Introduction

Social media networking sites (SNS) are the mediated tool that allows people to connect and interact with each other. Social media is meant for creating and sharing content, gathering information, and forming virtual communities to build connections.

Brainvire believes that it is a general rule of thumb that any content uploaded on social media is not completely private. Since there is a huge shift of interest towards the use of social media by masses, the privacy of people has taken a backseat.

All social media networks will share some of the private information provided by users. The reason behind this information sharing is that their services are free and hence they make their income with the help of advertising.

This behavioral advertising and targeting promote the brands to advertise their content on social media networks to earn a profit. As now businesses and their customers both are inclining towards social media, the privacy concern is encapsulating both of their information.

There are many causes of the profile data being used without their concern, fake profile creation, accounts being hijacked and other cases revolving around privacy threats.

All these concerns were spelling doom on the popular social networking channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. In 2018, Facebook disclosed an entire detail and cheat sheet of the data breach affecting 87 million users.

Another application linked to Facebook used its analytics to extract the psychographic nature of the profiles and sent them relatable marketing offers. The credibility of Facebook came down and users were left dismayed by privacy issues.

After this, modification of privacy features was done and users continue to use social media. It is essential for every business to keep the pace with the social media trends and stay ahead in the curve:

Connecting with Messengers

Messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Snapchat are very beneficial for keeping in touch with customers. They have more users than Facebook because of their usability and convenience.

Brands can easily advertise through the popularly added feature of ‘stories’ and to save from the privacy hazards, they are auto-deleted within 24 hours of uploading.

While the users of WhatsApp need to save the number to see the advertising campaigns, marketing through stories on Instagram and Snapchat have made huge impacts as it can be shared worldwide. There is certain robotic software that acts as an inbound marketing tool to answer queries and feedback of the customers.

Vigilance in Privacy

The online marketing strategies that focus on sharing messages are also under the threat of privacy issues. The business will need to incorporate robotic features that will ensure the messages get auto-deleted after a year.

Therefore, it is a better idea to replace the messenger with the story feature. The stories remain active for about a day, this ensures that brands concentrate on giving new offers and information in a consistent manner. Whereas, the users will not have any privacy concern about the links being shared online.

There is no risk in clicking those advertisements and users are exemplified by the beautiful multimedia stories, which they can easily put away by unfollowing the brand profiles.

Social Media Stories

Sharing stories is an integral part of social media marketing. A human being or rather customers are always searching for stories. These story-driven clients can be easily served with new content as every day because there are endless possibilities by the brands to discover.

It is an engaging way to reach out to prospects. It is a cost-effective way to drive traffic to the webpage and to reach the target group of audience. Brands are incorporating polls, backlinks, geofilters, and location tags, by tagging their followers to actively engage the audience. The customers remain connected with brand awareness.

Individualized Content

It is important to stay connected with the viewers and engage actively with them. Social media is more trustworthy for the customers than the brands, services are driven towards private platforms.

The brands should keep a strict vigil over the content that is being shared and concentrate more on transparency. Adding a new feature such as ‘call to action’  is a wonderful way to motivate the audience to take action on the viewed content.

Whenever a feature added with the social media stories prompts the user to take action, it increases brand communication and customer engagement to a large extent.

In accordance with the social media influencers, the paradigm shift is turning towards more engaging content and viral posts over social media.

Stories are a great way to share exclusive content on hype to promote discounts, promotional codes, and sale notification. Brands and customers are inclining towards broadcast messages and self-subscription, improving privacy features, and staying connected at the same time.