Guide: What to Expect on Social Media in 2021

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In a matter of days 2020 will be gone; a year in which a global pandemic ignited the already accelerating impact of social media on daily lives. Given the importance of social media in every aspect of life, it isn’t unusual that brands and businesses are flocking to these platforms to engage and win business from consumers. The social media advertising market is deemed as the second biggest market within the digital advertising industry. In 2019, the world revenue of this market was roughly $92 billion, and is anticipated to reach $132 billion in 2024. These statistics show that social media is here to stay and, on the way, to dominate over traditional media in the advertising industry.

With competition being tougher than ever due to content overload, how can you stand out? Having a clear social media marketing strategy and thoughtfully implementing trends is a sure way to stick out from the rest. Below are a range of social media trends for 2021.  

Influencer Marketing and User Generated Content

The idea of influencer marketing isn’t new but continues to prove immense value going into 2021. After being restricted to celebrities and select bloggers, the phenomenon of influencers witnessed a boom over the past few years and has constituted a massive arena for digital marketing. This market is currently worth billions of dollars, and by 2022 is expected to become a $15 billion industry and will reach $23 billion by 2025.

On the other side, we find User Generated Content (UGC). This type of advertising is content that is created by real people who become brand advocates. This type of content is valuable because people tend to believe real customer opinions more than influencers. Influencers have developed a stigma that their viewpoint is exactly the opposite of what they advertise because they get paid for product placement. Whereas UGC offers another viewpoint (and revenue stream) which is the countless number of people that share their raw experience with a product/service without the brand/business spending extra.

Finding the right balance of Influencer marketing and UGC can be tricky but is an extremely valuable layer in a social media strategy. The rate in which this tactic is implemented in strategies will continue to soar in 2021.   

 Domination of Video Content

Video content has proven to be a clear winner with engagement over other content types. Every year in prediction articles like this, video is discussed as a powerful player on the rise; the time is here, and now video content has risen to a level of domination that cannot be ignored. Due to social distancing and a lack of in-person opportunities in 2020, video became the norm and will continue to take center stage on social platforms in 2021. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn have geared themselves to become video heavy platforms by introducing new features and updates.

According to a Cisco Study, people continue to watch digital videos over traditional television and by 2021 mobile video will absorb 78% of total mobile data traffic. YouTube comes in second place after Facebook as the most-visited social media platform and has 2 billion monthly users logged into the platform (Alexa.com). In addition to all of that, here are some fascinating statistics that truly encapsulate the weight of YouTube in the video content market: 

In addition to YouTube, there is IGTV which was launched in June 2018 by Instagram. This feature allows users to create videos up to 15-minutes long. Even though IGTV encountered a frustrating start, views skyrocketed 300%-1000% eight months after its launch due to IGTV previews being allowed to appear in the regular feed. According to Social Media Examiner, IGTV is the 8th most used video channel by marketers after LinkedIn native videos and before LinkedIn stories with 9%. It is still not as powerful when compared to YouTube or Facebook but, with the high demand on video content that expands yearly, it is expected to rise in the future.

Another significant factor in the video content game is short-form videos or “snackable” video content. This type of video content has been recently introduced to the market and has created a splash due to some stunning in-app editing features. This type of content is extremely valuable because it is short and to the point which corresponds to the fast-paced modern life. It can be watched on the way to work, in the elevator, or in line for coffee. Two prime examples of the power of “snackable” video content are TikTok and Reels.   

Within 18 months of its launch, TikTok reached 1 billion downloads. TikTok is currently the 8th most popular social media platform with 800 million monthly active users; 26 million of them are from the U.S. and 41% of its users’ are between 16 and 24 years old. According to Reuters, TikTok will generate at least $27 billion in advertising revenue in China alone. 

Competing with TikTok, Reels, Instagram’s newest video feature, was officially launched in August of 2020. What makes Reels preferable to users is that it’s a feature on a platform that they already have an account and audience on, which saves them time and energy. When Reels was first launched as a test in Brazil, Brazilian Instagram users increased monthly by 4.34% compared to previously just 1%. Reels is a big rival to TikTok, and in case TikTok disappears or gets banned, Reels will become overrun with users. 

Although video isn’t new, the findings above show that choosing to not generate video content as a part of your social media marketing strategy is a huge costly mistake.  It is enough to take a look on the world’s most-used social media platforms list to realize that video content power in social media marketing is non-negotiable.

The New Norm: Live Streaming

Even before the pandemic, live streaming was witnessing notable increases. In 2018, live streams were watched more compared to 2017; and in 2018, 1.1 billion hours of live videos were viewed on the internet. According to Grand View research, predictions indicate that by 2027 the video streaming industry will hit $184.3 billion. These statistics show this market is clearly growing year over year. With the coming of the pandemic and the havoc that it wrecked on normal life, including travel restrictions/gathering bans, many activities like conferences and concerts have been shifted to video streaming platforms. All of this contributed to doubling the expectations of livestreams in 2020. Bandsintown, a music website, has stated that 17,000 artists have streamed 57,000 performances during the pandemic since March 2020. A similar jump was spotted in livestream shopping. According to Alibaba, on National Singles Day the website reaped $1.1 billion in merchandise in just 30 minutes through their Taobao live video service. This meteoric number in record time shows us the level that the live streaming industry reached which is undoubtedly just the beginning and still has room to grow.

Expansion of Augmented Reality Filters

Year in, year out, Augmented Reality (AR) becomes more mainstream. Since the Pokemon Go craze, AR has become a large industry and widespread in many markets. Social media is one of the markets that AR imposed its presence on through face filters that enables users to overlay images, text, and animation on the real world. Like anything that goes viral on social media, AR filters are step-by-step turning out to be essential in marketing with the expanding demand, particularly from young people that are borderline obsessed with playing with face filters. Businesses have started getting in the game of AR filters to promote their brands. For instance, Taco Bell created a viral filter on Snapchat that turns a human face into a Taco Bell taco. Other big companies like Nike, Disney, Adidas, Gucci are using Snapchat or Instagram (the two pioneers in AR filters) to promote their brands through face filters. Creators of these AR lenses are building credible careers from creating filters especially for brands and are sometimes earning six figures annually. Additionally, there are inhouse positions available at many social media companies; for example, there are 100 official creators that work for Snapchat.

Brand Participation in Social Media Communities 

Social media communities have always been around, particularly on Facebook and LinkedIn, which are called Groups. Groups are created by like-minded users to discuss mutual interests such as news, travel advice and academia. These groups have evolved over the years and have proven to be an ideal hub for brands to gain customer insight and interact directly with their consumers. In 2020 many social media marketing strategies included group contributions and in 2021 this will continue.

The algorithm updates that Facebook made in recent years have changed the way content from Pages is shared. Business Pages got around this issue when the “Groups for Pages” functionality launched in 2017. This new feature enabled brands and businesses to create and link groups to their Pages. Through this feature brands can get to know their customer in a better way by knowing their top contributors along with feedback, age, gender and geographic locations of their communities. The bottom line of creating groups for brands is having real customers discuss the product/service and share useful ideas to alter the customer experience. These details are key for developing a 2021 social media marketing strategy in which brands take advantage of when creating content for various campaigns.

Social Commerce Is Here To Stay

 Social commerce has slowly been creeping into the forefront of the social media landscape. Although most of us use social media platforms as a way to kill time, chat with friends or post pretty pictures the acceleration of users purchasing through social platforms is precedent; especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Instagram and Facebook continue to make it easier and more seamless to shop on these platforms without it seeming too "pushy" by refining their ecommerce features and UX (user experience). According to Absolunet, 87% of e-commerce shoppers believe social media helps them make a shopping decision so, it’s no surprise in 2021 it’s expected that Instagram will continue to pivot their focus towards social commerce by introducing more features.

Increased Demand For Social Customer Service

Customer service has seen an uptick in recent years on social media platforms. A demand that grew because of technology, mainly due to social media, which has set up new interaction rules between customers and brands/businesses. Social media has allowed for transparent and personalized relationships with customers and therefore opened up the window for customer service requests to be satisfied on various platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Every year the demand for customer service grows along with attitudes and expectations of customers. Consequently, brands/businesses are racing to satisfy clients through building efficient and strong customer service departments that can keep up with the enlarging demand to deal with complaints, requests and questions. This demand is indicated by various statistics that demonstrate the magnitude of this service.  According to Microsoft 52% of people around the world believe that companies need to take action on feedback provided by their customers, and 54% of all consumers say that they have higher customer service expectations than they did just one year ago.

Additional key customer service stats include:

  • 54% of customers prefer social media for customer service over phone or email. (Conversocial)

  • 45% of the world's population uses social media (Emarsys)

  • 80% of consumers use social media to engage with brands. (Forrester) 

  • 54% of people that have social media use it to research products. (Global WebIndex)

  • Answering a social media complaint can increase customer advocacy by as much as 25%. (Convince and Convert)

  • 60% of customers who complain on social media expect a response within an hour. (Go Globe)

All these numbers point to one thing: customer service on social media platforms play a major role in any brand/business’s success, therefore brands and businesses need to prioritize their effort to keep up with the high demand in 2021. 

Conclusion 

These are some of the social media marketing trends which will dominate the 2021 landscape of social media. When developing a social media marketing strategy for the upcoming year, it is important to thoughtfully leverage these tactics. Although social media is a dynamic and ever-changing space, you can count on these trends to last throughout the 2021 year and potentially beyond. Social Alchemy is passionate about helping brands and businesses create an integrated social media strategy. 2021 looks like a great year ahead for social media marketing - here’s to 2021!