4 Social Media Trends You Can’t Miss in 2021

2021 is coming to an end. It is high time to look back, but also to take a first (perhaps also tentative) look at the new.

If you want to assert yourself in social media marketing, you have to be one thing above all: flexible. This has been impressively demonstrated once again this year. Changes to the algorithm at every nook and corner, here is a new feature as a new “must have” app. No account can be taken of individual fates à la “but I only just got on with the old one”.

Sounds sad, doesn’t it? It is not at all. Change is great when you are ready to get involved.

In 2021, many of these changes already hold for us. Some things work, others come and others change completely.

So that you can prepare yourself a bit for these new challenges , I will show you the six (in my opinion) biggest Social Media Marketing Trends for 2021.

Trend 1: TikTok the great unknown

Are you already active on TikTok? Probably not, because at the moment the app is often dismissed as a gimmick . But if we remember how it started with , Instagram & Co., we should definitely have TikTok on our radar.

Currently, however, the U20 age group is more likely to be found. For many, of course, this is far from the target audience, but TikTok COULD be the next Instagram . The platform grows and grows.

With all the hype that is emerging, there is also a lot of criticism . My tip is therefore: consider whether TikTok can and should be a marketing channel for you in the future.

• If not: ignore everything about the app and focus on other channels (which isn’t the worst idea).
• If so, familiarize yourself with the app now, see what others do and consider whether you can take over any of it.

Trend 2: Marketing becomes conversational

If we’re honest, social media marketing is still more marketing than social . How often do I end up on Instagram profiles that post product after product after product with the clear request: Buy now or your cat will explode.

Instagram has already done a lot in 2019 to make the platform more social. Interactions have become the ultimate range booster and many have adapted.

2021 will go one step further. It goes from 1: many to 1: 1.

For example, WhatsApp discontinued the newsletter function on December 7, 2019 and, with WhatsApp Business, only allows direct exchange between companies and customers. The platforms should not be a channel for mass communication.

We all no longer want to let companies yell at us. We don’t want to be bombarded with thirty thousand marketing campaigns every day. We want real communication . Ideally with people.

For this reason, the market research institute Gartner says that messenger will grow rapidly: Inquiries should double each year. You don’t have to be a great mathematician to realize that in a few years, hardly anyone will get past messengers.

This also mixes marketing and customer service and direct contact becomes an important touch point in the customer journeys.

However, if 200 inquiries reach me every day, at some point I will get to the point where, apart from answering messages, I can get nowhere. But the solution is already ready for this: chatbots .

But who wants to write with a chatbot that obviously doesn’t meet my needs. So stay away from bots that only copy or link content from the website.

A chatbot must also offer added value and give the customer the feeling that they are in good hands ID88 Slot. Then conversational marketing can even lead to conversational commerce directly via the messenger platform.

Trend 3: Influencer marketing continues to grow but differently

What do influencers actually do without likes?

Companies and Instagram influencers will have to find an answer to this question in the next few months, because Instagram is obviously planning to abolish the likes . One of the most important indicators for influencer campaigns is lost.

But that’s not just a challenge for the influencer industry. The issue of authenticity and credibility plays an increasingly important role. It often happens with big influencers that they advertise your product today and that of your competition tomorrow. It is difficult to decide what is a real recommendation and what is only a bought opinion. The positive effect fizzled out.

So called micro influencers can be a solution . Although they have far fewer followers (5,000 100,000), they do have a clearly defined target group and a close connection to their community. They usually only advertise for products that fit into their niche and with which they can identify. This makes selling more inconspicuous, more natural and therefore more successful.

Despite all adversity, influencers are and remain influential (in the truest sense of the word). Because we are simply on recommendations. In the past , when we secured decisions by asking our family and friends, today the haze has grown. Trust in strangers often seems to be incredibly high or not anymore ?!

Trend 4: Social means shopping

From local business to online shop to social shopping our shopping experience has changed quite a bit in recent years. We were spoiled here: we no longer want to wait for shopping; if we see something nice, we want to buy right there .

With Instagram and , two major platforms have already responded to this request. While Instagram is already handling the entire process including payment itself, (still) redirects to the corresponding online shop. Information on price and availability is already available in the pin.