Author: Rwithu Menon
2021, is that you already? I think we can all agree that the year 2020 has been a crazy rollercoaster ride with ups and downs, with more downs than ups for most businesses.
Did you know?
More than half of the world’s population are on social media now.
The recent shift in social media usage all over the world has tipped all kinds of business—tiny, small, medium, big, giants, what have you—towards exploring Social Media Marketing.
Social media has always been an important venue for reaching out to and building connections with customers. Now more than ever, an increasing number of people are tempted to spend more time online as they stay indoors longer and need some kind of entertainment to take their minds off things.
It has become necessary to rely on various online shopping and delivery services to survive lockdowns and quarantine periods. And social media helps people make those purchasing decisions.
Everyone—including the social butterflies and maybe even the introverts at this point—need social media to make up for the lack of human interaction.
Let’s look at some important trends that you need to know to make the best of social media, improve your business’s online marketing strategy and reach out to and convert more customers in 2021.
1. Use live streaming to increase customer interaction and thereby conversions
82% of people prefer live videos from brands to their social media posts.
Do you know why? It’s because brands are at their most authentic selves when they are streaming live. It can be a live Q&A session, a product launch announcement, or simply an impromptu chit chat session. People love the full attention they receive, see the actual faces behind the brand and interesting behind-the-scenes details of their favorite brands.
2. In-app shopping catalogs and sales
74% of consumers rely on social media to make purchasing decisions.
As your brand grows and you gain more visibility, it’s likely that you will attract more and more clients who actively seek you out based on Social media platforms are increasingly adding e-commerce capabilities into their web and mobile experiences. You can use these to reach your customers where they spend the most time. This not only increases brand awareness, but increases sales due to the seamless customer shopping experience.
If you are selling on multiple such social media platforms and manage an extensive catalog of products, investing in a centralized e-commerce platform to manage these would be a good idea to increase efficiency. Shopify is a leading provider here.
3. People want authentic stories from their favorite brands
Have you noticed that your favourite brands are those whose content is so relatable to you? One powerful approach here is to make customers your brand-ambassadors.
71% of customers are more inclined to make purchases based on social media referrals.
Encourage your customers to share product unboxing videos, stories of using your products in different places in various scenarios creatively etc. You can come up with creative hashtags that customers can use to make their posts discoverable. It’s especially important that you share and feature many of these posts frequently in your social media pages.
If executed well, these stories from ordinary regular users can be much more effective than an expensive advertising campaign.
4. Make your content bite-sized and easy to digest
Average attention span of a human being is 8 seconds.
As customers consume more and more social media content, their time per individual post is proportionately decreasing. Keep that in mind while designing your social media content strategy.
Posts should be easy to scroll through and easy to grasp. Big font, minimal text, catchy images, stylish designs – that should be the mantra
5. People favour nostalgic content to relive happy memories
People look for content that makes them remember or cherish their good times. In recent times especially, as most people are stuck indoors due to COVID, posts which remind them about past years and popular culture are trending – be it hit movie references, music, tourist destinations or even popular local joints and hang-out places.
In general, brands trying to incorporate such elements of nostalgia occasionally in their content strategy seems like a trend that is likely to continue and grow in the coming years.
6. Video content is gaining popularity across all social media platforms
In particular, we want to focus on Instagram Reels. Launched in August 2020, Reels embraces the trending short-form video format – with maximum video length of 15 seconds. As a platform, Instagram is heavily promoting the new format. This means that early adopters are seeing significantly more reach for their Reels compared to their other posts and stories.
By creating short, informative videos with a clear call-to-action such as save, share or comment, you are likely to receive high engagement and reach.
Whatever approach you take in 2021, be sure to keep listening to your customers and their needs. Above all, be authentic and stay true to your brand. Now let’s keep our fingers crossed for a great successful year ahead!
