Social media is proving to be more important than ever before.

It has become a valuable channel for businesses to reach their audience and generate sales. The year 2020, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, experienced an unmatched change in social media use. Reports suggest that nearly 50% of polled users spent more time on social media during the pandemic.

Let’s look at some of the top social media trends that you should know in 2021.

 

Leverage Your Social Media Videos

Popular even before the pandemic, videos have become a huge hit during the lockdown. As a result, many social media platforms have started offering more video features for marketers.

Specifically, video streaming has been in huge demand. With an estimated value of £31.22 billion in 2019, this industry is projected to grow 20.4% between 2020 and 2027.

Consumer behaviour certainly backs this forecast. The trend of live video shopping has been a huge hit in China. In fact, more than 4 million live shopping sessions were organised in Q1 2020 alone.

 

Pay Attention to Social Media Stories 

The stories feature on WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram is proving to be a hugely popular social media trend among users across the world and their growth figures surely indicate that they are not going anywhere anytime soon.

In 2019, the daily active users (DAU) across all three platforms reached 500 million. The DAU on Instagram stories rose from 100 million in 2016 to a staggering 500 million in 2019.

The DAU of Facebook stories grew from 150 million in 2018 to 500 million in 2019 and WhatsApp Stories rose from 450 million DAU in 2018 to 500 million DAU in 2019.

 

Build Trust through Content Delivered by Humans

For the longest time, people have spoken about the decrease of trust in brands, but never has this been truer than in 2020. It should become the norm that content is delivered by and features human beings. It could be your employees, influencers or other subject-matter specialists.

Consumers do not just need to trust for the sake of it or because it makes them feel good. They are now putting their every purchase and every action through the filters of economic impact and safety.

Naturally, it’s time to level-up your content, not in terms of production quality; rather in terms of human connection. Sure, it’s harder and more complex, but that’s the way forward.