time during the pandemic say they will continue using them when things return to “normal.”

Other kinds of virtual transactions such as telemedicine, online banking, and streaming entertainment have also taken off. Online doctor consultations has grew more than tenfold between April and November 2020. These virtual practices may decline somewhat as economies reopen but are likely to continue well above levels seen before the pandemic.

This shift to digital transactions has propelled growth in delivery, transportation, and warehouse jobs. In China, e-commerce, delivery, and social media jobs grew by more than 5.1 million during the first half of 2020.

2. COVID-19 may propel faster adoption of automation and AI, especially in work arenas with high physical proximity

Two ways businesses historically have controlled cost and mitigated uncertainty during recessions are by adopting automation and redesigning work processes, which reduce the share of jobs involving mainly routine tasks. In a global survey of 800 senior executives in July 2020, two-thirds said they were stepping up investment in automation and AI either somewhat or significantly.

Many companies deployed automation and AI in warehouses, grocery stores, call centers, and manufacturing plants to reduce workplace density and cope with surges in demand. The common feature of these automation use cases is their correlation with high scores on physical proximity, and research finds the work arenas with high levels of human interaction are likely to see the greatest acceleration in adoption of automation and AI.

3. The mix of occupations may shift, with little job growth in low-wage occupations

The trends accelerated by COVID-19 may spur greater changes in the mix of jobs within economies than we estimated before the pandemic.

We find that a markedly different mix of occupations may emerge after the pandemic across the eight economies. Compared to pre-COVID-19 estimates, we expect the largest negative impact of the pandemic to fall on workers in food service and customer sales and service roles, as well as less-skilled office support roles. Jobs in warehousing and transportation may increase as a result of the growth in e-commerce and the delivery economy, but those increases are unlikely to offset the disruption of many low-wage jobs.

Demand for workers in the healthcare and STEM occupations may grow more than before the pandemic, reflecting increased attention to health as populations age and incomes rise as well as the growing need for people who can create, deploy, and maintain new technologies.

Before the pandemic, net job losses were concentrated in middle-wage occupations in manufacturing and some office work, reflecting automation, and low- and high-wage jobs continued to grow. Nearly all low-wage workers who lost jobs could move into other low-wage occupations—for instance, a data entry worker could move into retail or home healthcare. Because of the pandemic’s impact on low-wage jobs, we now estimate that almost all growth in labour demand will occur in high-wage jobs. Going forward, more than half of displaced low-wage workers may need to shift to occupations in higher wage brackets and requiring different skills to remain employed.

March 3, 2021 by Julie McGrath

Since the pandemic began in March the UK jobs market has changed substantially, take a look at what this means for recruitment and occupational shortages and what jobs are in high demand.

Before the pandemic began, a report from Luminate, Skills shortages in the UK 2019/20, which takes its data from the Employer Skills Survey (ESS) 2017, stated that a third of vacancies (33%) in the UK were considered hard to fill. Vacancies are often hard to fill due to a lack of required skills, qualifications or experience among applicants.

What sectors has COVID-19 affected?

The graduate labour market has suffered significant damage, particularly in the arts – but things are far worse for non-graduates. Many key graduate employment sectors – in health, social care, IT, business services – have been much less affected than other areas of the economy. And it’s notable that many vacancies that were hard to fill before the pandemic is in that group. Of the top five graduate professions for the number of hard-to-fill vacancies only HR and recruitment has clearly seen a very serious fall in demand. Nursing, medicine, IT and housing/welfare are all still in demand.

What about the future?

There’s still a way to go before we can be completely clear about the effects of the pandemic, but many businesses are thinking hard about their future skills needs.

PWC observe that the Local Government Association estimates that the ‘low carbon workforce’ will treble by 2030 and that demand for digital skills and transferrable skills such as creativity, critical thinking, interpersonal communication skills and leadership skills will also become more important as technology advances and virtual working becomes a lot more common.

Hard-to-fill and skills shortage vacancies

The report highlighted the professional level occupations, which were reported by employers to have experienced the most vacancies during the survey. ‘Professional level’ means managerial, professional and associate professional roles. Nursing came top of the list, followed by HR and industrial relations professionals, business sales executives, welfare and housing associate professionals and IT user support technicians.

The report also demonstrates that despite thousands of graduates entering the job market every year employers still find certain positions difficult to fill. An employer reported a vacancy as hard to fill if they found it difficult to recruit for, for any reason. The largest number of hard-to-fill vacancies were:

nurses
programmers and software development professionals
human resources and industrial relations officers
medical practitioners
welfare and housing associate professionals.

Design engineers, accountants, marketing associate professionals and vets also made the list.

Vacancies that recruiters find hard to fill due to a lack of relevant skills, qualifications and experiences are often referred to as ‘skills shortage vacancies’. Similar to the hard to fill list graduate jobs that experience the most skills shortage vacancies include nurses, programmers and software development professionals and business sales executives. However, unlike the hard to fill list teaching and other educational professionals, finance and investment analysts and advisers and graphic designers also feature.

According to the report, the following industries are also in high demand:

architectural and engineering activities
computer programming and consultancy
education
employment and HR
financial services
human health activities
legal and accounting services
office administrative, support and business activities
public administration and defence
residential care activities
retail trade
social work.

Occupational shortages by region

The UK is not one homogenous labour market and workers are not infinitely mobile, therefore local shortages exist.

In the East Midlands, like in most regions, nursing has the most hard-to-fill vacancies. However, draughtspersons and product and clothing designers are particular to the region. The East of England has the longest list of shortage occupations and these include medical practitioners, nurses, design and development engineers, veterinarians and business executives.

With a large and business-oriented labour market, it’s unsurprising that London’s appetite for business support professionals in IT, recruitment, consultancy, law, sales and marketing is reflected by shortages in these occupations.

The top four shortages in the North East include nurses, medical practitioners, human resources and industrial relations officers and programmers and software development professionals. The region also struggles to recruit graphic designers.

The North West has more hard-to-fill vacancies in sales than any other. It also has one of the most serious shortages of nurses, recruitment professionals, housing professionals, youth workers and accountants.

The South East has a strong graduate labour market. However, the region has the largest number of shortages in the UK in nursing, IT support, insurance and housing.

Solicitors and legal professionals are in particularly short supply in the South West. Other shortage occupations include medical practitioners and programmers and software development professionals.

There are notable engineering shortages in the West Midlands. Sales staff, nurses and human resources and industrial relations officers are also in short supply.

Yorkshire struggles to recruit electrical engineers, IT operations technicians and child and early years officers. Marketing associate professionals are also hard to find.

Why vacancies are hard to fill and in high demand:

Skills shortage vacancies frequently occur at a managerial level, with candidates often failing to demonstrate sufficient work experience. 43% of ESS respondents said that managerial positions were hard to fill due to a low number of applicants with the required skills. 29% cited a lack of required work experience, while 19% blamed a low number of applicants generally.

Professional-level jobs also show a similar pattern, although there are fewer issues with insufficient experience and more with applicant shortage. Competition from other employers and lack of interest in these types of roles also played a part. 46% of employers said that candidates for professional roles lacked the required skills, 28% said that a low number of applicants generally made these types of roles hard to fill.

When asked what skills were particularly hard to obtain for managerial jobs, over half of employers found it hard to recruit applicants with a demonstrable ability to manage. 67% of employers said it was hard to obtain specialist skills and knowledge related to the job, while 52% found complex problem-solving skills to be particularly scarce. Knowledge of products and services and of how an organisation works also proved elusive. Soft skills that were lacking included managing and motivating staff, influencing others and the ability to manage own time and prioritise workloads.

When recruiting for professional jobs specialist knowledge was again the hardest skill to find. Advanced or specialist IT skills and complex numerical or statistical skills were also hard to come by. Applications for professional roles also lacked evidence of the following soft skills – ability to manage own time, motivating other staff and customer handling skills.

We understand that it is a competitive marketplace when trying to attract the top talent to your business or organisation. As a specialist recruitment agency, we only work with top-level professionals that want to make a difference and add value to your organisation. If you require support with recruiting top talent to your business or changing career please get in touch to find out how we can help.

-Prospects

February 1, 2020 by Julie McGrath

A worker is no longer the average 9-to-5 employee. Rather, an organisation’s people are its talent, representing a diverse range of individuals including brand ambassadors, gig economy workers, social influencers and partners. These individuals reside both inside and outside the walls of the organisation.

In this new world of talent, it is important for businesses to recognise that their collective workforces often comprise individuals from different backgrounds and diversity who come with differing perspectives, experiences and goals. Organisations that acknowledge and value each individual’s experience place the entire person at

the centre of what they do, aiming to create a sustained and connected experience for all their people. To create an environment that values all people, bold leadership should champion the human experience and help ensure that the workforce is included.

Integrating the talent and customer experiences we see a common theme—the human connection matters more than anything else. Successful organisations should account for all humans within their ecosystem (including the workforce) and align them with the organisation’s purpose.

How businesses can unlock the talent experience.

Having understood how to engage customers beyond the walls of the organisation, many business owners are embracing the challenge of creating deeper, more meaningful engagement with their people. Drawing on research, we outline specific strategies that show how many companies are supporting the talent experience:

Build a symbiotic workforce and customer experience.

Your workforce can be your best ambassador. Being authentic to your workforce, leading with values and supporting collaboration across the organisation strengthens the human experience for all people and helps provide an environment in which your workforce can thrive. Take the example of

Value personal interaction.

In the new world of work, it can be difficult to evoke loyalty in the workforce, with more than half of all workers thinking about leaving their jobs according to a recent report on talent in the workforce. Retaining people typically requires building real relationships. Companies often design tech-enabled sensing and monitoring systems to track and gather feedback on the talent experience. However, the challenge is to identify the appropriate time to implement and use feedback rapidly. Pulsing surveys sense how and whether the workforce is having a good experience and whether they might leave the company. Making them a routine practice can enable real-time course correction if a person is contemplating changing jobs. Unlock the value of data to understand how and whether people are fulfilled in their work, but do not lose touch with the value of personal interaction. Many workers especially value opportunities to build relationships with each other and with leadership. Find time to meet face to face and use pulsing survey data to assess how a person is feeling in the moment to share positive stories, praise and mitigate challenges.

Go beyond the four walls.

The marketing function and the CMO already serve as brand ambassadors for customers. In the new world of work, it can be increasingly difficult to uphold values and understand who aligns with your purpose outside of your walls. Similarly, what it means to be part of the workforce is changing dramatically, making it even more important for companies to have oversight of every person’s “talent experience.” The goal is to bridge gaps and better account for the collective customer, workforce and partner experience.

In this new world of talent, it is important for businesses to recognise that their collective workforces often comprise individuals from different backgrounds and diversities, who come with differing perspectives, experiences, and goals. Embrace IT! If you would like to explore other options to improve your talent engagement or need support on expanding your already fantastic team then please get in touch, we would love to hear from you.

December 10, 2019 by Julie McGrath

Take a look at what we believe are the key marketing trends for 2020 that marketers need to be aware of in order to ensure their marketing strategy is up-to-date and as effective as possible.

Social media has now become synonymous with digital marketing, going hand-in-hand with most – if not all – digital campaigns. However, social media is far from static and what worked a few months ago may not get you the same good results now.

Habits change, platforms evolve, and new platforms come into existence. All of this influences how people use and react to social media marketing, as well as how marketers are able to reach their audience.

It is more important than ever before for marketers to understand and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to social media. Doing so ensures you have the right tools at your disposal, an up-to-date strategy, and the required skills to make the most of social media.

With this in mind, we’ve taken a look at some of the trends that we believe are going to be important when it comes to social media marketing in 2020:

The digital detox

There are now 3.484 billion social media users across the globe, which is a 9% increase compared to last year. This equates to 45% of the world’s population being on social media. It also means that social media adoption has actually beaten previous estimates, which suggested that an estimated 2.82 billion would be using social media in 2019. While this suggests that brands have the opportunity to reach larger audiences than ever before, a new trend is affecting that audience base.

More people are now choosing to “detox” from social media, deleting apps and profiles in order to step away from it. This is more than just the usual changes we see in terms of people choosing to use one platform less in favour of another – such as Facebook seeing users decline but Instagram attracting more – this trend is seeing people take a temporary or permanent break from all social media.

One in three adults in the UK are now reducing their social media use. Some 6% of users have removed an app from their phone, 6% have permanently deleted their accounts and 8% have both deleted their accounts and removed social media mobile apps.

A big reason for this is that people now feel overloaded by social media, with the permeation of social media affecting their mental health and wellbeing. Others choose to detox because they don’t trust social media platforms, either due to issues like Fake News or because of privacy and data concerns.

“I think that this year, we’ll be seeing more of a change in the way social media users act online; I think that digital detox will become more prevalent this year, with many people trying to limit the amount of time they spend on social media.

“I also think that there will continue to be a big push towards making social media more private and secure for its users – this has been a big problem recently and many people are just realizing how truly dangerous a lack of online privacy can be. And these things, of course, will have a big impact on marketing too – brands and marketers need to be on top of these trends and act accordingly.”

Lilach Bullock – Content marketing and social media specialist.

This isn’t to say that social media will become void in terms of digital marketing, but marketers do need to understand the impacts it could have. When added to the issues that pay-to-play social media brings, more people taking on a digital detox (whether temporary or permanent) will impact reach and engagement of your posts. This can affect the results of any customer acquisition or brand awareness campaigns you launch across social media platforms.

Ultimately, it’s vital that you don’t start putting all your marketing eggs in the social media bucket. You need to ensure that enough budget and resource is still being given to other channels, including email marketing and search engine marketing. However, it’s also vital that you ensure that any social media presence you do have is as meaningful as possible. Your brand needs to offer more than memes – you need to deliver content that has a positive and memorable impact on your audience and that provides as much value as possible.

Building social media communities

A big part of meaningful and valuable experiences on social media is the way that brands engage with their audience. While sharing posts that you believe your target audience will enjoy is part of maintaining your social media presence, you also need to encourage and cultivate interactions that are more than a simple like or share.

This isn’t to say that communities are a new concept, but they are being built by brands in different ways, which is paying off and will likely continue to do so as we head into 2020.

“While social communities aren’t a new concept, how brands build them is changing the way we interact with them. There are many brands, both B2C and B2B, that have massive followings with no real engagement. The bottom line is your online presence should expand your reach, to ultimately drive more conversions.

“For starters, it’s crucial to measure your efforts and stay in touch with your audience. Social media suites are a great way to see everything in one place, from post creation and distribution to monitoring and analytics. Figure out what’s working and what’s not – don’t be afraid to pivot and try something new!

Encourage your team to create their own social presence to promote content and increase overall brand trust. This tactic leads to an authentic voice for your company,
Twitter chats help create a strong sense of community through content, bringing thought leaders from all areas together in a real-time conversation. It gives your brand the perfect opportunity to engage directly with current and potential customers.

“More than ever before, potential buyers want to hear from current customers – so give them a place to do just that.”

Bridget Poetker – Senior Content Marketing Specialist at G2

Building social media communities away from your profiles is just the start, after all, creating a group and having people join is no guarantee that they will engage. You also need to create content that gets them talking, encourages conversations and cultivates that feeling of community. Doing so can keep people engaged with your brand but also bring in new leads and customers while also adding a human, personalised element to your brand.

“I believe that the days of merely posting content and people showing up to engage are slowly coming to an end as pay-to-play social media becomes more and more prevalent with every social network over time. As a company, you’re already at a disadvantage, which is why it will become more important than ever to actually engage with your community.

“I’m not talking about engagement so that your content shows up better in the algorithm, but actually thanking those people in your community not only when they comment or engage with your content but actually proactively reaching out to them like a social media user would reach out to a friend. If your business wants to survive in organic social media in 2020, I believe that this sort of humanisation of your brand will be necessary.”

Neal Schaffer – Leading Global Educator and effective implementer of social media strategy for business.

Social media influencers and word-of-mouth marketing

One benefit of building social media communities is the fact that they help with word-of-mouth marketing, which is another big social media marketing trend for 2020. Communities allow you to engage with nano or micro-influencers who are already advocates of your brand in order to get them to share honest views and experiences of your products or services.

We all know that influencers have been around for a while and they have now become an expected part of the social media experience. They can offer great benefits for brands, including a relatively high earned media value, especially now that Instagram usage is continuing to grow at an elevated rate.

However, many types of influencers are no longer trusted by consumers. Big influencers are not only expensive for brands, they no longer have the impact that they used to because they are seen as disingenuous. In fact, 61% of consumers will trust the recommendations of friends and family over celebrity endorsements because they are more likely to be honest.

In comparison, smaller influencers, such as those who are likely to be part of your communities, tend to have better relationships with their followers, which means they benefit from a higher level of trust. This can lead to more engagement at a lower cost, as well as increased trust in a brand that is more likely to culminate in conversion.

“A good reason to follow my advice on social media communities is that this will also make it much easier for your brand to engage with influencers in 2020. This obviously is the other way to incite Word of Mouth marketing on social media when organic social media for businesses is pretty much dead.

“Now I’m not talking about spending thousands of dollars and reaching out to celebrities who are promoting one brand today and another brand tomorrow. I’m talking about authentically engaging with those in your community who are already following you and are already nano if not micro-influencers and finding a way to collaborate with them.

“I am so passionate about this subject that it is going to be the focal point of my next book, Age of Influence, which publishes in March of 2020, but needless to say I hope that marketers in 2020 will realize that social media is not just a place to market to people, but really is the ultimate forum for you to find and collaborate with a variety of social media users of varying influence that can help push your marketing objectives forward.”

Neal Schaffer – Leading Global Educator and effective implementer of social media strategy for business.

Taking on nano or micro-influencers as brand ambassadors means that they can share posts about your brand but also engage in conversions with their highly engaged following or others within communities. It is these conversations that are more likely to influence buying decisions and help build trust in your company.

This type of marketing creates positive brand sentiment, gets people talking about your brand and provides more insights into consumers’ buying behaviour and pain points. All of this better enables you to create a genuine experience for your audience.

The rise of alternative platforms

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram tend to be the core platforms used by B2C brands, with LinkedIn also being vital for B2B companies. However, many users are growing fatigued with these core platforms while brands have to fight harder than ever before to achieve good levels of organic reach and engagement.

While Twitter has seen growth so far this year, its active user numbers have declined from it’s all-time 2017 high. Similarly, Facebook has seen a huge drop in users – especially younger users – over the last two years, with younger audiences opting to spend time on other platforms. Combined with the increasing pay-to-play format of social media channels, this means that brands aren’t seeing the results on these platforms that they previously did.

[Average monthly Twitter users by year]

One social media platform that is becoming a go-to, especially for younger generations, is TikTok. While the app was launched in 2016, its popularity has grown fairly recently, with 2019 seeing a huge number of users flock to the platform. It now has around 500 million monthly active users worldwide and registered more than 1.1 billion installs as of March 2019.

While TikTok is unlikely to be the best option for B2B brands, B2C companies with a younger target audience (41% of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24) could find it to be a great platform to encourage engagement with users who are stepping away from more traditional social media platforms.

As well as TikTok, a good platform to invest in for those looking to encourage e-commerce sales through social media could be Pinterest. Although Pinterest is far from new on the scene, it has experienced a recent resurgence, meaning it is now used for more than just saving recipes or getting decorating inspiration.

Pinterest has found that it fits well into the e-commerce space and has an audience that is engaged with the idea of buying products they see on the platform. In fact, 75% of Pinterest users say they are “very interested” in new products compared to just 55% of people on other social media platforms.

This is likely why retail brands are finding success on the platform, with them reporting 2x higher returns on ad spend from the platform than other forms of social media and a 1.3x higher return than traditional search.

“Since Instagram as an e-commerce platform is getting harder to gain customers from, marketers will highly likely move to Pinterest. Pinterest now resembles Instagram when the latter emerged. No obtrusive ads, user-friendly search engine, and no fake influencers. More than 250 million people use Pinterest every month, and this number will increase.

“Speaking of TikTok, this platform keeps growing very rapidly. Marketers and business owners whose target audience are teenagers and young people should definitely consider TikTok as a winning marketing platform. TikTok is already an attractive platform for YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch bloggers since it’s effortless and fun to make videos and gain fame there.”

Klara Alexeeva, Content editor at combin.com

Utilising these alternative platforms allows you to engage with an audience who may not be on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, as well as providing you with different ways to share your content. This could help deliver better results and shape your future social media marketing strategy.

Social media as customer service

Customer service is always going to be a vital aspect of providing a good customer experience, but in the digital age, the customer service you offer is a lot more visible to everyone online. As well as online customer reviews, customer complaints and issues are easier to find than ever before due to the fact that a lot of them are shared on social media.

Over a quarter (28%) of consumers have used social media to communicate with a company in the last year, a trend that is likely to increase due to the fact that more than 30% said it is a convenient contact method and around 23% believe it is a good way to get 24-hour service.

Because social media is viewed as being so convenient, it is expected that brands will find it easy to use as a method of customer service. As a result, most people expect brands to respond to a question or complaint on social media on the same day, with 37% wanting a response in under 30 minutes. Only 6% don’t expect a response at all, while 31% want one in under 2 hours and a further 26% want to hear back within four hours, showing that the expectations for good customer service on social media are high.

This is why social media as a form of customer service is going to be a big trend for 2020, especially with so many brands looking to create online communities.

“In the same way that social media became a real alternative for an actual social life, it is rapidly evolving as a customer service tool. Companies have taken notice of this, and offer more and more customer service through social media. Brands have developed significantly more active social accounts, all for the sake of interacting with the massive user base spread across social media channels.”

Dmitrii Kustov – Internet Marketing Director at Regex SEO

As well as offering an easy way to speak to customers and quickly deal with issues – especially as everyone is so connected to social media – this form of customer service offers benefits for brands. Answering a customer complaint can increase customer advocacy by as much as 25%, meaning that responding to complaints can help create loyal customers. However, you also need to remember that failing to respond to a complaint can decrease customer advocacy by 50%, so a social media customer service strategy is required in order to ensure all members of your customer care team are following the same steps, especially as more customers are likely to be contacting you through social media over the next year.

Telling Stories on social

Since the launch of Snapchat, other social media platforms have rushed to add the Stories format to their offering. The result has been huge growth in the usage of this format for Instagram in particular, which as of January 2019, boasts 500 million daily active Stories users across the globe.

Stories offer a different experience to feed-based sharing due to the fact that they are visual and designed to be both created and consumed in-the-moment, rather than shared to a feed that will remain visible. There’s a lot of room for experimentation, tongue-in-cheek posts and fun, which makes Stories highly engaging, and it is one of the likely reasons as to why Stories had a growth rate that was 15x the rate of Feeds in 2017.

However, the growth in Stories isn’t just among consumers, businesses are also utilizing this social media tool for marketing purposes. According to Hootsuite’s 2019 Social Trends Survey, 64% of marketers have either already implanted Instagram Stories into their social media strategy or are aiming to do so in the next 12 months.

On average, brands are posting Stories on around seven days a month, averaging out to one Story every four days. Brands with a following of 100,000 or more share Stories more regularly (every two days), likely due to the fact that they can benefit from a greater range of Stories features – such as adding a link to their posts on Instagram.

Brands are also advertising more via Stories, with 45% of Instagram ad spend being on Stories, suggesting that brands are seeing better results with the more direct format being offered by Stories.

“If you regularly use social media, it will not come as a surprise that Instagram Stories’ popularity will further increase in 2020. Battenhall conducted research that found that 98% of Instagram accounts use Stories, while 400 million users watch Instagram Stories on a daily basis.

“It appears that big brands are favouring Instagram Stories for their advertising and marketing, in fact, one in three of the most-viewed Stories are from businesses. However, the question is why are they so popular?

Instagram Stories are more authentic than traditional Instagram posts that allow for heavy editing and altering.
The content is only available for 24hrs, therefore, it is current and will not become outdated.
Consumers want live updates and real-time content. Instagram Stories are normally the most up-to-date content a business can offer a consumer.
Through Instagram Stories, you can share other people’s Instagram posts. This function allows people to connect easily with other accounts and businesses.

“I think that brands are going to begin to use Instagram Stories to push consumers to IGTV, to create more long-form content for their organizations. Alternatively, perhaps towards social e-commerce, where brands will begin selling their products via Instagram Stories.”

Maisie Tomlinson – marketing coordinator for Penguins Events and Incentives.

Stories aren’t going to be a suitable option for every brand out there, but with them being so engaging and seeing an increased use that will likely lead consumers to expect brands they follow to create Stories, it is worth assessing if and how you can utilise them. As Instagram sees more businesses use Stories, the platform will also likely release more features designed for brands, which could make the format more accessible for a broader range of companies.

Follow up

With so many areas of marketing and digital marketing, there are a huge number of changes across the industry that you need to keep up with. This is why we’re keeping track of all the big digital marketing trends for 2020 across various channels to keep you up-to-date and ahead of the curve.

By Joanna Carter – Smart Insights

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