What are the Newest Social Media Trends for 2021?

Before talking about what's new in social media and how important it is to our 360º marketing strategy, it's always useful to review what NOT to do when managing our social media:

1. Launch your social media accounts without a clear strategy

2. Publish and publish and then disappear "without a trace," generating a sense of disorganization in the user.

3. Being on every single social networking site out there, even if our target's not. 

4. Publish the same content on every platform without adapting the message.

5. Talk about our brand, business, or company only and exclusively. We can be excellent, but it's not a good idea to show it all the time in the digital space.

6. Buy followers or fake likes. Everyone can check the authenticity of the likes on your posts, and having counterfeit followers can bring a crisis to your online reputation. 

What’s trending on Social Media: The platforms we’re using 

Social Media usage continues to remain popular among US internet users. Global Web Index found that among internet users surveyed in their methodology, the most popular social media platforms were Facebook, YouTube, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Skype, and WhatsApp. Their USA Market Snapshot 2020 report broke it down by those with accounts (members) and users (those who have used or visited the platform’s app or website). Among users, the most popular networks were YouTube (80%), Facebook (75%), Facebook Messenger (56%), Instagram (52%), and Twitter (41%). 

When asked to state what social media services they actively engaged with or contributed to in the past month in their second-quarter study released in the summer of 2020, they cited Facebook (66.2%), YouTube (61.6%), Facebook Messenger (49.9%), Instagram (41%), and Twitter (26.3%). TikTok is also gaining traction among younger users, especially when looking at Gen-Z, where nearly half of them (47.4%) use the platform. The percentage of Millennials using it is 18.6%.

Digital communication, like just about everything, got impacted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s playing a role in our content plans and, inevitably, social media trending topics for 2021.  What should you have in mind? HubSpot’s Social Media Trends Report 2021 has served as a guide to highlight the main surprises that have caught our attention:

Current social media trends: What’s in store for 2021? 

COVID is sticking around in the conversation

2021 looks to be a year full of uncertainty with the extent of how our lives will improve over the next 12 months unknown. Users are looking to brands for solutions or at least responsible messages that transmit certainty and safety.

Keep this in mind. Monitor how the pandemic is transpiring and think about what messages you can get across to help your community get through it or feel better. Be aware of our current context in each post you publish, and avoid being excessively frivolous or unaware of reality. Use the moment to create more robust, lasting connections with your audience using compassion and empathy. 

Gaming on social networks

One of the new social media trends (and outside them) has been the increase of gaming communities, or people resorting to videogames as a means of entertainment and having relationships with others. Social media platforms can’t turn their backs on this niche. We have to approach them by speaking their language, finding new channels of communication (Twitch is an excellent streaming example), and finding those who share demographic data with our audience to delight them. Even create ad-hoc content so that these communities feel that your brand represents them.

Socially-Conscious Audiences

People are talking about their problems on the internet, and especially on social media. It could be their mental or physical health, the injustices they see in the world, and how to fight them. Our social media accounts can’t avoid these topics: our targets are increasingly aware and active in taking a stand in fighting for the causes that speak to them. 

As you measure your social media marketing strategy’s ROI, consider the degree of connection your brand has with your audience. Get your Marketing and PR teams aligned to address sensitive issues and have a Crisis Management Plan in place after you launch your campaigns. If your brand takes a stance concerning a hot-button social or political matter, you’ll inevitably get criticized, but if you have more support from your follower than the detractors, it will be worth it.
 

The most nostalgic marketing

Nostalgia sells, especially now that we look back and think about how little we value the privileges of a life without a pandemic. We remember our happier times, and your brand can seize on that insight on social media. One of the current social media trends is to check your content catalog and find the products you can relaunch that have a bond to a memory. If you want to think outside the box, use songs, games, and nostalgic cultural references in your marketing strategy. If you do it right, it will work.

No rest for the memes

Emojis are out, and so are GIFs! Memes are the web’s primary vernacular. You can create, transform, and destroy them so easily, and they quickly go viral on Social Media. Not everything is joyous concerning memes. They can alter your online reputation in a heartbeat, and we must protect our brand from them. 

Monitor your brand logo to see the memes getting created with it and interact with the meme to give your community more chances to make it go viral. And, of course, understand the implications and meanings of a meme in detail before sharing it.  

Dangers: digital misinformation

Finally, we must not forget that networks are a nest of information and also disinformation. It is increasingly difficult to separate real from false stories. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, many hoaxes are getting disseminated and passed off as factual data. 2021 should be a year where brands collaborate to end fake news and ensure their channels share authentic, honest content while eschewing phony information. This shared responsibility is for every social networking site, and they must show awareness and play a beneficial role in public discourse. 

What are the social media trends poised to dominate in 2021? This article will help you in giving an answer and having a guide to the most important news. Social media is a changing, unpredictable world, but your marketing strategy cannot ignore them. Get to know them and use them to your advantage; they will surely bring you satisfactory results.