Keeping up with social media trends is not as easy as it might seem. Online platforms are constantly coming up with new solutions and innovative features to engage their users even further. These new updates are continuously reshaping the social media landscape. Below you will find a few things that keep social media fun and full of active users.
TikTok
Even though it was first introduced in 2016, TikTok is currently going through its golden era. Its popularity skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing people with entertainment in lockdown, and is still doing great. They say that if you don’t use TikTok, you have no idea what is going on in the online world.
What makes TikTok so addictive is its simplicity – it’s based on very short, entertaining videos that you can click through endlessly. Due to its structure, all kinds of trends can spread like fire, making everyone aware of them and effectively promoting certain types of videos.
An example would be dance challenges. Musical artists often create short videos with a chosen key move from a choreography to their new song. The move is usually quite simple so that everyone can learn it. TikTok users pick up such trends and create their own videos where they dance the part of the choreography, spreading the promotion further and making more people hear the new song. It’s an interactive, creative and very effective way to engage the audience.
TikTok’s popularity is proven in numbers. It was the only non-Facebook social media application that reached over 3 million downloads in 2021.
Instagram Reels
Instagram probably doesn’t need any introduction, as most people know it or at least have heard of it. However, Instagram Reels is considered to be the most popular feature out of all that are mentioned in this article.
It’s a feature that allows uploading short (90 seconds) videos that can be used to promote your brand, educate your viewers, share information, etc. The great advantage of Reels is that they spread very easily and can quickly reach a big number of people.
A few key characteristics of Reels:
- they can be viewed by people from outside of your group of followers;
- there are creative tools such as special effects, music, stickers, etc. available to help you make your content more interesting;
- you can attach your products to your Reels to enable viewers direct shopping, without even leaving the app;
- your Reels can serve as promotional materials;
- easy cooperations – you can mark your content as sponsored;
- engaging the audience – Remix feature allows recording videos that refer to other videos; these can be answers, commentaries, funny additions, whatever you like; it allows the audience to interact with your content by adding their own viewpoint to it.
Instagram Shopping
Instagram Shopping is a fresh feature (introduced on September 14, 2022) that allows users to pay for their order directly in a chat with the seller. It’s an update that facilitates the process of purchasing products from Instagram-based shops, making it easier for both buyers and sellers. There are no additional payments required for using this feature. There is also 24/7 support available, solving any emerging problems as soon as possible.
Social Commerce, in other words – selling products via social media platforms – is another skyrocketing trend. Users love features that make their lives easier and buyers love features that make the process of selling even faster. Instagram Shopping is intuitive, safe, and requires nothing more than a few clicks to buy all the stuff that catches your eye. A trap for impulsive buyers for sure 😉
Instagram Creator Marketplace
Another trend that bloomed during the pandemic but is definitely staying with us for a longer time is Influencer Marketing. It’s a type of collaboration between brands and influential online creators that helps to reach their target audience through someone else’s social media.
Instagram Creator Marketplace is a feature that assists brands and companies in finding the right influencers for their marketing campaigns. The tool allows filtering through creators and selecting them by their age, gender, number of followers, interests, demographics of their audience. It’s a great step in the Instagram politics, because it creates space for influencers to grow and for brands to find the most suitable connections.
Multimedia Tweets
Twitter also works on new ways to engage their users. One of the trendy features is Multimedia Tweets, introduced in October 2022. It allows users to attach a few different types of media files in one tweet. In the past it wasn’t supported – you could include up to 4 JPG files, but couldn’t mix them with other formats. Now it is available. It engages users in more creative posting, as they can now mix JPGs, GIFs and videos. Such tweets are more vibrant and engaging, and quickly go viral.
YouTube Shorts
As everything progresses towards shorter and shorter forms of entertainment, to match the attention span of modern viewers, YouTube also does not stay behind. Although it is originally focused on longer videos, a trendy feature YouTube Shorts gained great popularity, being approachable for the younger audience who prefers quick, short content. It allows posting short videos (up to 60 seconds) that can be clicked through endlessly, reaching audiences that aren’t your subscribers. YouTube Shorts can quickly become viral, which makes them attractive to brands as a way to promote.
The Faster, The Better
These are just a few elements of the social media landscape that we chose, to give you an overview of current trends. It’s an ever-changing branch of knowledge, as social media platforms are constantly competing with one another and coming up with new stuff to keep their users entertained.
The overall conclusion is that the platforms are leaning towards short video content and it seems to be working extremely well.
So, the next time you create a social media post, maybe think twice if it can be done in the form of a video. And remember to keep your eyes open for new features. Some of them have the potential to make your business thrive.
