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5 Social Media Marketing Trends to Look out for in 2021
Contents:

5 Social Media Marketing Trends to Look out for in 2021

By

Hannah

Hannah

As we dive headfirst into 2021, it’s essential to look out for social media marketing trends. If you haven’t already noticed, social media is ever-changing. Just when you feel like you’re on top of things, in struts a new update very nonchalantly. Trying to stay on top of it all can feel just a bit disorientating. If you’re banging your head against a wall and on the verge of becoming a Luddite because of a social-media induced meltdown, don’t worry. That’s where we come in.

We’ve pulled together five social media trends you’ll see a lot more often this year. All you need to do is sit back and familiarise yourself. Save your meltdown for another day (if you can), we’re only a few days into the year.

Let’s get started.

Conversational marketing

In an age driven by data, metrics and profit, it can be easy to forget how to humanise your brand. You’ll rarely attract a varied and engaged audience if your online presence is the digital equivalent of watching paint dry. If there is one thing we’ve taken from lockdown, it’s that brand engagement and conversational marketing on social media is vital. Connecting and interacting with consumers will get you better results. After all, consumers are more likely to invest time in brands that engage with their customers than those who don’t!

Brands such as Innocent Smoothies, Greggs and ASOS always get it spot-on when it comes to conversational marketing on social media, why not give it a try!

Click here for more tips on how to improve your organic social.

User-Generated Content

Particularly in eCommerce, user-generated content (UGC) can be a breath of fresh air for a brands’ marketing! Although you shouldn’t entirely rely on your audience to create content for you, it can help with brand awareness and create a credible and trustworthy online presence.

Consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view UGC as authentic compared to the content that brands produce themselves. User-generated content can drive purchasing decisions, promote authenticity and create a buzz around your brand. In 2020, UGC ads received 4 times higher click-through rates and had a 28% higher engagement on social media channels.

To find out more about UGC, we did a round-up of some of our favourite user-generated content moments, take a look!

More brands will go live

Last year, live streaming became a crucial component of social media marketing. Filling the physical gap, live streaming became a way for brands to maintain communication with their audience. So, it’s no surprise really that live streaming activity will increase even more this year.

Unlike a YouTube video that is always available, live streaming creates a buzz because of the uncertainty of watching it later on. In terms of social media and trying to attract attention, video is always the go-to – just look at how quickly TikTok has expanded!

Whether it’s as simple as filming a Q&A or behind the scenes look at your brand, a live stream is bound to help you expand your online reach and engagement on social media.

Personalised marketing

With Instagram introducing their “Shop” feature, TikTok Shoppable ads and Facebook allowing seamless shopping features, personalisation has become an important marketing technique to use across socials. Personalisation marketing is no doubt on the rise; studies suggest that consumers are 53% more likely to engage with a business when using personalised marketing.

More brands are applying user data to specify their marketing towards their chosen demographics. Because of the rise of eCommerce and online shopping, many brands will continue to take advantage of the information they have on their demographics and use this to target specific ads, campaigns or products.

“Snackable” content

As the world of social media expands, our digital attention span is actually shrinking. We’ve become so used to having a universe of information and content at the tip of our fingers; swiping, scrolling and liking in seconds. The need for quick, digestible content has even expanded to articles; many of which now highlight at the start how long a read it will be.

“Snackable” content in the form of Instagram Reels, Stories and TikTok videos became increasingly popular last year. Creating snippets of content under 60 seconds will be something we’ll see a lot more across social media in 2021 and we don’t see this slowing down anytime soon.

If you want to keep up with the motions, create a snackable content calendar!

Want to see how we can grow and scale your brand? Get in touch today!