Hootsuite’s annual global Social Trends Report 2021 has found that 60% of businesses are planning to increase Instagram marketing budgets, and almost half are planning to do the same for Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. However, according to the report TikTok has not increased in importance in the investment stack.
The report is based on a survey of 11,189 marketers globally conducted in Q3 2020. This is supplemented with insights from primary interviews with dozens of industry specialists, as well as published reports and data from Deloitte, Edelman, eMarketer, Forrester, GlobalWebIndex, The CMO Survey, and others.
Instagram added the greatest number of new users between July and September 2020, posting even stronger growth figures than Facebook. Instagram’s advertising reach grew by 7.1% in the most recent quarter—more than three times Facebook at 2.2%.
According to the survey, 73% of all marketers ranked “increased acquisition of new customers” as their top outcome for social in 2021, compared to only 46% last year, marking a 58% year-over-year increase.
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Despite the survey results, US retail giant Walmart has made a multibillion dollar investment in TikTok, and clearly sees the economic potential of engaging with consumers not just when they’re buying something from their website, but when they’re creating and consuming short-form video in a social setting. TikTok has begun experimenting with in-app purchases, allowing a popular creator to sell goods through a pop-up page within the app.
Pinterest has also added new ROI-driven advertising tools and a “Today” tab to keep users engaged. And while retail remains the dominant use case for Pinterest, the report noted the rising use of Pinterest among brands in the education, advertising, and business and professional services industries.
“COVID-19 forced organisations to re-think how they communicated with their internal and external stakeholders, and the wider ‘digital’ public,” Tom Keiser, Hootsuite CEO, said.
“In a year full of unknowns, brands needed to take a step back to understand where they fit into customers’ lives on social media. Brands that excelled on social in 2020, understood their audience and used social media to contribute meaning to a wider conversation, with the aim of building a better business and a better world. This landscape will only expand into 2021.”
The Social Tends 2021 report also researched the extent to which consumers are expecting organisations to contribute to the world, with more than half of respondents believing it is ‘very important’ for businesses to ‘operate according to its values/principles’ and ‘proactively make the world a better place’.