Social media is the digital age’s holy grail of marketing. 88% of 18 to 29-year-olds, 78% of 30 to 49 year-olds and, 64% among those ages 50 to 64-year-old use some form of social media. It’s at the forefront of every marketing campaign and, hopefully, you’ve been building up your firm’s social platforms for quite a while now.
While you may be great about using and updating your social profiles, it has probably been some time since you’ve taken another look at which platforms you’re using and how this corresponds to your target audience and your firm’s brand. A new year brings changes in trends and demographics and keeping up in a digital world is essential to a successful marketing strategy.
Whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, or any other social media platform, your profile isn’t going to be much help to your business if you’re not using it properly. In order to find out the best platforms to use and how often you should post in order to achieve your marketing goals, it may take a little research.
Pew Research Center recently conducted a study of U.S. adults to find the latest updates and changes to social media use at the beginning of this year. Data like this can help you see which trends and changes to pay attention to and incorporate in your own company. Today, we’ve outlined the most important results of their study for you to help you get an idea of what’s changing or keeping constant in 2021.
Social Media Trends for 2021
YouTube Is The Most Popular Platform
You’ve probably heard that video marketing is one of the hottest trends this year and continuing to grow. In fact, according to HubSpot, 86 percent of businesses use video as a marketing tool. With that comes a spike in the popularity of video-sharing sites, the most prominent of which is YouTube. 81 percent of U.S. adults are on YouTube, so this platform is incredible when it comes to connecting with your audience.
The Pew Research Center found last year (2019) that YouTube users outnumber those of any other social media platform in the U.S. with 73 percent of US adults using the platform.
Twenty Over Ten client, WealthKeel, LLC does an incredible job of consistently creating videos that cater to their niche of Gen X and Gen Y Physicians.
YouTube is like a video search engine, so it can be optimized and create a quick and easy way for clients to find out more about certain topics or products. Clients are more likely to be searching YouTube for answers to specific questions or reviews as opposed to information on your specific company, so keep this in mind as you generate content.
If you’re stuck on what to include, consider making videos about common client questions, behind-the-scenes exclusives, product reviews or informative webinars. Anything that will be both entertaining and meet the client’s need for information would be a perfect start. Some advisory businesses also choose to include introductions to their firm or business model with a well-done video.
A video can be a great way to help clients feel more comfortable with your firm, especially if you haven’t met them in person yet or function as a Robo-advisor. If you need help getting set up, check out our post here for tips on optimizing your YouTube page.
Facebook is Still Largely used
69 percent of U.S. adults are still using Facebook, which is incredible given the rise of so many platforms over the years. If you are not on Facebook, then you are losing out on a huge amount of free exposure, so it’s a good idea to make your mark on this well-known platform. People will often share, like and comment on your pages, which their friends can see, as well. They will also quickly see any business updates, videos, pictures and news you have to share. Seeing your firm’s name across the screen helps remind them of you and consider your firm “a friend.”
Twenty Over Ten client, Tapparo Capital Management does a great job of consistently sharing relevant articles that their audience will enjoy and that provoke engagement.
Another important finding from the Pew Research Center was that among the U.S. adults who use Facebook, seventy percent say they visit the site daily while almost half say they check it out several times a day. This type of statistic shows that posting strong content frequently is well worth the effort.
Certain Populations Are More Partial to Different Platforms
While Facebook is used by most demographics, other sites can be much more specific when it comes to who is most active on them. If you’re trying to appeal to a specific niche, it can be helpful to know the breakdown and focus more on the platforms where you know your marketing is reaching who you’re aiming for. Here is a list of the biggest standouts from the research:
- Those with higher levels of education are more likely than those with lower education levels to use LinkedIn
- Around half of adults who have a bachelor’s or advanced degree say they use LinkedIn
- 71 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds say they use Instagram
- 65 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds use Snapchat
- Around 50 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds use TikTok
- A large majority of adults under the age of 65 say they use YouTube
- Women are much more likely than men to use Pinterest
If your firm is trying to work with an exclusive market, like women, young adults or high-income earners, you can try utilizing some of these platforms with more targeted messages and tracking the engagement to see how successful it is. You may be surprised at the amount of interaction you get on some of the lesser-known platforms when you know exactly who your audience is.
What Other Platforms Are Adults Using?
According to the research, YouTube and Reddit are the only two platforms measured that saw statistically significant growth since 2019. When it comes to other platforms that were in the survey, around 40 percent of adults say they use Instagram and around thirty percent say that they use Pinterest and LinkedIn. Twenty-five percent say they use Snapchat, Twitter or WhatsApp. TikTok is used by twenty-one percent of Americans that were surveyed.
In a study done by Sprout Social, 47 percent of 30 to 49-year-olds use Instagram and 23 percent of 50 to 64-year-olds use it. If you are a financial advisor, leveraging this platform is a great way to reach your audience especially if you are targeting millennials or pre-retirees.
It’s a highly visual platform and a great way to share your content, videos, infographics, stories, etc. Twenty Over Ten client, Storybook Financial updates their Instagram regularly with personal photos of family, blogs, videos and more. It’s a great way to engage with their audience.
Most Americans Who Use One Platform Use Multiple
If someone is active on one platform, they’re likely using many. This means that, often, you have the opportunity to reach potential clients in many ways through the use of different social media. In Pew’s study, the highest amount of overlap came from people who use both Facebook and YouTube. However, there are other substantial patterns to pay attention to.
About 75 percent of Twitter and Snapchat users also use Instagram. Knowing stats like this gives you key insight as to how you should run your social media marketing campaigns. By knowing which platforms are likely to see a repeat audience, you can make sure you have a consistently strong presence on each of these sites. When people see your messages on multiple platforms, they’ll get a good sense of your brand and be reminded of your firm, allowing you to make a lasting impression.
Key Takeaways
Connecting digitally has never been more important and social media is a great way to do this. Pay attention to the trends so that you can start to drive more traffic back to your website and boost your overall online presence. And as you can see in the above research, different audiences use different platforms, so if you are trying to reach a particular demographic, make sure you are on the right platform.
Struggling With What Content To Share on Social Media or via Email?
We are offering access to our content for advisors to use via Lead Pilot for 7-days completely free (even on our month-to-month plans).
About the author
Blair Kelly
Blair is a digital marketing assistant at Twenty Over Ten and has a passion for uncovering what drives online traffic and the highest engagement. She follows more animals on Instagram than humans and her greatest achievement is her daughter, Grey.