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

This holiday season is like no other. More than ever, people are looking forward to the festivities and to spending time with their families and their loved ones, either physically or digitally. For this month, we have news on how brands adapted their marketing efforts to tap on consumers' current concerns, plus new social media updates that will help you leverage the holiday season!

1. Americans reinvented Thanksgiving

Photo Credits: Macy’s via Twitter

With Covid-19 impacting everything from travel plans to the size of gatherings, this year’s Thanksgiving was strange for many people across America. There was an obvious need for marketers to address the pandemic in their holiday campaigns, while also achieving their business goals.

Many businesses had to re-think its marketing efforts this holiday season. For example, Macy’s faced a major challenge for its biggest marketing showcase - the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City - due to the current restrictions. However, the brand smartly adapted it by shifting engagement from in-person to virtual.

Another example is Delta Airlines, which in partnership with The Points Guy, focused on easing travellers' health concerns while flying by outlining on their social media channels all the steps Delta is taking to ensure that passengers stay healthy.

Additionally, various major retailers decided to stay closed on thanksgiving, including IKEA, Walmart and Macy’s, as a way to support and protect employees.

2. When Black Friday evolves into Green Friday

Photo Credits: Joe Horner/Public Fibre via Hypebae

We know that a while after the pandemic started retailers saw a significant increase in sales as consumers are spending more time on socials and turning more to e-commerce. However, with growing concerns about hyperconsumerism and brands’ role in the climate crisis, some brands decided to completely opt out of Black Friday and instead join the Anti-Black Friday movement, known also as Green Friday. With this, brands hoped to make a different impact in the world this time around.

Patagonia is one of the brands who joined the movement last week, encouraging consumers to buy less with its campaign initiative ‘Buy less, demand more’. When browsing on Patagonia website, consumers will now see a button that links to refurbished alternatives at a lower price.

Sustainable London-based fashion and lifestyle brand Public Fibre also joined the movement with its initiative ‘Buy More Rubbish’. The retailer “sold” the most commonly discarded items found in our oceans and the funds collected went to support The Ocean Cleanup non-profit organization.

3. Pinterest & Twitter share gift trends for the holidays

With Christmas just around the corner, Pinterest and Twitter released insights on key consumer trends and habits that can help marketers maximise this year’s Christmas celebrations. The data shows a major increase in search volume for Christmas gift ideas on Pinterest back in April, +77% compared to last year. It shows that after a tough year for everyone, people are looking forward to the comfort of the holidays and taking their minds off of current events.

Have a look on the most increasing search categories within gift searches on Pinterest:

• Housewarming gift baskets (+2.5x search activity)

• Gifts for plant lovers (+2x search activity)

• Movie night box gifts (+3x search activity)

• Self care package gift ideas (+70% search activity)

• Best skincare products (+30% search activity)

• Diamond jewelry necklace (+5x search activity)

• Indoor gym for kids (+2.5x search activity)

• Natural toys (+7x) & learning toys (+96%)

• Personalized cutting board (+88%)

• Personalized apron (+83%)

• Kitchen gift baskets (+2x search activity)

Photo Credits: Twitter

Twitter’s insights also show that search volumes this holiday season are greater than last year with trending topics such as ‘Giving’, ‘Gifts’ and ‘Shopping’ increasing by +40%, +19% and +9% respectively. 

Here are the trending products Twitter is seeing within holiday gift tweets:

• Fryer +169%

• Vinyl +161%

• Garden +94%

• Jammies +62%

• Laptop +50%

4. Snapchat is coming after TikTok

Photo Credits: Snap

TikTok’s short-form videos have proven to be the perfect format for virality. Instagram acknowledged this by releasing ‘Reels’ earlier this year, and now Snapchat is following with its new in-app section ‘Spotlight’.

‘Spotlight’ will enable you to “surface vertical video content from users that’s more meme-like and jokey instead of the day-in-the-life content Snap previously encouraged. Imagine, basically, TikTok but in Snapchat”. This may not come as a surprise as in August Snapchat announced that users could add music to their videos, resembling TikTok. However, back then there was no feed for this new type of content - ‘Spotlight’ provides now this space.

To attract users to post snaps regularly, Snapchat is also splitting $1 million between the most popular creators on the app per day through the end of 2020, and if this proves successful, through 2021 as well. 

This raises the concern regarding monetization fraud, and Snapchat has already warned: "We actively monitor for fraud to ensure that we only account for authentic engagement with Snaps." Users won’t be able to upload videos that are watermarked on ‘Spotlight’, meaning that they won’t be able to bring their TikTok content over to the platform. And in contrast to TikTok, ‘Spotlight’ snaps don’t include a comments section, and the users’ profiles are private by default.

5. Instagram new updates on 'Guides' and keyword search functionality

Photo Credits: Instagram

Back in May, Instagram was testing a new feature called ‘Guides’ with selected content creators, which is now available for all users. This update brings a longer-form of content to the platform that brands may want to consider for this holiday season.

‘Guides’ allow users to highlight collections of posts under dedicated topic titles which can be linked with short text descriptions. What’s even better is that users can share their ‘Guides’ on Stories maximising the audience exposure, while brands can also add Product Guides that can be featured within their Instagram Shop.

Additionally, Instagram also released an update of its search functionality, which now allows users to look for specific keywords in addition to profiles, hashtags and locations. This will not only help users to get a wider range of content, but also provides brands with the opportunity to maximise their performance.

Do you want to leverage the latest social media and influencer marketing trends in your marketing efforts?