These articles that we recently published on Frankwatching are full of great examples:
How RTL's VTBL scores on social media, even without football news
Businesses on social media: 5 trends & inspiring examples
Need inspiration? Instagram campaigns from Aldi, Bavaria & McDonald's
More privacy and control
You can write a lot about the technological development of social media. But Sjef Kerkhofs took a different approach this year. He looked at the social media trends for 2021 on a societal level. For example, he predicted the turning point at which users would gain more control over their data and privacy and the tech giants would have to tighten their policies. Just like an increase in regulation. TikTok and Instagram, among others, made quite a few adjustments in the field of privacy and security. But Apple's iOS 14 update also had a lot of influence on socials. More about that later. Here you can read all his predictions for social media in 2021.
The battle for attention
Meanwhile, social media platforms are competing for our undivided time special lead and attention. The common thread in many developments and new features is that social media channels are increasingly starting to resemble each other. To give an example: 'stories' that disappear within 24 hours can now be found not only on Snapchat, but also on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp, LinkedIn and Pinterest. And while Twitter has already removed the so-called Fleets from the app , TikTok is now also testing a Stories function.
Conversely, Instagram ( and now Facebook in the US ) Reels and YouTube Shorts are suspiciously similar to the TikTok concept. They all play into the short form video trend. You see the same thing happening in the field of live audio. Clubhouse quickly gained ground , with Twitter Spaces, Facebook Live Audio Rooms and Spotify Greenroom quickly entering the competition.