Facebook leads the total number of active users worldwide, according to Smart Insights Global Social Media Research, with over 1,870 million members. However, each social media site is responsible for bringing together like-minded people.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that most individuals spend a significant portion of their days on social media. In today's world, no.
People's lives and everyday routines have grown increasingly entwined with social media. Some people are so addicted to it that when they wake up, the first thing they do is check their social media accounts.
Because of the importance of social media in the lives of consumers, marketers and businesses flock to social media platforms in the hopes of interacting with their target audiences. On the other hand, there is a glut of content on social media, and the competition is fierce. If you don't have a clear social media marketing approach, it might be difficult to stand out. Keeping up with the newest social media trends may help you fuel your approach and set you apart from the competition. Here's a look at some of the social media trends to watch in 2021 and beyond.
The popularity of ephemeral content will continue to grow.
Ephemeral content is content that is only available for a limited time and then vanishes. This form of content is perfectly exemplified by Instagram and Snapchat Stories.
People's attention spans have shrunk in recent years, and their preferences for information consumption have shifted as well. It's for this reason that content formats like Stories have grown in popularity. People can spend hours browsing through one Story after another because they are brief, entertaining, and addictive.
The significant increase in Instagram Stories' daily active users, as illustrated below, demonstrates this.
Marketers have noticed this trend and will use it to their advantage in the future. According to a recent survey by Hootsuite, 64% of marketers have already implemented or plan to implement Instagram Stories into their plans.
According to another study, smart marketers are concentrating less on expanding reach and more on establishing transparent, high-quality engagement to keep up with these developments. Indeed, the term "engagement" has evolved from simple clicks to activities that have a greater influence on brand value and long-term ROI. And the one-size-fits-all approach to social media—with the same posts strewn throughout networks without regard for context or audience—is giving way to context- and audience-specific messaging.
Progressive companies like Adidas and The New York Times, for example, are working to develop intimate, meaningful dialogue with smaller, more valuable audience groups. They’re creating communities9 and sharing insightful and researched content10—then getting out of the way and letting passionate users talk to one another.
The popularity of ephemeral content will continue to grow.
As the largest and most popular sites on social media, Facebook and Instagram have long dominated. Several additional niche social media websites have appeared in recent years and have risen to prominence.
The newcomers, on the other hand, have had difficulty expanding.
TikTok, for example, debuted in 2016 and quickly acquired traction among young people. In both the Android and Apple app stores, it became one of the most popular apps. However, TikTok has been a victim of its own success to some way. Its popularity among the world's youth, as well as its Chinese ownership, has drew the notice of international regulators. President Trump has stated that it will not be allowed to operate in the United States unless it changes to have American ownership in that market. TikTok was prohibited in India's large market in June 2020.
In 2021, Facebook and Instagram had their own problems, and they are currently facing many legal challenges around the world. The Australian government is attempting to levy fees on platforms for sharing news from Australian news organizations.
In 2021, however, Facebook and Instagram have remained popular among its users. Hootsuite conducted a study to see where businesses planned to boost their social expenditure in 2021. In 2021, 60% of respondents aim to increase their Instagram spend, while 46% plan to raise their Facebook spend. YouTube and LinkedIn are also popular (45 percent and 45 percent, respectively). Only 14% of the companies polled plan to increase their TikTok marketing.
In the same study, respondents were asked which platforms they thought were the most effective for their objectives. The more traditional social networks remained popular, with Facebook leading the pack with 78 percent, Instagram 70 percent, LinkedIn 42 percent, and Twitter 33 percent.
Social commerce will continue to grow in popularity.
Brands have long sold their items using social media sites such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Brands are turning to social commerce as a new retail outlet, and this trend is only going to grow.
Social commerce is on its way to becoming a mainstream retail channel comparable to websites and brick-and-mortar establishments. This trend will continue to grow as more social networks implement pro-selling features such as shoppable posts.
Social media platforms are constantly developing to become retail platforms, from shoppable posts to Instagram Storefronts. Brands and marketers will take advantage of these opportunities and include social commerce into their sales plans.
Hootsuite recently inquired about their clients' goals for using social media. The most common motivation for firms to use social media was to increase new customer acquisition (73 percent ). Following that, there was an increase in brand awareness (64 percent ). With 45 percent, driving conversions (leads, purchases, and product inquiries) came in third.
Video Content Will Take the Lead
Video content is one of the most engaging sorts of content and will eventually dominate social media, outperforming all other sorts of information. Videos are the future of social media material, whether they are short-form videos like those popular on TikTok or Stories or long-form content on YouTube.
According to a Cisco study, video content will account for 82 percent of all Internet content by 2022. This demonstrates how critical it is to begin employing video content in order to remain relevant in the social media domain.
If you're not already using videos in your content strategy, now is the time to start. Videos will soon dominate social media, and anyone who fails to recognize this will have a difficult time surviving.
Start with features like Stories, which can be used for both social media content and marketing. You can also include videos in your social media posts, even on platforms where image or word material has typically dominated.
Adoption of technology will be at an all-time high.
The usage of technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will increase on social media (VR). Users will seek better and more engaging experiences as these platforms evolve, and these technologies can provide.
With the launch of Horizon, Facebook's social virtual reality world, the company has already taken significant advances in this area. This is a virtual environment where people may socialize, play games, and explore. This is the next level of social interaction, and it could very well be the social media of the future.
Influencer marketing is only going to get bigger.
Influencer marketing isn't a new phenomenon, but it's one that's here to stay. Today's social media is controlled by influencers who are paid astronomical sums to promote brands.
This trend's adoption can be seen from two angles. The sheer increase in the number of social media influencers demonstrates this. The growth in marketing spend on influencer marketing by businesses is the second indicator.
Investing in influencers is significantly less expensive than conducting sponsored marketing campaigns, and the outcomes are just as good. Furthermore, influencers can assist marketers in achieving a range of marketing objectives, not just lead generation. These are the two key reasons why it has grown in popularity and continues to grow bolder and stronger.
Marketers are increasingly partnering with a network of tiny, relevant, niche influencers rather than just 1-2 influencers. This type of influencer generates a lot more interaction and costs a lot less. In the future, more marketers will employ this method, collaborating with a number of minor influencers rather than a single star.
Use of social media for customer service is on the rise.
People have used social media to interact with their social networks and exchange photographs and videos for years. Those days, however, are long gone, and social media has evolved into much more.
It's evolved into a shopping site, a product discovery platform, and, most recently, a customer support channel. Many businesses have begun to see social media networks as platforms for providing customer care.
This shift occurred gradually as businesses became aware that many customers attempted to contact them via social media. This may be due to a lack of response on other channels or simply because it was a more direct method of contacting the brands.
Brands, of course, began reacting to such communications and guiding customers to the appropriate channels.
Imagine multiplying the number of such encounters by a factor of ten in a few years. It's not simply a few instances where people ask questions or complain about brands on social media, and the brands respond. It has now established itself as a major enough customer care channel for brands to acknowledge it as such.
It is also one of the most significant customer service channels, due to the severe consequences of poor customer service in front of other consumers. As a result, it's even more critical for brands to treat their customers well.
More Brands Will Include Social Listening in Their Marketing Plans
Businesses may utilize social media to refine their social strategies because it is a treasure of data and insights. And, because to the proliferation of social listening tools, anyone can now gain access to these insights.
Social listening has made its way into every marketer's plan due to the ease with which you may tap into social chats to glean valuable insights. It's being used by brands and marketers for a variety of purposes.
You can learn a lot from social listening, from determining the impact of a social media campaign to determining how people perceive a business. As a result, most marketers' social media strategy include social listening.
You may use a variety of social media listening programs for this purpose, so start experimenting and see which one you like most.
Conclusion
These are some of the social media trends that will dominate in 2021 and beyond. Take advantage of these trends to stay ahead of the competition. These trends might help you ace your social media game because social media is a dynamic and competitive place. So stay up to date on the newest advances in these areas and use them to your social media campaigns.