Social Media in 2021
2020 was an unexpected year for everyone. Many businesses hit stumbling block after stumbling block as the year progressed and businesses were closed or at the very least had to change the way they operated.
When talking about social media in 2020, I think it’s fair to say it reached a new heightened frenzy. With people unable to connect in person, many turned to social media to reach out to friends and family and to find out what was happening in their area.
Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash
People spent a lot more time online in general - watching movies, streaming classes or meetings, on apps, and streaming music. Which means from a social media marketing and outreach perspective - it gave you more opportunities to engage with your audience digitally.
Since we are starting 2021 still in similar circumstances - I would encourage you to look at where you brand could be that it’s not. In fact, many social and digital habits that were formed during the stricter lockdowns, seem to be sticking around.
There are lots of advertising opportunities (in apps, on digital music like Pandora, etc., and social media channels) but if you're not looking to expand your advertising dollars, what else could you do?
The number of people listening to podcasts increased by 15% in July of 2020 in the midst of the lockdowns throughout the world. If you’ve considered putting together a podcast - now might be a good time. It’s something you can string together with online or phone interviews and gives you more content for your social media channels. They don’t need to be super long - just make sure you’re providing something useful that people will be interested in.
When thinking about channels you should be using - most experts seem to agree that the growth on Instagram is worth brands investing time and money in -- but that the growth in TikTok might be less sustainable. (Unless your key audience was already an ardent TicTok user.) So if you weren’t on Instagram in 2020 - that might be a good area to start in 2021.
I especially liked this chart below from the July 2020 data and would recommend you look at this and see if your brand can help people with any of these items. People will likely continue to look towards social media and the internet to help with these items even after the pandemic.
Facebook continues to reign supreme as the most used platform with YouTube in second. If you aren’t using YouTube to upload all your videos you make for other channels, this is any easy addition. If you make videos for Facebook or Twitter or your website - you should have a YouTube channel where you upload all these videos to expand your reach.
If you need help with your brands social media or communications strategy - send me a message and I’d love to help. Also be sure to sign up for my newsletter to stay on top of social media news and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.