Building & Managing Your Online Business
December 2, 2024
December is the traditional time of yearly sum-ups and predictions for the next year. But if we learned anything during 2020, there is no way to predict what the future holds. We don’t presume to predict what 2021 will bring but believe there is much to learn from analyzing social media trends. An in-depth look at formats that have gained popularity this year can indicate the types of content that will do well in 2021.
We’ve made a list of the types of content you must put on your to-do list for next year:
1. Short Videos for TikTok and Reels
There is no way to overestimate the influence TikTok has on contemporary culture. Short, fast-paced videos with prominent music, dance moves, and lots of cuts have become an obsession, first among teens and in a matter of months, of all social media. Today, it’s a style recognized by people who have never even considered downloading the TikTok app. The trend became so prominent that Instagram has launched a rivaling feature called Reels, which’s gaining repute among US users.
We recommend any business to take advantage of the prevalence of the short video format. Not everyone would feel comfortable to film themselves dancing to a TikTok challenge, but any marketer should find a way to appropriate this style to your needs.
2. Long(er) videos for IGTV
IGTV is Instagram’s longer videos platform that is slowly but surely becoming a favorite destination for viewers looking for compelling content. The most suitable materials for this platform are demonstrations and how-tos, so it’s a great way to showcase your business. Note that the first minute of the video appears on your main feed, so it needs to be especially attractive.
A significant advantage of IGTV is the possibility to add clickable links in the video description. That means that unlike regular Instagram posts and Stories (if you don’t have 10K followers), you can use IGTV to send users to your website.
3. Live Video
We know that merely the thought of starting to broadcast live and unedited broadcast is daunting for a lot of you. And yet, Live Facebook and Instagram video is an essential tool with lots of potential. Don’t wait for a special occasion – go live while you talk with friends or open a new cate of products you’ve just had delivered. You can then edit the video recording and use it for all the other video formats we described.
4.Carousels
Instagram allows us to post up to 10 images in every post, but we rarely take advantage of this. If you have content that can be presented in the form of a short presentation, like a list of tips in your field, create a designed carousel that will require the user to scroll through the images. This kind of posts will make people engage with your content and spend more time looking at it, which in turn will tell the Instagram Algorithm that you’re worth promoting.
Another advantage of carousel posts is that they appear in your feed twice: once with the first image and once with the second. That gives you more chances to reach your followers, but make sure to make your second image as attractive as the first.
5. Lots of engaging stories
You already know that creating engaging stories is key to Instagram success. But we really can’t stress enough how important it is to step up your story game. Popular content creators use Stories as their primary storytelling medium where their followers get a detailed look at their lives. Their success tells us that people want to watch as much as informative and exciting stories as possible. The more creative you get with this medium, the better. Questioners, polls, videos, how-tos, demonstrations, before and afters, and any other engaging content you can think of – the sky is the limit. Part of what we love about the story interface is the page-flipping itself, so we recommend always having more than one story on the air to provide that experience.
Summing things up, we can conclude that creating diverse content formats for your social media channels is crucial for getting noticed. While many of us are stuck in a rut of posting images and captions over and over again, that just doesn’t cut it anymore for 2021 audiences. The more you vary the content your business puts out and use new formats and trends for your advantage, the more exposure you will get.
Let us know how we can help you!
