4 Trends You May Have Missed On Social Media

The world of social media moves fast and if you blink for too long, you could miss out on viral trends that are impacting algorithms everywhere. Platforms are consistently rolling out new features and adjusting their algorithms to favor the updates. Why do popular social media platforms do this? To encourage the user to create with whatever the new feature may be.

Popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok all have one thing in mind when generating the user experience - to keep users scrolling and make it hard to stop. With the rise of influencer marketing, social users now have the unique opportunity to grow a following on social that can generate income, creating a new desire to reach as many users as possible. Social platforms know this and reward those creators that use new features on their platform with an algorithm boost.

Over the past year, there has been a bevy of new features and trends you may have missed as a business owner that could be boosting your reach on social.

Live Streaming

Live streaming has been around for a while, and guess what? It's not going anywhere. The first live stream dates back to 1993, headed by Xerox and Apple. Tech companies have been unveiling new product lines and technology using live streaming to get in-the-moment reactions from the consumer base.

The new age live streaming happens on social media. YouTube streaming was the pioneer in terms of streaming on social with the other popular platforms following suit. These streams were treated and promoted as events, often with agendas and objectives for the streams. Whether it was to announce a new product launch, a live coaching session with the objective of gathering leads, or a scheduled Q&A session, lives were usually preplanned.

What we have seen in recent years is more in-the-moment, casual live streams are at an all-time high. You have seen this in the influencers you follow as well as brands. This goes along with the push for in-the-moment content that we have been seeing across the board on social platforms. Users want to feel like they know the people behind the brand and going live is a great, casual way to do so!

Short Form Video Content

Everyone knows that video is king on social media. It's engaging and a big plus for most algorithms. What we have seen with the rise of TikTok is a shrinking attention span on social media. The rule of thumb used to be that videos should stay anywhere between five to ten minutes long. Those days are long gone. Videos on social have taken a casual -and shorter—turn. There's value in conveying an important message, or just an update, in a video that ranges from anywhere from 10 seconds to 30 seconds. Social media users are craving shareable, snackable content on social media and the brands that are producing it are being rewarded in views and impressions among their audience.

We have also seen this with TikTok style posts on other platforms (YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, etc.). As mentioned in the previous point, the platforms always rank this style of post higher in the algorithm as it's a new feature the platform is trying to promote.

Selling on Social

Many brands join social media for the purpose of gaining new customers. That is nothing new. From social inception, businesses have capitalized and promoted new products, services, and offerings through the use of social media marketing and advertising.

So what has changed in the last few years? The expectation of the consumer has changed to be one where they expect to be able to go through a full decision-making process when purchasing exclusively on social media, including the final purchase. A prime example of this is the shopping features on both Instagram and Facebook, where users can purchase directly in-app. Users are able to discover new businesses on the discover pages and in-feed, where they can then click on the profiles and learn more. From there, the users can actually purchase the product or sign up for the service without ever leaving their app.

Not Following Trends

An overarching theme to success on social media is playing into trends happening on each platform. This also has to do with the rise of TikTok - playing off of trending sounds and concepts is key to success on the platform. We have seen similar behaviors on the TikTok lookalike posts available on most apps - the key to success is to play into trends and make them applicable to your business. This is where you as a creator or business owner can have some creative freedom and fun with your audience. If you are not trying to keep up with trends, you are missing out on valuable views.

Keeping up on social media is a full-time job - If anyone knows that it's the staff at Hyperchat Social! If you want professional guidance on which trends you cannot afford to miss, schedule a consultation below!