As influencer marketing continues to grow in size and popularity, the industry provides us with valuable insights that help us better understand how to structure our influencer marketing strategy more effectively. Any company knows that the marketing strategy and proper planning is the key to increasing sales and brand awareness while spending less. Let’s look into some of the latest trends in influencer marketing that are shaking up the industry this year.
1. Harnessing New Features
With the social media boom in 2020 bringing more than half a billion new users to social media platforms worldwide, the list of features that the social media titans have been rolling out has been growing at an unprecedented rate. Some of the latest features rolled out (some still in testing phase) by various platforms are:
Facebook - Shops on Facebook and Instagram are bound to bring more eCommerce capabilities to these world-dominating platforms.
Instagram - Messaging merger between Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp. Although these have faced some scrutiny, they may start serving as extremely powerful tools for customer relations.
Twitter - Twitter can’t fall far behind with their competitors, and their latest “Fleets” feature is supposed to be the direct competitor of the Stories features on Instagram. Considering the large usage of Stories in influencer marketing, we expect to see this feature become extremely popular with Twitter influencers and creators alike in the near future.
As we head into the 2nd quarter of 2021, it is crucial for any social media marketing professional to keep their eyes out on these tools that can help catapult their social media marketing towards new heights.
2. More AR and VR
Heavy hitters like TikTok and Facebook have been dabbling in AR and VR technology for a while. As Facebook’s Oculus becomes cheaper and more accessible to a larger number of users, they will certainly begin to incorporate it more into their huge social media presence. TikTok AR stickers are nothing new, however, considering the growth that we have seen with TikTok over the past few months, they will surely continue to expand this trendy and popular product across their video platform.
Facebook also recently launched yet another product labelled under “Project Aria” which is designed to compete with Apple’s AR, both of which are expected to start hitting the shelves later this year. Facebook staff has already been testing this product in real-life settings for months, and is partnering with EssilorLuxottica, the makers of Ray-Ban, to build trendy and fashionable, Ray-Ban branded smart glasses which are due for release by the end of the year.
3. Rise of Audio Social
If you are up-to-date on the latest social media trends, then you must have heard of Clubhouse, which started in Silicon Valley in 2020 and has exploded in North America since. The rapid adoption of this product has resulted in explosive growth in Europe in the beginning of the year, and the isolation of the pandemic is only fueling its growth.
As social media giants like Facebook are hopping on top of the trend and launching their own competitive products, we can certainly expect to see this feature adopted more into the popular social media platforms across the globe.
4. Pandemic-Conscious Content
As unemployment reaches an all-time high in most countries around the world and with the negative impact the pandemic has had on mental health, it is crucial for companies to adapt their tone across all social media platforms that is incorporated into their marketing strategy. To help battle this emotional distress, many companies have adapted “Nostalgia marketing”, focusing on content from “the good old days” to help boost their audience’s mood.
Sales have no longer become a priority for customers - they are now more interested in information, engagement and social issues. Connecting with those stories and building relationships on social media with the relevant customer base and audience will definitely be a priority for any business looking to succeed in 2021.
5. Remixing Growth in UGC
User-generated content has been known to be the most effective way to market on social media for years, especially when it comes to influencer marketing. It connects more with the audience and demographic you are trying to reach, and captures better attention thanks to its uniqueness. It has been the “secret sauce” behind the success of influencers with high engagement rates, and has been the missing piece of the puzzle for brands that fail to harness its power and adapt it into its social media marketing strategy.
Social media platforms like TikTok and Koji have been using remixing as a powerful tool behind its growth of creator-generated content, helping creators take existing formats, templates, or ideas, and recreating them to express their own personality or ideas. With the large adoption of this platform and the content-creation boom seen in 2020, remixing will certainly become a large part of social media content creation as we head into the 2nd quarter of 2021.
Conclusion
We hope that these insights into the social media trends will help you fine-tune your social media marketing strategy and better connect with your audience, increasing engagement and customer loyalty. If you would like to stay up-to-date on the latest social media news and trends, we invite you to subscribe to our blog using the subscription area below and follow us on our social media.
