Social Outlook for 2021
The number of social media users in New Zealand reached 3.60 million in January 2020 and is continuing to grow based on it consistently increasing by 4% over the past few years (Statista). Alongside this, Statista states that digital ad spend in 2019 reached around $1.26 billion (20% increase from 2018).
This clearly illustrates the effectiveness of marketing in the digital space. A Hootsuite report titled Social Trends 2021 conducted at the end of 2020 states that Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn are the channels that digital marketers and businesses across the globe aim to increase their investment into. These platforms also are believed to be the most effective for reaching the objectives set by businesses.
Social Commerce
Social commerce, a practice in which products are sold directly through social media platforms is also on the rise this year. This is likely caused by the steady increase in the number of people that research products online via social media channels, especially between the ages of 16 - 44 years old, with an average of 46% of users in this age group claiming to have done so. With this in mind, where is your business currently at in terms of your social media pages?
Video marketing
Video marketing is on the rise, even more, this year. Hubspot reported that in 2018, 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business that they support. It’s not only the consumers that are happy with video marketing; Animoto in 2018 states that 88% of marketers are satisfied with the return on investment of their video marketing campaigns. Not only is it visually more pleasing, but Optinmonster (2019) noted that video marketers received 66% more qualified leads per year!
When it comes to New Zealand industry trends, the food and beverage industry will be in for a treat here in New Zealand.
Cheers to that!
Although cafe and restaurant owners have reported that a top challenge for their industry is the difficulty to build and maintain sales, social trends may assist businesses in this area. Firstly, there is a growing number of cafe/restaurant-goers aged 65+ visiting local stores. On top of this, food trends this year will expand into the following: fresh, gluten-free, vegan, sustainable, as well as organic and locally sourced.
With the correct use of organic and paid social media campaigns, businesses in the food and beverage industry will benefit greatly from effective digital marketing efforts.
With everything that happened in 2020 with Covid-19 and the lockdowns in New Zealand, digital brands quickly learned to adapt to their new operating environment. Consumers turned to Facebook for their entertainment, with Facebook usage increasing by nearly 50%.
But social media consumption did not stop there, the beginning of 2021 has also seen Facebook users spend more time on the platform compared with the end of last year. This illustrates that although as a nation we are out of the Covid-19 lockdown, the habits that consumers developed during lockdown are being carried forward with them.
Overall, it is clear that social media consumption is growing at rapid rates, and due to this, social media marketing will follow closely behind in pursuit.
With the number of digital brands advertising through the platform, competition increases, and brands will need to determine where they fit into their customer’s lives in order to gain attention. Learn more about social media’s role in 2021 and how we can provide social media management services that ensure your brand’s digital presence is optimised to its fullest potential by contacting us here.