fbpx Skip to main content

Social media is an ever-changing animal, and what is trending today can quickly become tomorrow’s old news. Keeping a pulse on the dynamic trends in the social media world is a great way to ensure that your content is relevant and maintains the value that your audience relies on you for. 

When the lockdowns shut our country down last year, Americans spent more time than ever before online, averaging 80 minutes per day on social media alone! There’s no doubt about it, the time people spend on the internet, and especially social media is destined to continue growing.

COVID-19 has irrevocably changed many aspects of our lives, and social media is definitely one area that didn’t avoid its impact. Luckily, in the case of social media, these changes can be seen as potentially positive and transformative for you and your business.

1. Be Transparent

Gone are the days of spouting shameless sponsored content. Customers now want to know when you’re promoting something and WHY. Pretending like you love a product and writing content designed primarily as an ad is for the birds, and something your audience can see right through and doesn’t like or want anymore. 

Customers do want to know what products or services you love and why you recommend them, but they want you to be open and honest about the nature of your relationship with the provider of said products and services. Are you being paid to promote content? If so, that’s totally ok, but be transparent about it! Let them know all the reasons WHY you love and are sponsoring content! 

2. Create High-Quality Content

People want quality above quantity. There is no reason to post three times a day if the content you are putting out there isn’t adding value to the world. This doesn’t mean that you need to hire a production team or invest in extravagant camera equipment. But it might mean hiring a good copywriter or using the services of a highly rated digital marketing agency in order to help you to serve your audience the very best you have to offer.

3. Focus On How You Can Help Your Audience

Focus less on products and services, and more on how you can help your audience. There is a subtle yet tangible difference between spamming your audience with innumerable posts about your services and products and why they are so great and creating thoughtful, informative content that helps your audience to understand how you can help them to solve their problems. 

Stop prioritizing using your social media platforms as advertising venues and start looking at how you can create content that is engaging and helpful to your demographic. People can sense when you make that shift, and will be attracted to your business and want to seek out what you are offering, instead of feeling annoyed at being incessantly advertised to.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Join TikTok

TikTok shows that it pays to join new social media platforms: TikTok blew up (in a good way!) in 2021, helping users to alleviate their boredom and connect with other like-minded people, as well as giving the average everyday person an opportunity to feel like a star. 

What started off as a lip-syncing platform used primarily by teens has become an increasingly popular app for users from all walks of life, as well as a great way to connect with potential customers!

5. Give Your Audience a Break

Users are looking to take a break from the sense of heaviness that comes with consuming and analyzing the daily news. A great way to serve your audience is by offering them a mini-vacay in the form of more lighthearted social media content. 

Short, entertaining video clips are a great example of how to offer lighter fare to your audience. Bonus points if you include text captions, as many viewers watch videos without the sound. 

6. Offer the Shopping Without the Dropping

Shopping is the stress-reliever that we all know and love, making the lockdowns particularly hard on self-professed shopaholics. Fortunately, online shopping has become simpler and easier to access than ever, and its popularity is booming.

Give your audience a chance to browse your shop, and be sure to include ways for them to easily view and purchase your products. Allowing customers to comment on and review your products and post and share their own photos showing the benefit of your products or services are effective forms of advertising, as potential consumers often rely on candid testimonials before making a purchase. 

Many social media platforms now have storefront options, so don’t be afraid to utilize them!

7. Be Authentically You

Creating authentic content relies in part on an unwavering conviction that you and your business provide a valuable service and are worthy of attracting ideal clients and generating massive income regardless of how polished (or not) you might appear. 

This confidence in yourself and in your business is palpable and magnetizes the right people to you at the right time. Showing the messy, vulnerable, or behind-the-scenes snapshots of your daily life might feel a little scary at first, but is an excellent way to create the refreshing and relatable content that your audience craves. 

8. Do You Want to Play a Game?

Last year 10 million extra people self-identified as gamers, making online gaming more popular than ever before. Take advantage of the gamer’s desire to just have fun and try offering games, contests, and giveaways as a part of your regularly scheduled content. You can even award games or gaming subscription services as some of your prizes! 

9. Learn to Live Stream

If you haven’t yet made live-streaming a habitual element of your social media marketing plan, now is the time to start! You can use live streaming to host guests, talk about new products or services, offer free video tutorials, or even just show your audience what a day in your life looks like. 

10. Make Connections

Now more than ever, social media is used to connect with others. Last year social isolation was at an all-time high, meaning that connection via social media was sometimes the only way we had to hang out with each other. 

Creating meaningful connections over social media means listening to and engaging with your audience, discovering and serving their needs, and creating an online space where people feel supported and heard no matter what else is going on in the world.

Navigating the constantly developing trends of social media can sometimes feel baffling, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. If you need help figuring out the best strategies for marketing online and growing your business then we here at Don Creative Group can help. We specialize in offering personalized social media marketing and branding services that get results. Book a call with us today, and find out all the ways that we can keep your business current with what’s trending.