9 of the most important Facebook trends to watch in 2020

Facebook is one of the biggest ways businesses and entrepreneurs communicate with their audience and engage their followers. This article that the JC Sweet & Co. Team found on Hootsuite discusses the most important Facebook trends to watch in 2020.

Here are some of the Facebook trends you should have on your radar this year.

1. More shifts to private channels

At the annual F8 Developer conference last year, Mark Zuckerberg shared “A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking.” And he doubled down on that vision at the beginning of this year.

“Our digital social environments will feel very different over the next 5+ years, re-emphasizing private interactions and helping us build the smaller communities we all need in our lives,” he said in an update on Facebook.

So, what does this mean? Expect Facebook to prioritize the private channels it already offers. That includes Facebook Messenger, Facebook Groups—and channels in its app family, such as WhatsApp and Instagram. Close Friends filters—like the one Instagram introduced, will likely show up more on Facebook, too.

Many brands have found success with private Instagram accounts. Facebook launched Groups for Pages in 2017, and last year the company let brand pages join Private Groups.

2. A group-centric redesign

Facebook has already started rolling out FB5, a “fifth version” of Facebook that will put Facebook Groups at the center of the platform.

The redesign was officially announced in April, but so far only a select few have been granted access to the new format. Some are already getting used to it.

Here’s what the redesign will look like:

The Groups tab will get a new look aimed at making it easier to discover new groups.
The Groups tab will feature a personalized feed that will show activity from all of the groups a member has joined.
Group updates will also show up more often in the News Feed.

There are already 1.4 billion people using Facebook Groups—400 million of whom say they belong to a group they find meaningful. Over 2020, Facebook will undoubtedly push to see these figures climb. Facebook will begin making group recommendations to users all across its platform, including in Marketplace, Today In, the Gaming tab, and Facebook Watch.

3. Upgrades to Messenger, with pivots to desktop

You read that right: Pivot to desktop.

Mobile still reigns supreme. In fact, when it comes to marketing, 94% of all ad revenue comes from mobile.

But Facebook has also started making small pivots to desktop. Last year at Facebook’s annual F8 Developer conference, the company announced the release of a desktop app for Messenger. While a beta version has appeared in some test markets, we’re still waiting for the full roll-out. Earlier this month, Instagram shared that it will also start testing direct messaging on desktop.

Messenger Desktop will have the same features as the phone app. Group video calls and collaboration features will be available in the new format, supporting the platform’s shift to private spaces.

4. No more like counts?

In September last year, Facebook confirmed that it would test hiding like counts in Australia. The tests follow Instagram’s move to roll out private like counts globally after conducting trials.

According to Instagram, feedback has been mostly positive so far, which makes it all the more likely that likes will disappear from Facebook, too. Many Instagram trends find their way onto Facebook.

It’s still too early to say how this will or will not affect businesses on Facebook. When it comes to partnerships with influencers, it will no longer be possible to determine engagement rate by like count. In this case, brands will have to rely on the influencer to provide that information.

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