Social media usage has risen during lockdown – Facebook’s Daily Active Users increased by 11% compared to last year.
So now that the UK and most of the world is slowly coming out of lockdown, what should marketers be looking at in terms of social media marketing?
Video content will be even more important
Video has already become integral to most social platforms – whether it’s video-only platforms such as TikTok or Byte, or other text-heavy platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Authentic, human content will continue
During lockdown, there has been a rise in “authentic” content, where we have seen a more human side to brands as people have been unfiltered at home, rather than in the office.
While much will likely return to normal, more people will be working remotely or continue to work from home, which may mean more brands will be pushing less-polished visual content.
Adaptation to new consumer behaviour
During lockdown more people have been shopping online, browsing the web and engaging on social platforms.
To reflect this, platforms have adapted in order to serve users better. Which means brands using the platforms have to comply in order to best serve their customers and attract new potential customers.
Video calls and chats
As an example of a way platforms have adapted, video calls have become more popular. For instance, with the rise of video call software such as Zoom, other platforms have weighed in with their own versions.
LinkedIn created Virtual Events for businesses to utilise, and Facebook created Rooms. Google has also expanded its options.
In doing so, this integrates the features with other aspects of the social platforms, which means more people on the platform on a daily basis, which means they will be using the social platforms more often and in more varied ways.
Social media has become more social
Over the past few years, social media has changed quite substantially. And for the most part, it’s sort of gone back to its roots.
Originally, social media platforms were there to socialise with the people that mean the most to you. Then somewhere along the way, everyone’s’ feeds became dominated by pages, groups (often including strangers), ads, sponsored content, brands and much more. Most things which people don’t intend to use the platforms for.
Since then, Facebook in particular, has altered the algorithm in order to show more personal posts of actual friends more often. With lockdown, socialising from home has been more important than ever for a variety of reasons, so the platforms have been used for these purposes more often than not.
So how do you handle social media in a post-lockdown and (hopefully) post-COVID world?
- Continue to be personal, human and authentic
- Don’t be too pushy in terms of marketing
- Ensure you don’t appear to take advantage of any lockdown or COVID-related scenarios that arise
- Avoid potentially controversial statements and/or opinions from your brand accounts