Top 5 trends in Social Media and Influencer Marketing | February 2020

Like once every four years, the movement of Earth around the sun has offered us an extra day this month. So let’s enjoy it to share more, engage more and entertain ourselves the most that we can.

1. Coronavirus is leading Chinese people to spend more time on social media

Photo credits: Douyin

As the coronavirus outbreak pushed Chinese people to stay at home for weeks, they have turned to short videos and live streams content on social media to conquer their boredom and continue to entertain themselves even stuck at home. 

According to third-party research institute Quest Mobile’s, Douyin and Kuaishou noticed rapid increases of more than 40 million daily active users during this Chinese New Year period. Also, Chinese users are now spending around 105 minutes on the apps each day, which represents a 34% increase compared to last year’s Chinese New Year.

Numerous new KOLs and types of content are flourishing on Chinese social media apps. An amateur actor of Jiangxi province became viral on Douyin within days after streaming himself sleeping for a few hours. His performance helped him to reach 18.5 million viewers and be offered 76,800 yuan (US$11,000) worth of virtual gifts from his new followers. Some “outdoor” companies and service providers decided to reach their clients at home directly as those cannot come to them for the moment. Hence, nine national museums started hosting virtual tours, local schools have been streaming classes and some clubs across China are now live-streaming DJs performance in exchange for virtual gifts. The Chinese economy has drastically been slow down but many businesses and organizations are doing their best by embracing social media to still deliver their products and services.

2. Be A Lady, They Said!

Photo Credits: Girls Girls Girls magazine

"Your skirt is too short. Your shirt is too low. Don’t show so much skin. Cover up. Leave something to the imagination."

“Be a lady, they said,” shows Cynthia Nixon, staring at the camera. The video starring the famous Sex and The City actress, who recently outstood from her activism, is narrating the powerful ‘Writings of a Furious Woman’ written by Camille Rainville in 2017. Still highly and shamefully relevant, the piece of writing read by Cynthia Nixon reveals an endless and conflicting list of messages girls and women are told from decades.

The project has been built by Girls Girls Girls magazine. This is not the first time the magazine is getting lots of attention. In 2018, Rachel McAdams beautifully posed wearing diamonds, Versace clothes and a breast pump for their cover shoot. For this video, the magazines used footages starring Donald Trump but also Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, iconic characters like Regina George from Mean Girls but also Claire Underwood from House of Cards, real fashion photoshoots, and imagery including breast cancer scars. The message is powerful and worldly shared. Live since a few days, the video has already been viewed more than 5 million times and it’s not ready to stop spreading.

3. Facebook wants to support more its creators

Photo Credits: Facebook

Following the launch of Facebook’s Creator Studio on desktop in August 2018, the company is now launching an app available on both iOS and Android to allows creators and publishers to track their content performance, planning and engagement across Facebook Pages. Some limited options are offered for Instagram accounts on desktop, but not yet on the app. According to Facebook, the app is an evolution of and mobile complement to Creator Studio. The arrival of Creator Studio on mobile will certainly ease its adoption by creators that spend much more time on their phone than on desktop.

4. Adidas taps into dark social to strengthen its community

Photo credits: Adidas

Adidas is a precursor. Since 2015, the company leverages WhatsApp to directly chat with its customers but this year Adidas is taking one step further. Aiming to build direct relationships with a smaller community of influential people, the sportswear company ran this month the “100% Unfair Predator” campaign in the UK.

Adidas opened up a WhatsApp hotline for footballers in need of teammates to cover for last-minute cancellation on their team. The hotline users first shared some information about their upcoming game. If the request was suitable, the company would notify users the morning of their game and Adidas-sponsored players, including former England Legend Eni Aluko, were made available. The rented players turned up dressed in Adidas’ new Predator20 Mutator footwear. With this strategy, Adidas is using WhatsApp a main platform for campaigns, and direct messaging as a key strategic element, to grow influence among key fans.

5. Sally Beauty let its fans to choose the first brand ambassadors

Photo credits: Sally Beauty

Sally Beauty, an international specialty retailer and distributor of professional beauty supplies, has started an engaging four-phase campaign in the USA to create its first-ever #SallyCrew. Sally Beauty's effort to create its first team of influencers and brand ambassadors is part of its new rebranding strategy to reach consumers directly instead of targeting salon professionals.

The beauty company first encouraged influencers to submit their application through its website. 1,157 applications were received for the first phase and now each participating influencers has to create a video on Instagram between February 17 and March 13, detailing why they are the perfect fit to represent Sally Beauty as an official brand ambassador. Influencers’ followers and beauty enthusiasts are encouraged to shout out their favorite influencers on Instagram using the hashtags #SallyCrew and #SallyBeauty. The company will then select 25 semi-finalists to promote their favorite product and drive their followers to take action between April 13 and May 8. Lastly, the brand will announce the 5 influencers to join its #SallyCrew members end of May 2020.

The brand new ambassadors will promote Sally Beauty products on their social platforms and showcase how they can demonstrate the "power of pro" to achieve professional results at home.