Are trends your friend or foe?
People love to hate on those who follow trends until they get sucked into the rabbit hole themselves.
Trends will forever have your back in case of new content creation or going viral. You just need to know which ones to follow and when. Keep in mind that as the world spins on its axis is how fast trends come and go, but here is a list of evergreen ones that (by statistics!) have a chokehold and will continue to do so.
Social Media Trend #1 – TikTok continues to flourish
It was formerly known musically and was nothing more than a cringe dancing app for young adults. It wasn’t until 2018 when it was rebranded and a lot of people were leveraging off of it and onto their success. But then again, its popularity only increased during the pandemic. There were new creators who were genuine, fewer sponsorship ads and it was where people were raising their voices on social injustices such as Black Lives Matter.
Tiktok was an easy-to-use app, you could easily spend a few hours scrolling through endless videos. Just when the lockdown was easing in many places during January of 2021, Tiktok’s user base increased by a whopping 45%.
For a lot of people who started this as a hobby or to kill the hours locked up, it became their source of income. It was the one platform where people went viral within a few days; this type of success was never seen on any other platform.
Did this rapid increase cause the other platforms to suffer? Yes.
Due to its influencing nature and immense chokehold on its users, this trend isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Social Media Trend #2 – Longer videos
This one definitely came as a surprise, especially looking at the increase in 10-second stories on multiple platforms and Tiktok didn’t let you post a video that was longer than 60 seconds. But we overlooked a minor detail here. There were constant complaints that a lot of users had to upload their videos in parts and they started losing followers since nobody wanted to watch a simple video divided into sections. The new update offered 3 minute long videos and that update won hearts. It is also just another reason why Tiktok continues to grow, they listen to their users.
The effectiveness of the resurging in longer videos was proven by Gary vee, a Belarusian-American who makes 20-30 minute long videos about business mindsets and motivation.
Gary Vee is standing proof that long videos don’t equal boring. You can watch his videos for hours and still feel like you can watch more. A few tactics he uses are:
- Interaction with an audience. He talks, he asks questions to the people sitting around him, or he simply answers questions sent to him.
- He doesn’t waste time. He gets straight to the point without the use of lingering words or metaphors that are hard to understand.
- He doesn’t sugarcoat. Easier to listen to hard reality truths than sugar-coated lies
- He uses an assertive voice. He uses commands and orders instead of suggestions.
This was just one example, a lot of creators have caught onto this and have been doing really well with their long videos. The only problem with this is to make sure it reaches a targeted audience. That’s self-explanatory, a person who’s a doctor wouldn’t want to listen to a 20-minute video on marketing. So, use appropriate hashtags, tag people who will be interested in the video and that jump-starts your success with long videos.
Social Media Trend #3 – Digital advertisement increases
The pandemic caused a sudden increase in shopping habits. Mostly, people resorted to online shopping to reduce the risk but it hasn’t quite stopped up till now. Online shopping is easier, you get discount codes and everything you need is available at the touch of a button. This puts into perspective why digital advertising increased over all platforms. You can not scroll through Instagram stories or Tiktok videos without at least 5 of them popping up.
According to this chart, by 2022, digital advertising has increased by 60% and will only go up from here!
If this chart proves to be true, which is honest, it will. Social media ads will take over television by next year.
Television is where ads used to do great before this sudden rise in multiple social media platforms. We see a lot of adults not having the time to sit in front of a TV for hours and instead spend those hours scrolling through social media. This caused a decline in ads through Television and people were investing more in social media ads. They saw the numbers go up and this is just another trend not going anywhere.
Social Media Trend #4 – Customer care and support are a top priority
A lot more people using social media means more people using your services. The market is saturated enough, if they won’t find help within seconds from your website, they will move on. This is why you set up Auto-DM’s on Twitter and Auto-replies on Instagram. But that doesn’t end there! You need a customer care team that is always active via email to respond to your customers’ queries.
(Check out HypeFury for Automated DM’s on Twitter to get the stress off your plate, you can reply/DM 1000+ people in under 12 seconds with this new feature!)
It is a great trend that helps customers and it will continue to flourish as we see the rise in eCommerce.
Social Media Trend #5 – Creator funds rise
Creator funds are what pay creators for their content. Around
In August of 2006, Youtube became one of the leading platforms to start monetization. Before that, people were making videos for the laugh of it, and suddenly, their fun became their way of earning money.
Over time, the creator fund for multiple applications has grown, which caused a rise in influencers. There was a recent report done on the creator economy and it was stated that more than 50 million people consider themselves to be influencers. And why should they not?
According to the charts on CB insights, we get a closer look at the growth of the economy for creators, and it is not drying up anytime soon. So the trend of influencers only increases from here on out. The more influencers there are, the more the audience, and the more revenue is generated. Think of it as a mutually beneficial relationship between the platform and the influencer.
Social Media Trend #6 – Sustainability no longer gets overlooked
Let’s be honest, we are busy people. Looking at things from before the pandemic, we were so involved within ourselves, going about our day, working our jobs, living this constant life as if a tape on replay. It was quickly changed when we had to sit at home with nothing to do. This was the time when people started seeing the effects of human life on the climate.
Animals returned to their habitat and within just a few weeks there were 28% less greenhouse gas emissions and decreased air pollution.
Human activity can not be limited due to the increasing population, but a person can make changes to their purchasing habits.
People started shopping more sustainably, through brands that were engrossed in maintaining the climate and not providing further harm to it.
They went completely green, using less plastic waste, recycling, limiting the use of chlorofluorocarbons, and donating for the cleaning of the ocean to prevent sea life from being injured.
This made them choose more consciously where their money was going.
Because of the constant resurfacing of pictures such as:
These photographs have left an imprint on an entire generation. Call it a trend but this one is definitely staying for the course of years till we see some changes.
Social Media Trend #7 – Live Streams
This isn’t new, live streaming has been around for decades. They started out with creators streaming pranks, reaction videos, and challenges since it always looked genuine as it was filmed right there. And then it quickly changed to “Scary things caught on Live Streams” which quickly became super popular with the paranormal fans.
Needless to say, the trend remains; it has gone through multiple shifts, and for now, it has settled to creators talking, having fun, being themselves, and interacting with their audience. Even though the live stream trend at the moment that’s doing very well is podcasting that is TV-like.
Regardless of what the content within the stream is, they always tend to do really well. Think of it as a break from the editing, filters, and spending hours perfecting the script or plan. It’s very engaging indeed and just another trend we won’t be seeing the end of.
Social media trends are forever changing, some remain evergreen and others continue revolving. It may be tough to keep up with them over time.
However, there are plenty of articles out there that report trends within seconds of them popping up.
So, do you still want to jump on the bandwagon to hate on trends when they are the only things having your back?
