For almost a year now, the global pandemic has impacted our daily lives. The way in which we communicate and interact has altered dramatically. As social distancing becomes a way of life, so does the need to feed the feeling of connectivity. Social media takes on a renewed importance with every lockdown as users strive to stay informed and in touch.
Brands now know they have to re-think their strategies, but they must start by unravelling a whole host of new audience data and challenge previous audience insights.
Strong growth
At the end of 2020, there were around 150 million more users on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter in particular are making gains, which does not always mean that everyone will benefit from this growth to the same extent.
In Germany, three quarters of existing Internet users have been using social media more frequently since the start of the pandemic. This provides a good basis for brands to play out optimised campaigns with pinpoint accuracy and achieve greater reach.
Platform use
TikTok continued its meteoric rise from 2019 and was the most downloaded app in 2020. Looking at the total number of active users per platform in October 2020 worldwide, Facebook is still the market leader with more than 2,700,000,000 active users. This is followed by Youtube and WhatsApp (as a social messenger) each with 2,000 000,000 users. Instagram is in 6th place with more than 1,000,000,000 users, and TikTok is already in 7th place with round about 700,000,000 active users – a remarkable ranking considering how long the platform has been on the market.
Companies and brands need to pay special attention to TikTok as this is where tomorrow’s customers will be.
E-commerce is on the rise
A large number of users now shop primarily online. Many products were also purchased online for the first time that otherwise would have been bought from a retail outlet. 53% of users state that the pandemic has changed their shopping behaviour for good.
Also in Germany, a large number of users shop online more frequently than before the pandemic by voice or social media such as Instagram, Facebook or TikTok. Here lies a valuable opportunity for brands and companies to adapt their online store to the needs of their social media community in order to pick them up precisely on their own channels and encourage them to shop.
In Summary
This more intensive use of the Internet is of course a great opportunity for brands and companies to reach their target groups in a completely different way. At the same time developing new target groups and attracting their attention also via e-commerce in social media.
At the same time, however, this needs to be executed in a thoughtful and sensitive way, so that target groups feel valued and taken seriously rather than as a lucrative marketing opportunity. It is also becoming increasingly important for companies to consider and address social and political trends on social media. It is especially important to highlight and share particular topics within communities which in turn is an ideal way to grow an audience base.