What’s New in the Social Media Marketing World?

Last week, eMarketer released its Q1 2021 Social Media Update, a ‘summary of key developments’ in the social media marketing world. It’s no secret that social media is now integral to any digital marketing strategy – we’re at the point where some businesses are foregoing traditional websites in favour of Facebook, Instagram, and Google My Business profiles. With that in mind, here are a few key trends, developments, and stats from eMarketer’s report.

American social media usage is expected to decline slightly year-over-year, and usage in the UK is expected to remain stable in 2021. In both countries, and in Canada, usage will remain above what it was in 2019, before the pandemic took hold. In other words, people are no longer adopting social media at a rapid pace, but they aren’t giving it up, either.

Social media platforms are evolving to meet political challenges. Reflecting the growing politicization of social media discourse, Twitter and Facebook banned Donald Trump from their platforms last quarter. Facebook also reduced political content in News Feeds for some countries and axed news content in Australia, prompting global backlash. Social platforms are increasingly under public scrutiny and must find ways to ethically maximize profits.

Marketing dollars have never been more important. Facebook publicly clashed with Apple over privacy-focused changes in iOS 14. Instagram partnered with Spotify for smoother ecommerce. Snapchat is seeking local digital marketing advertisers. And Twitter is looking into shoppable tweets. Social media marketing dollars are plentiful, sparking a gold rush between tech giants.

Facebook remains the most-used social media platform among American adults. Outside of its Social Media Update, eMarketer also highlighted the results of a social media usage survey from Axios and SurveyMonkey. The survey found that Facebook remains the favourite social media platform among American adults, with nearly 70 per cent still logging on regularly. Facebook-owned Instagram placed second, with 41 per cent usership, followed by LinkedIn (25 per cent), Snapchat (23 per cent), Twitter (22 per cent), TikTok (20 per cent), and Clubhouse (16 per cent). Just two per cent of respondents said they didn’t use any social platforms.

 

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