Each year brings new challenges while the previous year provides lessons from eye-opening experiences, especially when it comes to professionals working in the social media marketing service. Incessant upgrades, intense competition, rapid shifts in markets, privacy regulations, consumer preferences, and, of course, technology itself, makes social media difficult to navigate.
Additionally, the Covid-19 outbreak has significantly impacted people’s lives. Due to social distancing, a vast majority of businesses have started operating remotely and in such times, providing the best social media marketing service to customers has become a challenge like no other. Since consumer behaviour has changed dramatically over this period, it is critical for all professionals and businesspersons to adapt to those changes as soon as possible and come up with content ideas that will help their businesses run successfully in the current scenario.
So, if you’re looking for some inspiration to enhance your skills in providing the best social media marketing service to your customers, we’ve got you covered. We’ve compiled a list of the top seven social media trends to look out for in 2021:
1. Live Events Are The New Normal
No matter how much you wish to attend family gatherings and in-person conferences, these events seem like a thing of the past with ongoing travel restrictions. Now, virtual events and live interactions are the new normal and will remain so for coming years.
Thanks to online streaming, businesses can re-create the in-person experience for their customers. Many national and international brands are organising live events and running them successfully.
2. Don’t Underestimate The Boomers
Boomers might not be as tech-savvy as Gen-Z and millennials, but when it comes to social media channels, they hold the maximum wealth as compared to any other demographic. Again, thanks to boomers, Facebook is still the most popular platform among individuals, followed by Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. Businesses still prefer Facebook ads over anything else as they help brands up their investment.
We suggest you to not abandon your older social media platform including Facebook in place of newer platforms as Facebook ads are tried and tested, and are proven to bring fruitful results to most businesses.
3. Include Short Videos In Your Social Content Strategy
It is no secret that video content has completely taken over social media over the past year; and not the lengthy videos, but short clips and reels that are the rage right now. Most significant brands believe that Instagram reels and TikTok videos are here to stay, and both will stay in demand for years to come.
So, if your social media marketing service does not include video marketing yet, you must reconsider it as creating and editing videos are easier now than ever, thanks to the fantastic features of Instagram reels and Tiktok.
4. AR And VR Aren’t A Niche Anymore
Gone are the days when terms such as Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VI) were a niche; nowadays, you can create your augmented reality ad with the help of Ads Manager. This is not the first time we will be using augmented reality; we have been using it since 2017 when Instagram launched its face filters. Today, brands can create interactive AR filters for Instagram stories and even AR ads using Facebook mobile news feed.
Believe us, creating your filters will help you strengthen your brand building and connect you to your users and fans. All major businesses are incorporating AR in their marketing tactics and soon, consumers will be able to enjoy a real-time shopping experience and try the latest frames of their favourite eyewear virtually via AR.
5. Get Your Brand Discovered Without Hashtags
Thanks to the new feature launched by Instagram at the end of 2020, your brand can now get discovered even without using hashtags. Instagram has introduced a feature named Interest search that allows you to search your topics of interest or product without using an account name or hashtag. Another exciting feature that you must not miss to check out is the Guide. It allows you to create a list of destinations, posts, or products of your choice.
To get your content discovered, you must consider using keywords in the caption for Instagram in addition to or instead of hashtags. It will help more people to discover your posts. Even if you wish to use keywords, make sure you use niche and small keywords, as doing so will help you get better engagement. You must remember that you are not posting just for your followers, but all the people who will come across your feed. You can also reach out to any social media marketing consultant to find out the trending keywords.
6. Facebook Is Still The Best Platform For E-commerce
Despite all the hype that has been given to TikTok, platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are still the most preferred ones for e-commerce businesses. As per a survey conducted by Hootsuite, 50% of companies save their social media marketing budget for Instagram, while the rest is invested in other social media channels including Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube.
In case you haven’t prepared your paid ad strategy for 2021 yet, you must keep the statistics in mind to gain beneficial results.
7. Come Up With Clever Tactics
Instead of running after a few clicks, level up your game and adapt fast and clever tactics for your business. A Tommy Hilfiger Livestream event in China drew 14 million viewers and sold out 1,300 hoodies in just two minutes. Livestream shopping events are predicted to generate $25 billion in sales by 2023 in the US. It’s time businesses reinvent their strategies and change their approach in order to attract more customers online. It will help their business flourish and connect it with the target audience.
All these trends are sure to bring tremendous profit to your business and to the way your business attracts the customer. Even the world’s most brilliant social media consultants vouch for these amazing social media trends.
So wait no more and get your hands on these amazing social media marketing trends.