Social Media Trends 2021

The report I chose is focusing on Social Media trends during COVID-19 crisis, which was created by Hubspot and Talkwalker. This report gave detailed statistic on consumer behavior on media platforms during 2020. There is also tips and information for brands to market through media posts.

There are 10 main categories that the report is providing statistics and overview of. The 10 main subjects are:

• Remixing
• The four C’s of COVID-19 content
• Memes
• Nostalgia marketing
• Connecting with consumers
• Gaming
• Old-school marketing
• Social media giants adapt the new normal
• Disinformation on media
• The impact of socially conscious audience

The report content provides tips and information for brands on social media marketing and content during COVID-19 by using analytics on consumer behaviour on media on 2020. (Hubspot & Talkwalker)

Analytics of 2020 and how to use them

There were many interesting topics and statics of different kind of social media platforms. Also, the report gave good advices on developing own content for consumers. For example, was talking of remixing on media like TikTok and Koji. Remixing means using already existing format, idea or a template and showing their own persona and ideas through them. Brands could create their own format for the consumers to use and by that they could get a better visibility on media. (Hubspot &  Talkwalker 2021)

Another thing that brands and companies should inform on media is about COVID-19 and remind consumers to keep awareness of the current situation and to follow the restrictions and recommendations. The 4 C’s that should be informed are:

• Community
• Contactless
• Cleanliness
• Compassion

According to the report, brands shared the phrase “Wash your hands” over 81 000 times on the term of 5 moths into lockdown. This shows that on media, brands are very quick to engage with their costumers of safety and health. This show caring and responsibility of the brand. (Hubspot & Talkwalker 2021)

Brands should connect with their consumers, especially during times like these. This relationship building will create loyal and appreciative audience. This can be made with conversational marketing. Tools like chatbots, calls, social messaging and other personalized communicating methods. According to the report, people were searching 88% more keywords relating to nostalgia for time before the lockdown. This would be great marketing opportunity for brands to use nostalgia themed posts. This creates more positive sense to the brand on a personal level. (Hubspot & Talkwalker)

A lot of misinformation or “fake news” has been sighted in the media like Twitter and also many other platforms. These false stories and information can lead to big life changing decisions. For example, COVID-19 vaccines has been the center of misleading information and has created confusion and uncertainty among people. This growing misinformation on media can have a negative impact on brands. While brands should be more active on media marketing and following modern trends, they should avoid any sensitive topics that could give a bad impression of the brand to audience. (Hubspot & Talkwalker 2021)

Conculsion

This is a great time to research people’s behavior, different trends and popular keywords appearing on media to develope and create more personal marketing that consumers can relate to. Many big brand names have already taken advantage of these topics that the “Social media trends” report has researched of. From this material, I learned about marketing using popular media trends and how to represent them to the audience. By understanding consumers motivations, brands will have the right information to engage with the audience in the future. Brand should advise people to act towards improving their and other safety during COVID-19. People can become unaware of the consequences of the virus during long-lasting lockdowns and being long away from relatives and friends.

Sources

Hubspot & Talkwalker. Social Media Trends. 2021. Accessed 6 February 2021. https://lucit-my.sharepoint.com/personal/outi_kahkonen_lapinamk_fi/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fouti%5Fkahkonen%5Flapinamk%5Ffi%2FDocuments%2FCEMIT%2DMECIT%2FMaterials%2FReaction%20paper%20%2B%20LC%2Fsocial%2Dtrends%2Dtalkwalker%2Dfinal%2Epdf&parent=%2Fpersonal%2Fouti%5Fkahkonen%5Flapinamk%5Ffi%2FDocuments%2FCEMIT%2DMECIT%2FMaterials%2FReaction%20paper%20%2B%20LC