As social media and its associated data becomes more ubiquitous, marketers are finding new ways to use it in various channels to reach audiences and consumers. Social media and web monitoring tool provider Awario has compiled a list of five data-driven trends showing how social media is being used to build connections in 2019.

Social media has been part of the foundation of most marketers’ social selling strategies for several years now, with an area of focus including the development of relationships as part of the sales process, and they’re using it for lead generation, tracking conversations about their brand and other practices.

Social listening—how brands receive and respond to consumers’ online communications—has become more important as public increasingly reaches out to them online, and tinhe right social listening practices make it easier for organizations to manage. Subsequently, the popularity of social listening tools is growing with marketers.

Influencer marketing has become part of many organizations’ toolkits, Hootsuite data shows. And while influencers with a million or more followers charge up to $10,000 a post, micro-influencers—those with 2,000 to 50,000 followers—have been shown to be much more efficient at connecting with consumers.

Ephemeral content, like Instagram’s Stories feature—posts stay visible for 24 hours—have also become popular with marketers, in part because of the channel’s tremendous growth in popularity with consumers.

Social advertising is drawing more scrutiny from advertisers as organic reach rates decline and concerns over the volatility of Facebook’s algorithm grow. Social ad budgets and frequency are growing to accommodate this focus.

For more information and an infographic illustrating Awario’s findings, click here.