The Hottest Social Media News And Trends 2021

Ecommerce, new ways of staying connected, and Clubhouse hysteria were the main trends on Social Media last year. Here are some interesting news and updates on it in case you missed some of our SM Digests in 2021. 

Online shopping reigns throughout 2021 

Online shopping became the leading trend in 2021, therefore Facebook and Instagram made shopping online easier and faster by providing online shops.   

Facebook Commerce Manager allowed setting up an online shop and catalogs and also gave access to statistics. Once your account was approved, you were allowed to download your catalogs. You can do it manually if you’ve got less than 50 items to sell. If you’ve got more it’s better to use one of the options provided to do it automatically. Proper catalog setup gives you an option of a paid advertisement from there. In that case, your potential customer sees the price, website link, availability, and other characteristics. Your primary goal is to sell, so the “Conversions” objective is the right choice while setting up an ads campaign. Using Facebook Pixel and Facebook SDK for events makes tracking your website products much easier and boosts retargeting capacity.    

In February Instagram rolled out new shoppable posts. There was a tappable shopping bag in a lower-left corner of your screen. It allowed tapping and finding out all the details about the products you were particularly interested in. Setting up an online Instagram shop became a must, especially if you sell physical products. Because of the restrictions imposed due to the global pandemic, we keep spending more and more time online. Once an online shop was set up, sellers were given an option to tag their products on posts, IGTV videos, and stories. You just need to make sure that tags match actual pictures, so as not to get your customers frustrated.   

Within the eCommerce boost, Instagram provided a new product listings promotion on the Shop front page. Once you click on a sponsored product, you are forwarded to the Product Details Page, where you can see some additional pictures, if any are available. These sponsored products can also be either shared or saved.  

With its eCommerce push, even Twitter experimented with shopping added a new “Purchases” tab. It is closely tied to the “Super Follows” feature, since it shows all the subscriptions or tickets, bought through the application. This tab is actually a place, where, supposedly, the Platform is going to list all the products, purchased through the app. In November the platform also launched its initial test of Live-Stream Shopping Broadcasts, which were designed to allow customers to join live broadcasts with shopping options available.   

Facebook and Instagram provided new opportunities for maintaining work-life balance 

Due to the pandemic, we observed a rise in streaming, since people were looking for new ways to stay connected. In March this option became available to all Instagram users in all regions.  Users were given an option of inviting other people to their IG Live Rooms, where they could be seen live side by side. An invited person saw a drop-down notification. Such an option suggests a wider range of applications: from conducting interviews to strengthening a connection with your audience.        

Facebook’s Portal TV Device provided one more opportunity to maintain a work-life balance since it allowed users to use the biggest screen in their house and keep up with the workflow at the same time. This feature also allowed users to free their devices and focus on relevant information.   

Last year Facebook was after Clubhouse and launched Audio Rooms, and even updated it. In October Facebook made live audio rooms available to all public figures throughout the world after providing this option in the US. This means that all verified accounts are given the option of hosting those live rooms. Audio Rooms are going to be shown above the News Feed and Stories. For now only verified accounts and public figures are restricted to creating Audio Rooms, while all the users can tune in. And this fact makes sense since it prevents the Rooms from being overcrowded and people leaving the app without being able to find the best room right away.    

Clubhouse: 2021 Evolution 

2021 started with the rise of the new SM platform. Basically, Clubhouse was not a brand new networking application, because it was first launched in March 2020 in the USA. Though, it became very popular at the beginning of 2021.  

This platform evolved pretty much throughout last year. In April Clubhouse launched direct payments. The new monetization tool allowed users to choose their favorite hosts and transfer money to them. Finally, in April an Android version of this app came into being because the lack of it significantly hampered the growth of the platform. In the middle of July Clubhouse even teamed up with TED to share some exclusive ideas from leaders and experts.  

Autumn was rich in updates for Clubhouse. After some testing Clubhouse allowed sharing 30-second audio clips to all iOS users. The users started seeing a scissors icon. Once tapped it captures a 30-second clip for further saving and third-party sharing. Apart from this, the platform provided a QR code, which allows linking back to the room in progress. Besides that Clubhouse also launched a replay option in November. When this option is enabled users can replay the entire audio and a host can utilize it however he or she likes. 

And finally at the end of the year Clubhouse rolled out a ‘Saved replays’ option allowing users to save the audio from recorded chats. Besides that, Clubhouse entered the New Year with a new icon.     

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