One year ago, I shared 6 trends in social media I thought it was worth investing in in 2020So let's say that this is the same thing as that. When the article was written, however, I was not aware of the year we actually had in store, for 2020 was a different year. A year in which several establishments had to have had to have had a snug operation and have been in danger of bankruptcy. The rapid testing of new trends is then low priority.
Despite a special year, several of the trends have proved to be voting. Among other things, we have now been invited to webinars through LinkedIn Events, we have been tested Snapchat advertising on all customers and shopping has been given significantly greater space on Instagram.
In 2021, we bring with us more of the trends, while other trends are behind us and are not included in 2020.
1. Increased shopping focus on Facebook and Instagram
In 2021 we will see that Facebook is even more focused on expanding the possibilities for e-commerce actors. A Facebook study shows that the whole 70% of shoppers use Instagram to detect products, and 130 million users press shopping items every single month!
With the latest update of Instagram, the shopping tab got significantly more visibility and is now located where alerts appeared earlier. A change that has created great confusion among several users, and of course made it more focused on just shopping on Instagram.
Also on Facebook, e-commerce actors now have the opportunity to set up a digital store for their products, and can sell products through the world's most used digital platform. A great advantage is that the function is free and simple, meaning that any company can create and adapt its “store” regardless of size and budget.
For the user, the shopping tab is also very curative. Here, products from operators are now found to interact with a frequent way of dealing with them — a super opportunity for online traders to harvest relevant customers to increase the focus on their products. Until now, transactions cannot be completed directly through Facebook or Instagram, but we believe that this will be possible in Norway in the coming year.
2. Increased use of Snapchat as ad platform
In 2020 we predicted that Snapchat would be an important channel to reach relevant target groups while taking advantage of each marketing crown. By the end of 2020 we finally tested the platform ourselves on all of our customers, and that with great success.
In particular, we believe that dynamic advertising will be of great value to several actors, as it hits hot customers in the places they are actually. Among other things, we ran dynamic product ads for outdoor and top trip operator DerUte.no during Black Week. The campaign ended with a ROAS of 22,04.
Due to the still cheap costs of Snapchat, we consider this a profitable channel to adapt dynamic ads. An example is the reparation of advertisements based on abandoned shopping basket or prospecting where you meet new customers with a product catalogue.
Another new feature that makes Snapchat even more attractive to e-commerce actors is that businesses can now create their own channel – for free! Here Snapchatters can subscribe to your profile and use the company's lenses, while the company can put out stories and create its own highlightes with favorite stories and snaps. These will also remain visible as long as the enterprise itself wishes. Last but not least, the profile can also include a online store to be traded directly from Snapchat. Hurray for more shopping – we'll do it!
Three. Facebook Live Shopping
One thing we've seen change especially in 2020 is how people act and consume goods. Several establishments have been forced to find new ways to show and deliver their products during the year. There are live broadcasts, personal shopping trips via Facetime calls or home runs of ordered products.
Is there one thing we want to be available to Norwegian actors in 2021, it's Facebook's own Live Shopping feature. Yes, of course, there are other services that offer the same thing. Both Bambuser, HERO and Amazon Live are good solutions – but with an increased focus on shopping on Facebook and Instagram it is nice to gather everything here.
Facebook Live Shopping allows you to sell goods and interact directly with viewers in real time. While you are flowing live you can show out products that are previously tagged and appear on the screen so that viewers can click directly into the product to act. The advantage is that you can share more information, demonstrate your products, answer questions and reactions – a little like an actual trade trip in a physical store.
For so long, the function is not fully available in Norway. You can of course run a live broadcast to send links in the comment field, but it is not quite so interactive. We believe and hope Facebook Live Shopping is to find across Facebook and Instagram during 2021!
4. Instagram as the new blog platformn
Blogging and sharing of tips through articles is popular both for influences and companies, but over time, reading numbers on several blogs have slowly gone down. This has now found a solution for: with Instagram Guides you can now blog and share tips directly on Instagram!
Here you can add everything from images and videos to longer texts – just like on a blog. The advantage is that it gives greater creative freedom for sharing content on the platform, inter alia, by that the content shared will be under a separate menu on your personal or corporate profile.
For companies, it would be beneficial for influences and other influences to use the feature of sharing their favorite products with references to their Instagram shop. Guides can also be used to share different show-to’s and instructions, lists of bestsellers or tips for harvester, make-up tips or suggestions for the perfect spa evening (depending on what you sell).
A lot of the back thought here is enough that people should spend even more time on the platform, but we're not complaining.
5. Session e-commerce focus on TickTok and Instagram Reels
For last year's trends, we predicted that video content would continue to dominate by 2020. A little we knew then how popular video editing applications like TikTok and Instagram Reels would be in the coming year. You can ask yourself, is this a question of whether TikTok would be the same without corona? Maybe not. Many people became home-made, causing barriers to the sharing of video content to be significantly lowered, and suddenly users of all ages were able to find on the app.
Video editing is popular because it opens for more personal and creative content. We believe that several major brands and influences will use TikTok and Reels as a marketing platform in the coming year, and that video editing will become the dominant user-generated content to engage the new audience and create extra content for its brand. Not only because it is very interactive and engaging, but also because video is often fun, real and related.
It is also reasonable to assume by TikTok will increase their focus on the Ecmerce, among other things they have now entered into a cooperation with the Ecmerce platform Shopify. A cooperation that will facilitate the sale of Shopify players through the platform. Also on Instagram, opportunities will be available to facilitate the showcase of products in video. According to Social Media Today, Instagram will now open for marking of products in Reels – making creative/edited video content even more attractive.
These are, of course, only personal assumptions about what trends will dominate further in 2021, and a recommendation on where the focus should be. So then, of course, I wonder what you think will be 2021's most important marketing trend?
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