The use of video in social media marketing has long been proven to be successful. People will spend up to 2.5 hours a day on average watching online video in 2021. Furthermore, people enjoy watching videos to learn about a product or service. A survey showed that most people:

• Watch videos to learn more about a product or service.
• Prefer short videos to learn more about a product or service
• Have been convinced to purchase items or services by online videos

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On the other hand, videos bring a significant impact to the business. Many video marketers have mentioned:

• Their website traffic has increased after they start video marketing.
• Website visitors spend a longer time after they start video marketing.
• Videos directly helped increase sales.
• Videos have received higher engagement (shares, likes, comments, etc.)
• Video marketing has been used by 86% of companies around the world already. This trend will continue to grow, as 69% of the remaining non-video marketers plan to start video marketing in 2021.

All major social media sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, allow you to begin video marketing. Don’t forget about YouTube, the world’s largest video search engine, which will help you gain a lot of visibility and scope. Many free YouTube SEO tools can assist you in identifying the right target keywords and improving your search engine ranking on YouTube.

2. Stories are Underrated:

Stories, which were first popularized by Snapchat, are becoming increasingly popular, especially on Instagram. Unlike tweets, stories allow for more contact with followers. Many interactive features, such as voting, question boxes, countdown stickers, product stickers, and so on, can be used in stories to increase interaction. It could surprise you to learn that:

• 400 million people use Instagram Stories every day
• Instagram stories take up user’s time for more than 28 minutes
• 1/3 Instagram users have become interested in products through stories

Currently, business accounts generate more than a third of all stories. Many businesses use the stories feature to share short video advertisements and behind-the-scenes footage with their customers. Consider recruiting a freelancer if you don’t have someone on your staff who can create short video advertisements.

Via various story functions, stories can increase engagement between brands and social media users. You can check out the Stories feature if you haven’t already.

3. The Rise of Social Commerce:

Social commerce is also gaining popularity. Users are more active when shopping on social media sites because they can like, comment, and share content.

According to estimates, social commerce has become an important part of the consumer shopping experience:

• 84% of online buyers take a look at company’s social media account before purchasing
• 30% of online buyers purchase directly from social media platforms
• More than 50% of Millennials shop through social media

The global social commerce market is expected to increase by almost one-third by 2021, making it one of the fastest-growing social marketing strategies that worth your attention.

Instagram is a popular social media shopping site. In 2020, it added a shopping feature that allows users to visit a store directly from a business’s Instagram profile, feed, or Stories. Visitors can browse items and check out directly from the app, making for a seamless shopping experience.

Facebook is another one to keep in mind. It includes a Marketplace feature that allows users to list and sell products. It launched Facebook Shops, which is similar to Instagram Shop, for small businesses. Facebook Shops can be accessed via the business’s Facebook page, Instagram profile, Stories, and advertising.

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4. Chatbots to Take Over Customer Service:

Chatbots are a game-changer in the world of online customer service.

A chatbot is an artificial intelligence-based online conversation system that assists customers and tourists (AI). It can provide service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can answer simple questions without the need for human involvement! Statistics showed that:

Chatbot can save up to 30% of customer service’s operation cost.
There are already 300,000 chatbots on Facebook now, and it is expected to increase in the coming years.

Aside from the chatbot’s many benefits, its functionality would most likely grow rapidly as AI technology advances.

Chatbots can be used to assist consumers on major social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. Even if you don’t have a social commerce shop, you can use chatbots to have a better customer experience by answering questions like opening hours and other frequently asked questions.

5. Influencer Marketing will Continue to Grow:

Influencer marketing, unsurprisingly, has been and will continue to be a big marketing technique. According to reports, 63 percent of marketers expect to increase their influencer marketing spending in 2021. Here are a few 2021 patterns to keep an eye on:

First, micro-influencers with less than 25,000 followers have the highest interaction rate of 7%, despite having fewer followers. This is because their followers regard them as friends, and micro-influencer word of mouth is more valuable.

Second, consumer-generated content will be the most common in 2021. As users demand more personalized content, marketing that addresses users’ real issues can have a greater impact. Using the Q&A feature in Instagram stories to help influencers understand their followers’ questions is a good example. As a result, consumers will learn a lot more about the goods and are more likely to buy them.

Third, businesses and influencers are pursuing long-term partnerships. Companies want to ensure that their contracts with well-known influencers are honored. Furthermore, repeat marketing of goods and services is more attractive to followers because it appears to be a sign of trustworthiness.

6. The Bloom of Live Streaming:

When most people think of live streaming, they think of games. Twitch hit 1,116 billion minutes watched and 6.9 million monthly streamers in 2020, representing a 69 percent and 90 percent year-over-year increase over 2019.

However, live streaming is rapidly expanding into new markets, especially “live shopping.” Live shopping, which combines social commerce and live streaming, is the newest online shopping trend. It will come as a surprise to learn that live shopping produced $60 billion in global sales in 2019, and that number is expected to grow in the future.

Brands and designers can now sell items during a live broadcast using Instagram Live Shopping. This function is being used by several brands to partner with influencers and creators in order to increase sales.

Amazon has launched “Amazon Live,” a service that enables vendors to advertise their goods by hosting live streams on the Amazon platform