Social Media Trends: 2021

Social media users are constantly growing and exploring new platforms as they pop up. Just look at the emergence and adoption of TikTok this past year. Granted, due to the pandemic, TikTok rose in popularity rapidly, as people were searching for something new, exciting that still connected to the world outside their four walls.

However, TikTok was not the only social media platform that rose in usage and engagement. In 2020, nearly every platform increased its user base and consistent usage. This trend is continuing, for the most part, into 2021. Although as cities begin to become more lenient on their COVID restriction, social media usage is expected to level out during the summer months, but ever so slightly. Consumers have adapted to the more digital, less outside world that most kids would have loved in their formative years (flashbacks to our parents yelling at us to put down the video games and go play outside).

In a Pew Research study, conducted this in Q1 2021, YouTube drastically led usage metrics with 81%. This signifies that video content is still king in the digital world and video consumption is likely going to reign for a long, long, time. Facebook and Instagram were second and third.

Pinterest and LinkedIn saw slight growth between 2019 – 2021. Since both platforms have more specific missions, Pinterest being the platform of creativity and LinkedIn for those who are seeking employment or to build their professional network, it is not anticipated that these will drop drastically in the months or years to follow.

Pew Research, 2021

Now, Snapchat saw the biggest decline of the pack coming into 2021, likely due to the rapid popularity of TikTok. We know that digital users have such short attention spans and TikTok was truly the bright and shiny object of the year. While Snapchat users still skew towards the younger generations, with new features that are currently being released on the platform, it will be interesting to see how they bounce back.

Twitter, is yet another interesting use case, with the stream of media coverage due to the presidential race and elections between 2019 – 2021. After multiple accounts were banned, there were fluctuations in Twitter’s user base and continued engagement. It seems that Twitter is slowly regaining its adoption rate as the negative press dies down and the world finds a new normal amongst the digital landscape.

Now that you know the usage trends of these popular social media platforms, what is in your social media strategy? Are you driving the best engagement on your platforms of choice or do you need to consider additional platforms to help boost your social media presence? Contact us for a free consultation to discuss what is best for your business.