当代社交媒体新trend，你get了吗？

As social platforms introduce new features and change their algorithms, social media trends likewise undergo an evolution. 

The global health crisis of 2020 saw many businesses going digital however they could to maintain social distancing and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Face-to-face meetings turned into Zoom conferences and live concerts turned into live streams of artists playing from their homes.

While the situation continues to evolve in 2021, people have gotten used to being able to interact with brands live without ever leaving their homes. So live streaming will continue to gain popularity and should definitely be a part of your social media marketing strategy.

Molbak Garden + Home, for example, created a series of live tutorials on Facebook to provide gardening tips.

According to a recent Sprout Social Index, 40% of consumers want to see more live video from brands.

Amid the stay-at-home orders and the need for social distancing, people are seeking more meaningful interactions virtually. Virtual reality (VR) is one of the current technological trends that can provide them with those interactions.

Interacting with people through VR gives you a sense of actually being together even if they’re halfway across the world. This is the exact kind of experience that people need at a time when they have to socially distance.

2021 is likely to see virtual reality gaining more popularity on social media as platforms push forward with incorporating this technology.

Take Facebook Horizon, for example. As of early 2021, Facebook is leveraging the Oculus VR platform to beta-test a virtual world that allows people to explore, connect with others, and play games.

Similar to virtual reality, recent events have accelerated the adoption of Augmented reality (AR) experiences, including in the social space. AR doesn’t require additional hardware beyond a smartphone, making it even more readily accessible than VR. It’s also familiar from experiences like dynamic photo filters that have been on multiple social platforms for years.

Augmented reality experiences are inherently interactive and highly effective for engagement.

Brands are quickly buying into this latest social media trend by creating AR filters to promote new products or encourage fan interaction. This keeps your audience engaged and entertained, and could even help you attract new customers with the right promotion.

One excellent example is how McDonald’s came up with the Spice Zapper filter, which allows users to zap nuggets as they fall.

With limited brick-and-mortar shopping in 2020, AR can also be effective in driving purchases. AR shopping options to let you ‘try on’ products via your phone camera were implemented on Instagram in 2019, and AR experiences that let you envision products in your own home are only likely to continue to drive sales.