Welcome to our Monthly Social Media Trends series. At the start of each month, we’ll try to predict upcoming social media trends and developments.
We at YLW digital believe it’s best to stay ahead of the curve. These insights will allow businesses to adjust their content and social media strategies in order to better target customers and stay ahead of the competition.
Here’s the breakdown of this month’s trend predictions, and important events.
1. Increase in Transparency and Inclusivity
Consumers are becoming more aware of their purchasing power and in turn, are more aware of brands they are purchasing from. While this trend may have been on the rise for a while now, it is more important than ever to consider in a strategy. Brands committed to inclusivity and diversity are favored in efforts to increase representation. Consumers are increasingly interested in seeing brands use a wide variety of people in their promotional content and social channels.
The trend that demands brands to do better is housed in many social channels where brands who commit social faux-pas are brought to light with often large amounts of negative press. On the bright side, brands who admit their faults are not heavily penalized. Additionally, the more transparent communications are, the more interested consumers will be.
2. Live Rooms
Live Rooms are an excellent way for businesses to stay connected to their customers, especially during the pandemic. Social media sites like Instagram are updating their platforms to make this experience easier for businesses and consumers alike.
Instagram will launch its new Live Rooms feature. This new feature, which resembles Facebook live, will allow up to four people to chat live. Before, Instagram only allowed two people to collaborate and broadcast. Instagram seems to be dipping its toes into the broadcasting sphere. This feature will make it easier for users to incorporate a podcast and interview-style into their live room chats.
3. Local Content
The Month of March should see a surge in local content creation. Australia recently amended its News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code. This law will require collaboration between news organizations and major tech companies. Web giants like Facebook and Google will need to invest millions of dollars into local Australian digital content. The platforms will need to update their algorithms to prioritize local content distribution. In response to this law, Facebook announced it would invest 1 billion dollars into the Australian news industry.
This story is still developing. It will be interesting to see other countries' responses to Australia’s laws and if any will follow Australia's lead. We can hope to see more businesses increase their local organic and paid search efforts.
4. Invite-only apps
Social media platform Clubhouse has been featured all over the news and social media recently. It seems that the name Clubhouse appears everywhere.
Clubhouse has undoubtedly attracted the attention of many due to its exclusiveness and “invite-only requirement.” The invite-only strategy worked well for its launch, and many companies appear to be taking notes.
Launched in February by Youtuber and former Vine star David Dobrik, Dispo has been rapidly growing in popularity. The budding social network positions itself as an anti-Instagram rival. It urges users to go 'back to the basics' by posting captionless, text-less, and filter-restricted photographs.
Like Clubhouse, this app launched its beta version on February 19 and is accessible by invite only. Its exclusiveness has certainly piqued the interests of many, and within a week of the beta launch, it became the fourth most downloaded app on the AppStore.
Exclusivity seems to be the hot strategy used by businesses now, and it appears to be working. Businesses should try to experiment with exclusive, invite-only offers to grab customer attention.
5. Emphasis on female-owned businesses
In light of women's month, many social media platforms have taken to highlighting female creators and business owners through female-focused campaigns. These include TikTok's Pass the Mic, which celebrates Women's History Month by embracing and encouraging female creators. Pinterest has also launched a Pinterest shop collection made up of solely female-owned brands.
For business, this trend indicates that female-led businesses should look to increase their efforts to highlight this for the month of March in order to best capitalize on this trend.
6. Voice-Based Social Platforms
Once again, we have Clubhouse to thank for the growing demand for voice communication apps. As a result of the pandemic, humans are craving to interact and collaborate with others in meaningful and genuine ways. Voice-Based Social Platforms like Clubhouse and Swell are answering this call.
As mentioned in our February Social Media Roundup, Clubhouse is a voice-based social network designed to foster collaboration from users and influencers worldwide.
Swell is another platform that encourages authentic voice-focused discussions. It allows users to connect with one other by posting up to 5 minutes of audio recordings. Audio can range from various subjects, including firsthand accounts, news information, perspectives, etc. In this way, the company hopes to crack down on fake news and allow users to control their own narratives. Users are also authorized to post links and photos along with their audio recordings. The app is still in its developing phase and will be available to launch soon.
Events
Get your hashtags ready. Here are some important events to add to your content calendar schedule.
National Women’s Month (March 1st-March 31st)
Women's Day (March 8th)
St Patrick’s Day (March 17th)
Springtime Pandemic: New information regarding vaccines and increased virus outbreaks have caused a spike in ‘pandemic’ and ‘Covid’ search queries. Businesses should aim to reference covid or pandemic on social media platforms and remind customers of their ‘increased customer commitment’ during these stressful and unprecedented times.
What trends will you be following? Leave a comment!