What Are the Hottest Social Media Trends for 2021?

What are the hottest social media trends for 2021? We took a look at which platforms are going to go biggest over the next three years and ranked them from top to bottom.

1 ) Instagram’s WeChat

What? WeChat? Yes, WeChat. No, Instagram will not buy WeChat, but it will get inspired from it as it happened a thousand times before.

Instagram will soon be rolling out new features that let users do everything from renting a car to booking a flight on their phone with just one tap, much like the Chinese app, WeChat. This new feature aims to make it easier for people who want to purchase or rent something (hopefully, you). So changes are coming, and they will be significant.

By switching from “social network” to “WeChat Mode”, Instagram will encourage more robust support among your followers. In WeChat, users interact directly with small business owners without relying so much on influencers or ads (which has been the most significant setback for Instagram).

2 ) TikTok is King

TikTok, the popular video-sharing app, is the fastest-growing app that you may not have heard of until now. It’s often compared to YouTube but a lot less mature. So don’t be fooled! The biggest difference? It’s totally free and works on every platform, from Android to iOS. So you can create music videos with your friends and broadcast them across Facebook and Instagram. This will help brands get better brand recognition among young people for their products.

Who uses TikTok? Everyone, apparently. Over the past few months, every major celebrity appears to be switching Instagram for TikTok. Miley Cyrus, Will Smith, Jack Black, even Presidents are leaving Facebook’s social media — and for a reason. Growing happens organically and faster on TikTok. Users report a whopping 98% growth rate in a matter of hours, something impossible for Instagram’s algorithm.

3) Live Streaming vs Ads

Once again, Facebook is getting into the live streaming game with a dedicated Facebook Live Sessions events. This tool lets users host live video broadcasts on Facebook as long as they comply with Facebook’s rules. And while TikTok live is king, Facebook Live Sessions can surely be named queen.

Twitch, Facebook Sessions, Instagram Live, Youtube Live — you name it. Anything that connects people dominates everyone’s attention. Until now, ads dominated every social network, which unsurprisingly, pushed people away. But online marketers should take notice: Live Streaming has successfully integrated ads on Asia unlike anything we have seen here on the West, and they are coming to the second half of 2021.

People simply want more live events.

In a way, Timeline Live, taps into this. Facebook has been trying to get more people to share with their friends and followers while doing things in real life. This new feature, timeline live, allows users to broadcast live videos of their activities. An important feature of Timeline Live is that these videos will be saved on users’ accounts for up to 24 hours, pretty much like Instagram’s Stories are. This could become a handy tool for businesses or politicians looking to be seen and heard online.

4) Twitter is dead — Long live Twitter.

Of course, every time a social media platform is about to go out of style, people start thinking it’s useless. But even long-dead social media platforms such as Twitter (let’s face it, it was dead for a time) have come back to life in recent years.

Yes, social media necromancy is a thing.

And Twitter, while struggling lately, still has some good uses for the right companies. For example, they can use Twitter to reach potential influencers and figure out what they are talking about to better understand their audience. The company also recently changed their algorithm so that posts from brands and regular people would be sorted into separate columns rather than mixed together like they used to be (this helps brands sort of stand out).

Far from dead, Twitter seems to be making a comeback with Revue, a newsletter service aiming to fight Substack’s dominant position among freelance journalists.

Bottom Line

2020 was “the year of hell”; no one can deny that. And although 2022 will surely bring in some changes to how we use social networks, the COVID-19 outbreak has, in a way, help to pave the way for more integrated online relations. In 2021, Live is king. Who knows what 2022 will bring? But whatever it is, one thing is sure: 2022 is going to be extremely exciting.