At the end of last year, we discussed a few social media trends that we believed would dominate in 2020 and how that could transform your business in the online environment. Today, we are diving back into the social media landscape and we are taking a closer look at how a global pandemic pushed boundaries, made us rethink strategies and impacted the entire world, as well as the digital one.
With old ones looking like they’re here to stay and some new ones on the horizon, it seems only fitting that we share a few social media trends that will help you grow your online presence in 2021:
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Stories Or It Never Happened
In last year’s article, we mentioned ephemeral content, bite-sized pieces that can be easily consumed by online users on your social media channels and disappear from your profile within 24 hours. Given the nature of this type of content, users are more likely to spend up to a few hours scrolling through Insta Stories, Facebook Stories or Snapchat.
A year later, there are more and more marketers who integrate Stories into their social media strategies as they believe it’s now an essential part of their content and engagement approach.
Quarrel Of The Ancients And The Moderns
Nothing quite like a fierce French literary debate from the 17th century, but still a heated dialogue in the digital space, the competition between the ancient channels and the new platforms is ON (-ish?).
As much as we love playing around with TikTok and the more recently released, Clubhouse, businesses, marketers and consumers still prefer Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube to follow people, brands and create content. According to Hootsuite’s latest surveys, “60% stated that they intend to increase their Instagram budget in 2021, and 46% plan to increase their Facebook budget. YouTube (45%) and LinkedIn are also popular. Only 14% of the surveyed firms intend to raise their TikTok marketing.”
Video Content Isn’t Going Anywhere
If scrolling through your social media feeds, you ever get the feeling that there’s more video content than ever, you are right to believe that and you need to embrace it cause more of it is on its way!
Video content has completely revolutionised social media in recent years and all statistics point to the fact that video content will definitely dominate your feeds in the years to come. Out of all content types, it sure looks like we have a winner. Even with paid social, we are witnessing an increase in the number of dynamic advertisements and video-based ads.
Have You Ever Tried…Streaming?
If you think streaming is just for gaming, you are missing out on an amazing opportunity to engage with your audience in real-time and introduce new products which your customers can look at in a way in which is simply not possible otherwise in the online space. Many brands may have already tried streaming without maybe intending to do so in the past year as they had to face the challenges of national lockdowns and restrictions.
It pushed marketers and brands to think outside the box and figure out a solution to get closer to their customers on social media. In a time where the customer can’t come to the store, the store needs to come to the customer and thanks to social media, this is all possible today.
What Can I Do For You Today?
Customer Service on social media is probably one of the most important aspects of your online strategy, especially if we refer to medium to large companies. It is crucial to building relationships with your online community and a big part of this community is represented by individuals who are loyal customers, occasional customers or potential customers.
Besides everything else that you are integrating within your marketing strategy, it is now clear that online users expect companies and organisations to respond to their online enquiries and they also expect a response within a few hours. What’s more, according to a statistic released by Go Globe, 60% of customers who complain on social media expect a response within an hour.
So, what’s next?
Even though the social media world is constantly changing, your audience is most likely spending a significant amount of time already on some of the most popular social media platforms, meaning that you can leverage these channels to reach your target audience, generate leads, increase sales or build brand awareness.
