Digital marketing trends of 2019

A look at what the marketing pundits are saying about 2019 has a lot of predictions. A few pertain to Facebook, which is probably what most flight schools use for social media marketing.

That’s not surprising. It’s simple to set up and maintain a Facebook page. And Facebook’s targeted advertising algorithms are highly effective. William Woodward dives deeper into how to use Facebook advertising in this article from 2017.

Another advantage of Facebook is that it’s probably where your audience is. As of third quarter 2018, active Facebook users worldwide numbered 2.27 billion. That’s a 10 percent increase year over year, according to Zephoria Digital Marketing.

Other reports suggest Facebook usage is static or declining in most age groups except people over age 55.

Meanwhile, Instagram usage is increasing across all age groups. Some 1 billion people use this ap monthly, and that figure puts it ahead of Twitter (68 million), and Pinterest (250 million). What’s more, some of these users have high levels of disposable income. According to AdEspresso, 31 percent of people who make more than $75,000 per year are on Instagram. Thirty-two percent of people who make between $50,000 and $74,000 per year also use Instagram.

Engagement with followers also is higher on Instagram. Brands on Instagram regularly see engagement from around 4 percent of their total followers—which doesn’t sound particularly high, except when you consider that brands see engagement rates that are 10 times higher on Instagram than they do on Facebook.

Instagram gets a little complicated. You can set up a free account for your business, but you can’t post ads on it. And there’s only one place to share a clickable link to your business.

You can set up a business profile that includes more contact info—also free—but it must be linked to your flight school’s Facebook page. (I warned you it gets complicated.)

Instagram deserves a deeper dive in a future Marketing column. For now, let’s just say it’s out there for you to think about.

Finally, there’s Snapchat. I do not know of any flight school that uses Snapchat—and if yours does, please email me ([email protected]). Snapchat is what’s known as an “ephemeral app” because its users share content—photos and short videos mostly—that disappears a few seconds after it has been viewed by recipients.

“Not everyone gets it—particularly older adults,” says Lifewire, and I think that’s probably an understatement. So why am I mentioning it? Because 186 million people a day are using it. Yes, they are primarily in the 18- to 34-year age bracket, and roughly 71 percent of users are under the age of 34. That’s still a lot of potential customers. Maybe they can’t afford flight instruction now, but they might someday soon.