Trends That Will Redefine Social Media Marketing in 2021
Over the last few years, social media has become an indispensable part of our lifestyles and daily routines. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok haven’t just transformed the way we connect with each other, they have completely changed the way we consume content online. Content including videos and gifs, animations and infographics, images and text are all that drive social media content marketing.
For businesses, 2021 planning will be a little distinctive than in previous years. While it is the fact that change is constant in marketing, 2020 disturbed the field so dramatically that many brands are revisiting everything from personas and customer journeys to brand goals.
One marketing practice that rose back to eminence in 2020 is social media. It makes sense – as the world was demanded to remain socially distanced, social media filled the gap and helped us to connect with family, friends, and the brands we love. The latest social media updates keep track of new trends.
Considering its advancement, social media has become a leading medium for marketers to interact with their potential clients, but the huge competition and congestion of online content can make it daunting and somewhat arduous to stand out from the crowd.
By the persistent expansion of smartphone technology, social media has provided a limitless stream of new fads, peculiarities and platforms. There are approximately 3.2 billion people using social media worldwide, so there is no doubt that new social media trends are steadily developing, flourishing and evolving every day.
It can be hard to keep up, so here’s our take on 2021 trends in social media marketing for the upcoming year!
Short Videos
There is no surprise that social media video is the most entertaining form of online digital content. But due to the frivolous character of social media, short video content in special has swiftly become popular on our social media feeds.
While the long video was first pinned to beat short video in 2020, the launch of TikTok and Instagram Reels has made that “snackable”, short video content will turn to become more prominent than ever before in 2021.
Easy-to-create, easy-to-watch, short videos are a trend that has been intensified by the pandemic crisis, with social distancing regulations and the shift of employees working from home heading to an expanded number of users setting up and consuming video content on their smartphones.
If you need to stay top of the competition, it’s necessary to try new features, such as Reels for Instagram. If you are focusing mainly on Instagram, or if you make content frequently, you should consider making or reusing your content for Reels. There’s also IGTV, Instagram’s answer to YouTube, for longer form content.
Instagram is encouraging and promoting content creators who utilise Reels by predominantly presenting their Reels on the Instagram and Explore page. The fact that Reels is inside the Instagram app is also indicating that Instagram is highlighting its potential. Reels can be a great influence for a content creator to have all their ideas in one app. So if you can, it’s a good idea to utilise this feature in the initial stages to get some more publicity from Instagram. You can use Reels as another channel for what you need to convey, market or share with your target audience in short, informal clips.
Paid and Personalised Content
It is worth investing in paid content on social media as we have seen with ongoing algorithm changes. Whether you are looking for engagements or connections, sponsored apps on social media support you to achieve it. As millions of firms are competing on the same digital platform, it's a bit hard to stay at the top without paid promotions.
Social media platforms have reformed their algorithms regularly, to mixed views of the globe’s greater social media audience. With latest changes, users can set the privacy of their personal posts or get the feed to display only the ones that are related to them. And for this, users are required to personalise their content so that it reaches the target audiences.
Going Live
How frequently do you notice an influencer, business owner or a favourite celebrity go live on social media? It is necessary to communicate with your audience or followers frequently in a personal style of broadcast. Technically, it is a mode of remarketing. The more you connect, the more you can engage with your audience and make them feel heard or part of your community. The whole aim is to get a good connection with your followers as it is a form of affirmation. Particularly as much of the glob has had to WFH, watching live streams has been an immediate outlet into another place outside their homes.
You can promote pre-announcement concerning your live appearance across social media platforms through organic and paid methods. It is crucial to address your intention and respond straight to the questions asked by followers. These recurrent connections will help recognise your audience better.
AI and Chatbots
One of the technologies that have evolved remarkably in the past few years is artificial intelligence (AI). AI has advanced substantially with machine learning software – it has become more practical and is steadily learning from new inputs. As an outcome, more and more businesses are initiating to consolidate Chatbots to support functions such as planning. Chatbots can streamline your communications with customers when used right, with an increasing amount of AI solutions for social media available.
Chatbots make many interactions more straightforward for the firm (your business) and the client. For instance, if clients require to arrange an appointment with you, they can utilise the Chatbot in the to mention the service and time of the appointment or answer basic queries.
Chatbots will not entirely oust customer service agents, but they will handle the customer request process more user-friendly. Chatbots can give fast replies to simple questions and, with machine learning software, they can modify replies and suggestions based on user requirements. Potential or existing clients can get answers on their own time with Chatbots at their service.
Undoubtedly, businesses will be required to consolidate Chatbots into their content marketing system and follow new trends in content marketing as soon as possible.
Utilising Bloggers
Utilising bloggers to advertise has become prominent a long time ago and it is still a real trend. It builds up the audience, creates more content (great for SEO) and has the potential to increase income. But the real complication is the same as on TikTok – oversaturation. Although, TikTok has revolutionised the fact that every man and his dog can make content that can potentially go viral, lo-fi style. Every moment, a popular blogger integrates ads in his/her content, yet also everyone can be a content maker now. There is nothing wrong in it if it doesn’t influence the information factor of the video.
It is tough to keep up with the expanding marketing strategies so here we have noted some of the digital marketing trends 2021 which are continuing in the digital marketing arena. Analyse the latest trends in digital marketing and maintain your main focus on existing clients by systematically updating yourself with the new online marketing trends in the upcoming year.