7 Social Media Trends to Look for in 2021
According to Statista, Indians spent an average of 3 hours and 37 minutes on social media last year. Even though the world is opening up slowly and steadily, the habit to use social media for such elongated hours has not seen much of a change, it has become a part of nature, giving an obvious advantage to brands using social media platforms to be the primary source of marketing.
While we are at it, there are 9 social media trends that we picked up which will form an integral base for brand managers, social media managers and strategists as they continue to use social media channels to market their product/service to potential customers. So, let’s dive straight in:
- Purposeful and Meaningful Campaigns will find their space amidst the chaos:
The pandemic has enabled people to see beyond their little world. It has driven engagement towards causes and meaningful events. People want to help more than ever before and they expect the brands they like/follow to participate. In fact, 77% of people agreed that they feel more positively about brands making an effort to support society at the moment as per a Twitter survey.
So, in 2021, we, the best digital agency in Gurgaon, believe that brands can take up purpose-driven campaigns to drive engagement and improve brand image and sales via social media.
- Shop online will find its new address @Social Media Platforms:
Instagram has served as a catalogue for several homegrown business owners and has also driven sales for them. While social media is yet to evolve to allow customers to directly buy from the platform, it has significantly changed the course as we can see. Shopping from where you get entertained has definitely shortened the customer journey. In fact, 54% of social media users research products using social media, allowing the business owners the opportunity to leverage the potential reach and engagement to target customers.
Moreover, social media platforms are looking to embed a buy button to help brands along the sale journey.
- Live Streams will engage, entertain and have an impact:
People need people, people need interactions, people need to share common interests, and having said that the Coronavirus pandemic led the personal face-to-face meetings to turn into WhatsApp video calls or Zoom meetings and live concerts or Fashion weeks became live streams from their houses or studios.
While the situation will obviously get better, offerings will evolve with safety measures and whatnot, however, this trend will continue to benefit the brands moving in 2021 with the aim to engage their audience more closely and make them part of the conversation via social media.
- Stories, Reels, IGTV or YouTube, Videos will continue to stay indispensable:
Video, regardless of it being a short format or long format content, will perpetuate to be the 2md most engaging content type on social media, as per Not Another State of Marketing Report.
Consumers choose watching over reading, and major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more are increasingly improving their video capabilities to engage their users in a better experience, giving brands the advantage they need.
- Conversational marketing will draw eyeballs:
While in 2020, brands used conversational marketing tactics to promote their products and improve sales, 2021 will see a significant shift towards brands trying to educate their audience about their offering or nurture their mind with mindful dialogue.
In fact, the whole tone of digital conversations will change as brands will become more human on social media to be able to build trust and repo with a customer.
- ‘Less is more’ approach will nurture brands’ social media growth:
The 2021 year is going to be a benchmark for years to come for the type of content brands will produce. Instead of curating bulk content, brands will have to focus on thoughtful, empathetic and valuable content, even if the number of posts goes from 30 to 15 per month.
‘Less is more’ is essential today because the ongoing times have led people to question what they are engaging with, question what interests them, leading to a shift in content consumption preference.
Despite the algorithms, the right thing to do is to not bombard the customers with meaningless postings, and wait for the content to pick up and form the base for brand image.
- Brands will embrace Gamification, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality to amp up the Social Media Experience:
With Facebook’s Oculus, Snapchat launching mini-games in the app, Instagram’s filters, Explurger’s AI-based gamification and more, gamification in social media will continue to play a key role in enriching users’ social media experience and improving brand’s social media engagement and reach.
Brands must keep an eye out for game-related promotions in 2021 as the social media platforms also gear up to offer advanced and more transformed opportunities for in-game advertising in the future.
The Bottom Line
Brands that need to stand out from the crowd must focus on understanding what their audiences want and leverage the changing social media trends in 2021. Every piece of content that goes on your social media platform is a reflection of who you are as a brand and what philosophy you believe in. Hence, trying to stick with the changing times will help you grow.
The Marcom Avenue is a leading digital marketing company in Delhi NCR that can quench your thirst for a 360-degree integrated marketing agency. From SEO to social media optimization services, from film production to influencer marketing, from public relations to website development, find whatever service you are looking for under one hood.
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