No landslides between the main characters
Although in my view social developments will have by far the greatest impact on the social media landscape in 2021, there are of course other developments that play a role.
What about the relationships between the major players in the market ? I don't foresee a landslide there. I should mention TikTok, of course, but it actually passed the challenger stage at the end of 2020. TikTok is an equal in a world of giants. So we can't really see that as a landslide for 2021.
What is interesting to follow is the relationship between the West and Asia, as major players in the social media battle. Bytedance (TikTok) is the first player from Asia that can really measure itself against the rest in terms of users in the West. This puts the relationships on edge, as evidenced by the soap opera surrounding TikTok in the US, which is still ongoing. In 2017, the Financial Times already wrote in an article that Chinese tech companies would come to the West. And they were right.
Brands continue to invest in content marketing
Where social media has seen a strong development in recent years mainly on commerce ( paid media , advertisements), we already saw a change in 2020. A turn towards qualitative content that is often more based on sustainability, humanity and relevance than on commerce, was absolutely visible. This trend will certainly continue, partly due to the events in the world surrounding the corona pandemic and the equality discussion.
This is also confirmed by, for example, the new global marketing report from Deloitte , in which words such as 'human connection', 'purpose', 'trust' and 'participation' play a major role. With that, I expect that the investments of brands in content marketing will increase. More stories , more relevant stories, more qualitative video etc.
And influencers are definitely part of that. The hype is over, we are on the eve of a more focused and targeted use of influencers. Often with a focus on niches. Adding value for both the brand and the target audience.
At my own agency, I see that brands are increasingly asking themselves what the social media channel is for telegram data For commerce? For communication? Do you want to maintain (public) relationships? Or do you want to facilitate (public) conversations? We are increasingly leaning towards social media as a communication channel for building and maintaining relationships. Even more so than the commercial applications, which of course also remain relevant. Ethics and the moral compass of organizations play an increasingly important role on social media.
The main challenge? Making sure it doesn’t come across as contrived or hypocritical . I absolutely believe that the approach of many brands is genuinely positive and well-intentioned. They may not be there yet, but they are heading in the right direction.
It feels a bit like we're going back to basics, and that feels good
We often see this in the case of technology. Something arises from an ideological mindset, as is the case with social media. Then there is the hype cycle in which the channel grows and commercializes, but in which regulation and legislation are not yet of such a nature that the channel can develop maturely and in a controlled manner. At a certain point, a phase of increasing maturity begins, of which I believe we are now on the eve with social media. In the maturity phase, the basic principles of a technological innovation come to the fore again, but then in a more mature form. And that seems to me to be an interesting and also positive development.
I hope to be able to conclude by the end of next year that this view of the future has, at least partly, become true.