Social Media Trend Overview

As quickly as new things appear on social media, they can disappear just as fast. Often, it’s tricky to keep up with trends on social media and know what’s exactly “working” in your favor. It is imperative to understand what is helping your business and what you may be wasting time and energy on. Here at FFA, we’ve compiled a few evolving trends to keep an eye out for right now in the world of social media.

One of the most important things to be aware of when it comes to your brand and social media, is realizing what platforms are working best for you. There is always buzz about which social media platforms are dying, and, realistically, in the current climate none are on their way out. However, it is important to take a moment and evaluate which platforms work the best for you and your products or services. For example, retail stores have great success on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. The ability to connect products to each platform that will result in direct sales is a great tool to take advantage of. On the other hand, a platform like LinkedIn is extremely successful when it comes to B2B marketing. Find out where you’re seeing the most success and channel your efforts to those platforms. There is no need to waste time with platforms that don’t serve you in order to “cover all the bases.”

Another big trend right now is user-generated content. Brands that encourage their customers to give them their own content are thriving. Customers have the incentive of possibly being featured by their favorite brands, and the brands are seeing an exponential increase in content and engagement. This is one way you can also have your customers advocate for your brand. We’ve touched on the importance of word-of-mouth recommendations and we know it’s working. This is a great tool that brands, and businesses can use to increase their engagement on social media.

Videos seem to come and go on social media, but today, they seem to be here to stay. With the popular new platform, TikTok, and the success businesses have seen from that, we see other platforms following in their footsteps. Instagram has recently added “reels” to their options, which is pretty similar to the short looping videos on TikTok. Businesses can take advantage of these types of videos because they’re short enough to keep users’ attention. Play a popular clip of a song in the background while featuring some of your favorite products and you will see people engage! The key is to keep the videos quick and intriguing.

Another topic that gets a lot of attention is the “like.” The like button has been around for a long time and it is usually how we measure the success of our posts. Recently, there have been talks of platforms removing the number of likes that your post receives. In this case, you will still get the likes, but the number of likes you get will not be visible to the public. So, what does this mean for measuring success? Well, it means that the likes may not be as important as we always thought they were. What businesses looking to grow on social media should be focusing on is long-term engagement. A great post can go viral and get 1 million likes but how many of those likes will convert to sales or future customers? In today’s market, one of the most valuable things you can have is a loyal fan base that engages with your content regularly. These are your repeat customers and the ones who will spread the word about your groundbreaking products. You should strive for high engagement and likes on your social media posts; however, just because you’re not getting hundreds of likes on every photo, video or link you share doesn’t necessarily mean those posts aren’t successful. Keep an eye out for your A+ engagers and use them to your advantage. They are more valuable to you than a handful of likes.

Social media trends come as quickly as they go, and it’s important to know what’s working in your industry. Every once in a while, take a step back and observe. See what others in your market are doing and see what works for them. Head to google or google scholar and see if you can find research to back up what you think is working for you. You can never be too informed when it comes to social media. It is a tool that can help you immensely… as long as you do it right.