Top Social Media Trends for 2021

With the events of 2020 causing a dramatic increase in online users, many businesses are having to find new methods and platforms to market their products and services.

Due to the continuing lockdown restrictions in many places, users are also spending more time than ever online, with many online shopping sites receiving a massive spike in sales.

This means companies are having to use smarter ways to communicate, especially on social media. It has also meant that social media platforms have evolved their channels in line with what is trending.

So what are some of the top trends?

Social Commerce

Rather than using social media as a middle man between the user and a business’s online market, some businesses are cutting off the fat and using the social media platforms themselves in order to sell their product or service.

With lockdown restrictions, customers no longer have the option to shop in-store, and therefore their trust for online shopping has increased. In fact, a study shows that 17.2 million Brits were planning on shopping online exclusively and permanently after the pandemic.

Social platforms like Instagram and Facebook have jumped on this trend and have now introduced new in-app shopping experiences designed to “keep businesses growing”.


TikTok is rising like never before

Since TikTok’s launch in 2016, it now has over a total of two billion downloads and over one billion videos are watched every day! The strategy? Short, fun, helpful videos that can bring about all of our human emotions.

TikTok is terrific for any young audience with their user age group primarily ranging from 10-29-year-olds. And, with more people unemployed than ever before, the number of users with free time has skyrocketed.

Video is still growing

 

Video is the most popular content format, with new data showing that:

  • 84% of users bought a companies product after watching one of their videos
  • People prefer watching youtube videos 4X as much as opposed to non-video-centric social platforms
  • Our attention span is decreasing due to the amount of information that we are overburdened by, meaning videos are an easy way to consume content

With this massive influx in video production and consumption, it pays off to convert some of your promotional content to a video format.

Influx of baby boomers

As the internet becomes more integrated into our everyday lives, those who previously lived without it are slowly but surely climbing aboard.

Social networks experienced a mass influx of new users within the age range of 50-65, providing a new demographic to any business that markets itself over social media.

While this age group has always been present on the internet, their sheer numbers mean that this group should now be considered by most businesses when crafting a social media campaign.


Social media usage and statistics

The average number of users on social media 2019-2021 has grown by 21% across the most popular platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat).

In fact, there was no social media platform that didn’t experience at least a somewhat substantial rise in users during the pandemic, as people flocked to the internet to fill their free time.

With more eyes than ever looking at social media content, there’s never been a better time for businesses to improve or begin their social media presence.

Fast tip: If you own a business, don’t have a lot of time, and are not sure where to begin, it’s best to begin by focusing on only one or two social platforms. For example, you can grow your Facebook page first or start posting helpful videos on Youtube. The type of platform you choose should depend on where your customers are most likely to be. If your customers are over the age of 55, it would be smarter to focus on marketing via Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube.


VR and AR

Virtual reality and augmented reality are two up-and-coming technologies that have a lot of potentials to be used as social media marketing tools.

While virtual reality can be quite expensive, augmented reality is all-around use, used on platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram.

Using interesting or funny AR filters to advertise your business is a great way to spread the word, and other than paying for the filter itself, a business won’t have to put much work into the promotion, as it’s mostly done by the customers.