Key Social Media Trends for 2021 Part Two - Bonus Trends
Last week, I posted a blog highlighting the 5 key trends discussed at Hootsuite’s ‘Social Trends 2021’ webinar.
This week, I am taking a look at the ‘bonus trends’ that were discussed outside of Hootsuite’s top 5!
Marketers might finally stop chasing “vanity metrics”
My Christmas wish this year is for marketers to stop chasing “vanity metrics” such as likes and comments, and “virality” indicators such as retweets and shares, and be happy with their reach. Thankfully, Hootsuite agrees!
Contrary to popular belief, engagement is NOT the most important social media statistic. If you’re constantly chasing engagement, you are asking people to go out of their way to engage with your brand on social but you’re not providing any value.
The average facebook user has shared 1 piece of content in the past month, but has digested hundreds, so the chances of them sharing your post because you’ve written “share with your friends!” in the caption are pretty slim.
Twitter’s monthly traffic is 3x bigger than the number of people actually logged in. So, beyond the retweets and favourites, the potential for passive reach on the platform is enormous.
The morel of the story? Measure and appreciate engagement, but don’t chase it. Don’t focus your entire content strategy on forcing your users to communicate with you 24/7 - no one likes forced fun.
Creative conversation
The brands who have really stood out in the social media landscape this year have been the ones who have taken the time to sit back, listen, and then find a creative way to fit into the conversation. They aren’t trying to create or lead a conversation, and they aren’t trying to butt their nose in where it isn’t wanted, but they’re adding value to a topic that is genuinely relevant to their product or service.
A great example? Coors Light sent 150 cans of beer to a self-isolating American woman who hilariously pleaded for more beer on social media. The result? Free coverage, everywhere.
Check out the full story
Employee advocacy
As we continue to wade through tough times, the ability to leverage resources beyond the already tightly-squeezed marketing budget is more important than ever. A perhaps untapped resource for marketers to take advantage of this year? Employees.
Employee advocacy has the opportunity to promote your brand to new audiences in three ways: increased reach and brand awareness; increased legitimacy; and improved brand sentiment. Whilst reach might be the obvious benefit, employees are far less likely to post about their employer if they have a negative view of them, and their social media followers will know that. So, by sharing your content, employees are adding a layer of love to your brand that you can’t possibly hope to achieve with a corporate voice.
Are you thinking “there’s no way my employees will want to share our content, especially not on their personal social media profiles!!” Well then, take a long hard look at your content. Why don’t they want to share it? The chances are it’s because your content is not of value. And, if this is the case, you’d better start asking them what they think is worth sharing.
Get out of my feed!
Another topic discussed during the webinar was the possibility of moving content away from the feed. Instagram stories, reels and IGTV have created multiple potential content streams outside of the feed, whilst Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn stories have begun to follow suit with their own stories features.
The benefits of stories:
They take up a lot of screen space on mobile
They’re not expensive to create or promote
They can be incredibly impactful
They can include rapid ‘swipe up’ links
The CTR’s are amazing
And it’s not just stories... influencer content is still very much on the rise, and still poses a great opportunity to be featured in your target audience’s social media feed in a far more authentic way.
TikTok
You knew it was coming…
It didn’t quite make it to the top 5 trends for 2021, as Hootsuite found that TikTok did not rank highly in marketer minds for business outcomes. However, there is no denying the application has literally taken over the worlds of 13-25 year old’s worldwide.
The bad news? Very few brands have figured out how to create TikTok content that actually works. A haven for cute animal videos, sweet dancers and home-made videos, polished ad content just doesn’t work on this channel.
Need a little help? Check out TikTok’s case studies here https://www.tiktokforbusinesseurope.com/inspiration or download the app, get yourself a profile, and check it out for yourself!
FUN FACT: Tiktoks uploaded onto Instagram reels sometimes perform better than the TikTok themselves!
