20 Hottest Social Media Trends 2021

With emerging platforms, political interference, an increase in “engagement bait” and spam on LinkedIn, and Big Tech pretending to care about humans, we can expect a lot of great strategies combined with some ongoing disappointments.

Here, I’ve done my best to limit personal opinions and stick with a core list.

The 20 listed here are haphazardly done in some subconscious order, but it’s not a ranking system.

So let’s get right to it.

1. TikTok

It’s the next big thing. And it’s here. Now.

TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform in the world and (currently) over 2.6 billion downloads.

And the app is aging up with over 67% of users above 20 years old.

Source: App Ape via wallaroomedia.com

For brands looking to recruit, educate, or harness the buying power of Generation Z, look here.

For brands looking for a sandbox to test new content, look here.

For brands that don’t know what to do yet…secure your brand handle and get in the habit of reformatting your videos for Vertical.

2. Clubhouse

Ok, this might be the next thing too…

I’ll be honest, I can’t stand this app. But I can’t stand podcasts either. Turns out I’m a disagreeable person who needs to rely on data over personal preferences to understand what’s relevant.

Clubhouse is relevant. It’s hot. People love it. And if you like hearing people talk about things, you’ll like it too.

And Facebook’s launching another platform to rip it off called Fireside. So even if another platform takes Clubhouse over, the whole room-full-of-voices-talking-about-stuff is likely going to be here for a while.

In Clubhouse, there’s a room for any topic. You can listen to some brilliant people share some brilliant stuff.

Pros: Can be great for business. Cons: Can be addicting.

3. Realistic Goal Setting

The romance of social media is wearing off. The honeymoon is over. And now we’re having fights about why you never listen to me and I just don’t get the same about of likes that I used to and that my reach is down…

This doesn’t mean social media is going away. It just means that businesses are more aware that they aren’t going to “go viral” when they post to their channels.

Which gives rise to new and smarter opportunities.

Brands should be looking at social media as a channel for storytelling and direct communication along the buyer’s journey, and hopefully turning customers into repeat buyers and raving fans at the end.

Instead of focusing on “brand awareness”, it’s time to focus on results.

Direct. Measurable. Results.

• lift in sales
• new leads
• suggestions
• feedback from customers, etc.

4. User-Generated Content

Some brands are getting savvy with utilizing UGC (user-generated-content).

Reposting the content from influencers and leveraging that content for ads often comes with a significant increase in engagement and conversions.

There are many options to access UGC without paying for influencers. Restaurants and local businesses can simply look at the photos that tag their locations. (repost with permission, of course. ;)

5. Videos

Shorter, Longer, Ephemeral, Vertical…

More Videos.

Video consumption on mobile devices rises by 100% every year. ( Source)

Video isn’t going away. It’s the easiest and most passive way for people to consume content.

Ads are seeing great results with an initial 6-second video, while Instagram is pushing their IGTV with longer-form videos while simultaneously pushing Reels with shorter-form content.

Develop content strategies for all forms, from YouTube to IGTV, to Stories and paid media content.

6. Everybody Ripping Each other Off

First, there was Snapchat. And then Instagram created Stories. And then Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and…SLACK?!?!.

To be fair, Snapchat later ripped off Facebook’s ads manager. Which TikTok also followed suit.

Let’s not overlook the cheaper by the dozen marketing “gurus” with their stolen copy and scripts sharing their “SECRETS” through shitty courses teaching how you too can look like an asshole for only $497.

So what’s my point here?

Nothing is original, and if it is, it’ll be ripped off if it can’t be acquired.

(Let’s see what happens with Clubhouse this year).

Plus, there’s no accountability.

For that reason, expect more ideas, people, and products to be ripped off.

7. Reels

Yeah, I know this came out in 2020 but have you been posting to Reels consistently? Those who are are seeing a strong increase in growth and reach.

Instagram is not shy about showing favoritism to those who utilize its newest features and reels is not an exception. Publish to reels and thou shalt reap heaping benefits.

Read More:- What is Instagram reels? How to use Instagram reels?

Be sure to include vertical video in your content strategy. You can also recycle your Reels for TikTok and to Stories (on all platforms, now).

8. Google My Business

In 2019, Google+ was laid to rest and nobody really noticed. And in turn, Google My Business has taken its foothold, especially with smaller businesses.

Google reviews are more reliable than Yelp reviews and they’re critical for a solid local SEO.

Having a strong local listing will also drive clicks, calls, leads, and sales for local businesses.

When Googling anything “near me” (i.e. dentist, food, mechanic, CPA, chiropractor…), the top listings have strong Google My Business accounts.

9. Meme & Theme Marketing

In early 2020, we witnessed Michael Bloomberg’s flaccid attempt at being self-deprecatingly cool when promoting his presidential campaign across some of the largest and noteworthy meme accounts on Instagram.

And his team deserves a fistbump (or flying knee to the face) in being so bold and forward-thinking.

At Elevator, we include meme/theme amplification in many of our Influencer Marketing campaigns. The CPM is outrageously low, and when done right, it works well.

Some brands are getting hip to it. Bud Light’s Seltzer, FourLoko, Hinge, and Calm are a few notable names doing well there.

Meme & Theme accounts are still risque for most brands, so if you have the chutzpah to step into the meme game, the rewards will outweigh the risks.

But I do expect to see this market get tapped into a little harder this year.

10. Brands Standing for Something

The United States has transitioned to a phase of social consciousness. And brands are taking sides as much as people.

Racism, social injustices, poverty, and major inequalities are uncovered and amplified with the power of social media.

Brands have the power to help make positive changes with their platforms. And it would be smart for them to stand up for what aligns with their values. Even if it costs a few customers.

Today, if a brand says nothing, it’s often implied that they are part of the problem - that they are complicit in their silence.

When a brand aligns with a cause, it shows their consumers that they care more than just about profits and numbers.

Your stance can be one or many things. From gender equality to fighting against racism or improving the environment for future generations.

Whatever it is, make sure the stance is honest, authentic, and aligns with your true WHY and company values.

11. More LinkedIn — and Spam and Engagement Bait

LinkedIn’s been around for a while but here are some glaring flaws that aren’t being addressed.

• Neverending SPAM
• Engagement Bait

If you want to ruin anything great, just give it to a bunch of marketers.

The SPAM has to stop but I don’t see that happening.

Shoutout to these guys and their generic messages.

And with the ease of going viral, some people are taking advantage of gaming the algorithm with shitposts.

We’ve already seen an increase of “thought leaders” harnessing the power of engagement bait to help them go viral and maintain some self-indulgent relevance while providing no true value to their audience.

Fun Fact: IT’S NOT A NEW FEATURE

Let’s hope the platform’s algorithm gets sophisticated enough to cut the shit while allowing the true thought leaders — business owners, employees, experts, and executives —to get their share of voice so that LinkedIn can live up to its potential.

12. Diversified Content & Distribution

Long gone are the days of posting links on Twitter and Facebook and expecting a flood of site traffic.

People now behave differently, and they consume content differently.

Fortunately, a single piece of content (video) can be (and should be) repurposed to multiple forms of content and distributed beyond basic social channels.

Gary Vaynerchuk articulates it better than anyone else in his Content Model.

13. Better Email Marketing

Email marketing is still VERY relevant. Some brands don’t realize this — because they’ve been doing it wrong.

Like Facebook and Google, emailing platforms are constantly striving to make things more user-friendly.

And with the continued advancement of AI, sometimes it just takes a click of a button to do what would otherwise be seemingly impossible.

Some things to add to your repertoire for email marketing is to focus on personalization, segmenting your audiences, testing catchy subject lines, mobile-friendly, and clear call-to-action.

Something worth trying in your email campaigns: Share something interesting, something of value. You can always have a CTA in your emails but the email itself doesn’t need to be a sales message.

14. Chat Bots

They’ve been around for a while but haven’t been utilized the way they should be.

Most inbound messages are questions. Frequently asked questions.

You could pay someone daily to answer all these questions…or you could pay someone once to create a bot to answer these common questions while vetting out the more serious inquiries for a personal touch.

And the crazy thing is that people don’t mind talking to a bot — as long as they know it’s a chatbot.

Chatbots have shown to help increase ROI by up to 400%

Consumers just want a real-time answer, and a chatbot can easily answer 99% of these common questions.

Chatbots can also be added to your website, to your Facebook, and, hopefully soon, to Instagram.

Facebook also owns WhatsApp and Instagram. And the messaging within these platforms is one of the most powerful features for converting clicks to dollars.

I’m going to guess (fingers crossed) that Facebook will allow Instagram’s API for chatbots in 2021.

If that happens, it’s a game-changer.

15. SMS Marketing

You may have been seeing celebrities and thought leaders say “Text me” in some of their social media posts. What they’re doing is brilliant.

They’re building an audience that’ll have 90% open rate and up to 45% conversion rate.

Those numbers are insane. (And I’d take the “45% conversion” with a grain of salt).

But still, with an open rate of 90% in text message marketing, you’re pretty much guaranteeing that your contacts will see your message.

Brands partnering with celebrities and influencers can easily build their own list with this strategy. And they should.

Community is the hot app here and just (I think) opened their platform up to everyone.

Try this: use influencers to do SMS takeovers using your numbers. That way, their audience gets to talk to them and you get access to some of their most engaging fans.

OK, that last idea was pretty brilliant and I just fired it off like it was nothing. I offer to consult too. You should totally give me your money in exchange for access to a tumbling-down-the-digital-marketing-rabbit-hole-idea-generating-backed-with-experience strategy call.

16. Community Building

OK, this probably isn’t a trend but I want it to be.

I firmly believe that focusing on building a true community through your social media channels is the most valuable and important thing you can (and should) do online.

Your community is your tribe which is what defines your brand.

Social Media is a place to learn about your customers.

Take the time to listen to and learn about your customers. They should the most important thing to the brand, not the other way around. You might learn something new — that can help with profits later on too.

Social media is the ideal place to have a conversation with your audience. It’s an opportunity to have a real dialog with your audience.

Big brands spend millions on focus groups but forget to read the comments on their Facebook ads. There’s gold sitting right in front of you. Pick it up and cash it in.

17. Micro-Influencers & Nano Influencers

Brands are starting to realize that they don’t need to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars on a celebrity to break into influencer marketing.

In fact, the way influencer marketing worked in 2016 is very different than it worked in 2019 and how it’ll work in 2021.

A single post doesn’t just sell everything off the shelves anymore (except on rare occasions).

Micro-influencers tend to be more directly engaged with their audiences and as a result convert better when it comes time to promote something.

This is essentially amplified word-of-mouth.

And for nano-influencers, (smaller following but high engagement), you can often simply trade your product in exchange for a shout-out.

The micro-influencer strategy allows brands to spend less money while sometimes getting better results than a standard influencer shout-out, including user-generated content and multi-niche traffic.

18. Influencer Seeding

One trend that’s really caught my interest is Seeding. The concept was introduced to me by a friend and colleague Taylor from Kynship and I’m now incorporating it into some of our influencer campaigns.

Seeding is basically offering gifts to influencers without any strings attached. Those who are interested in the product, often post organically. The only costs are in the vetting, outreach, and the cost of the products.

It’s a risk. But so is paying influencers.

19. Funnels

The purpose of social media marketing shouldn’t be to get people to like your stuff. It should be for people to BUY your stuff.

With brands finally coming to terms with the fact that social media just doesn’t convert like it used to, people are getting more strategic in their approach.

This is a good thing.

The term “marketing funnel” has been around for a while, and with Russell Brunson’s Clickfunnels, the term has been slowly creeping into more “mainstream” business conversations.

These “funnels” fall under Digital Marketing, and they come with measurable results as compared to just getting brand awareness and keeping your fingers crossed.

20. More Difficulty in Ad Tracking

Legislation is looking to limit how companies track and manage user data.

Facebook and Google are both taking a step back from their scarily accurate tracking to look like they care about privacy.

And Apple pulled an update that really disrupted how data can be tracked across devices.

What will this actually do for consumers? Probably a less positive user-experience when it comes to digital ads.

Conclusion

TLDR: More content. Less reach. Care about your audience. Build audiences thru messaging tools. Some more new features. Same old assholes. A few marketing acronyms.

If you made it this far, thank you for making it this far.