The world of social media and social media marketing is shifting beneath our feet all the time. We know this, and that’s precisely why it’s essential to stay engaged with the nature of these changes and what they mean for how marketers and brands need to adapt. Staying static, more often than not, means getting left behind.
A lot has happened in the last few years, and social media has changed in various ways. We can expect to see further change ahead of us, and that’s something that we can already see. When things are changing as often as they seem to change in the world of social media, it’s easy to start to feel overwhelmed, but it doesn’t need to be that way.
Read on now and find out more about the trends we saw last year and the new features and trends that we expect to be coming our way this year. Once you’re armed with that knowledge, you can start to adapt your brand’s methods or your efforts as a marketer to yield the best possible results.
The Most Important Trends We Saw
More Growth
One of the expected trends we saw play out was the continued growth and popularity of social media platforms in general. The total number of active social media users currently stands at 4.14 billion, making up more than half the world’s population. This represents a total growth percentage of 12.3% on the previous year. As part of this growth, we’re also seeing more people use social media predominantly on their smartphone devices. And access to them increases around the world, so does social media usage.
Shops on Facebook and Instagram
Facebook and Instagram have developed a new feature that was introduced in 2020. Shops help businesses sell to customers more easily on these platforms, and it’s helped to increase the usefulness of their platforms to businesses. Commerce and social media platforms are becoming more intertwined than ever before. It’s a trend that’s been underway for quite a long time, but 2020 is when we really saw those trends accelerate and blossom, with Facebook leading the way. It’s something that will continue into the future and beyond.
The New Products Tab on LinkedIn
For businesses that use LinkedIn as part of their social approach, one of the most important new features that’s arisen over the past year is the Products tab. This is where businesses can directly show off the key features of their business or products. This is something entirely new and brings a fresh dimension to the platform. It’s also led to companies using the platform that might not have previously seen any need to do so, so it’s definitely a significant feature for the platform.
A New Focus on Video Content
Video content has become even more critical than ever before, and that’s something that you’re probably well aware of. Facebook, Instagram and Youtube now all have their own Stories or Reels features, allowing people to create short video content, and it’s used by individuals and businesses alike. We’ve also seen the rise of TikTok. The platform has taken off in a way that many social marketers and industry professionals wouldn’t have predicted, and brands are now embracing the trend of video content like never before.
Customer Service on Social Media
Customer service is a part of business that’s now tied to social media in a way that’s impossible to ignore. That’s something that’s happened quite organically in the social landscape, and it’s happened because the arrangement works for both parties. It’s easy for customers to deal with customer service issues, complaints and queries via social media. And it’s also useful for brands to deal with minor problems that can be fixed with a single message via social media rather than having their customer service inbox clogged up.
Advanced Targeting for Social Ads
Targeting is another key trend in the world of social marketing. We’ve seen social media platforms make it even easier to target particular groups and demographics with ads and content. Advanced targeting options help marketers not waste money on marketing campaigns that aren’t even going to reach the right people. Facebook, in particular, has a range of exact and in-depth features and options for targeting audiences. And there’s also more tools out there than ever that help you understand where particular age groups and demographics are most likely to be found online.
The Features and Trends to Expect
More Short-Form Video
One thing we’re almost certainly going to see more of is short-from video content. When you head to most social media platforms now, you’ll find short-form video content from brands and individuals. As we’ve mentioned above, Stories and Reels-type features are now ubiquitous. And TikTok has built the most hyped social media platform to arrive at any time in the last few years by focusing its strategy on short-form video content. This is a trend that will grow in popularity and certainly won’t be going away anytime soon.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality will be used more and more when it comes to selling and marketing products online. Augmented reality allows you to see what a product would look like in the real world. And it’s not just about selling products; AR can also be used to engage people with fun and brand-relevant content. It’s something we haven’t seen too much of just yet, but it’ll come to the fore this year. It’ll be used in a similar way to how Snapchat filters have been used in the past.
Smaller, More Niche Platforms
Smaller and more niche platforms are also expected to grow in popularity too. This is something we started to see at the beginning of 2020. Platforms like Clubhouse became popular in the business and finance niches, allowing people to engage with companies and professionals they admire in new ways and help companies engage with their audience in more immediate and meaningful ways. That’s one example of a niche platform that’s found success, and we can expect to see more across a range of niches this year,
Storytelling for Brands
Storytelling is as big as ever. That’s perhaps highlighted by the use of the name ‘Stories’ for the new Instagram feature. Brands need to make use of these opportunities and the demand there is from audiences for storytelling content. It’s also significant that live streaming is on the rise and will probably continue to rise in popularity, even once the pandemic is over. Brands that can craft a story on social media will create closer bonds and connections with their target audiences and customer bases online.
Virtual Events
Because of the pandemic and the constraints it’s placed on live events and things like that, we’ve already seen more virtual live events taking place, usually via live streams, as we mentioned above. These virtual events have been very successful, popular and profitable for businesses and brands. Live streaming is being made more accessible than ever before on many of the top social media platforms. This trend is one we can expect to see more of. And hopefully, brands will start to use these opportunities in more creative ways.
Further Developments in Social Commerce
Social commerce is a significant trend for this year. It was born in 2020, but the coming years is when social commerce will come to the fore and really develop into a meaningful force for good for many brands. It’s getting more straightforward for companies to sell via social platforms, changing the strategies companies need to use. If selling on social media platforms becomes a viable proposition, as it’s expected to, boosting traffic to external sites may well become a lower priority for some brands.
The Importance of Engaging with Social Causes
Social issues and the expectation that companies will take a stand on important social issues are trends that we can expect to see a lot more of this year. On social media in particular, many people expect the brands they support to also lend support for good causes and take a stand when necessary. Charity campaigns and acts of kindness go down very well with audiences on social platforms.
What This All Means for Brands
What all of this means for your brand is that the trends we started to see last year will continue to play out this year. It’s clear that although the world of social marketing is changing, it’s a case of evolution rather than revolution. Trends develop and extend over periods of years in many cases.
Of course, there are more significant changes that need to be factored into your social marketing strategy. And an excellent example of that is the rise of smaller and niche social media platforms that we can expect to become more important.