I may sound like a broken record here, but let me repeat – Facebook still leads as the biggest social media platform with over 2.7 billion monthly active users worldwide.

If you’re aiming for success on Facebook this year, you must keep up with the latest Facebook trends. These will affect your marketing and advertising strategies, and hopefully, give you a competitive advantage.

Check out the list of Facebook trends 2021 below so you’ll know what to prioritize this year. More importantly, put them into practice. 💪🏻

Top Facebook Trends In 2021

1. Facebook Groups for socializing

More people have been spending their lives online during COVID-19. To stay connected, they join online groups – especially Facebook groups. (Currently, there are over 10 million groups on Facebook.)

Facebook values community and wants to help more people become part of communities they care about. In fact, Facebook recently introduced its new Public Groups experience. This feature increases the discoverability of communities, including admin controls.

How to take advantage:  

• If you have not created a Facebook group yet for your business audience, start here.
• Promote your group by putting a link on your website, in your welcome emails, and blog posts.
• Share tips, ask questions/create polls to learn more about your audience, and engage with them.

2. Augmented reality

Augmented reality (AR) exploded in popularity when Pokemon Go launched in 2016. Today, more and more businesses are leveraging AR in multiple ways.

For example, personal care and beauty retailer Sephora uses AR to try their products from their mobile phone cameras. This allowed customers to see how the products look on them without actually touching them.

With this trend, Facebook introduced its Spark AR platform that lets advertisers use augmented reality effects. This way, prospects can already engage with their products before making a purchase.

Here’s an example from We Make-up, an Italian online cosmetics store that used FB’s AR ads to boost sales:

How to take advantage:

• Start learning how to create an AR ad from Ads Manager.
• Track important metrics such as Link Clicks, Instant Experience View Time, and Effect Share.

3. Chatbots to help increase conversions

It doesn’t matter what your business niche is. Consumers shop round-the-clock and demand convenience. This is why companies use chatbots to answer customer questions and help them meet their goals.

There are more than 300,000 active Facebook Messenger chatbots today. If you’re still not using these FB messenger bots, you’ll be missing out on opportunities to engage and convert potential customers.

WestJet, a Canadian airline, went beyond phone support by using a custom bot for FB Messenger. This bot answered common queries and provided flight details to passengers. This did not only boost their positive sentiment but also improved employee productivity.

How to take advantage:

• Identify areas of your business that your messenger bot can realistically help with. Common examples are customer service, product discovery, booking, and tracking.
• Use customer information collected by your bot to run targeted ad campaigns.

4. Long-form content

One of the latest Facebook trends we’ve observed is the use of long-form content. Despite what some businesses think, some customers would like to have more information about a product or service before making a buying decision.

AdEspresso experimented on Facebook ad copy length. They found that mid to long ad copy produced the lowest cost per action (CPA) and maximum number of leads.

Check out this long-form FB ad from Tony Robbins:

How to take advantage:

• Break up chunky paragraphs to make your copy skimmable.
• Use emojis to draw attention and evoke the right emotion.
• Do split tests to determine the best tone and length.

5. Facebook live video for marketing

As a marketer, you probably already know that videos have become a more popular way to promote a business. According to Wyzowl’s survey in December 2020, 87% of video marketers said that video increased their ROI.

Facebook gets over 8 billion video views daily. Also, users spend more time watching live videos than standard, pre-recorded videos. Clearly, video content isn’t going away. It’s effective and you should be creating more of it.

How to take advantage:

• Announce your live broadcast ahead of time so your audience knows about it.
• Write a compelling and actionable description.
• Call out those who comment.
• Ask your viewers to interact. Then respond.

6. Hashtags to improve organic reach

You might have heard that hashtags don’t work anymore. That they’re dead. The truth is, Facebook has improved its hashtags to make it easier for users to find content.

Check out the screenshot below. Notice that when you type a certain hashtag into the Facebook search bar, you’ll know how many people are using it – thus giving you an idea of a topic’s popularity.

You can also see that Facebook has been encouraging the use of hashtags to support small businesses during COVID-19:

How to take advantage:

• Experiment with popular hashtags and topic-specific hashtags that are relevant to your post.
• Consider creating a branded hashtag for your business that hasn’t been used yet.
• Go back to older but highly popular posts and add hashtags to them.

7. Online shopping

One of the obvious things that changed in response to COVID-19 is people’s shopping behaviors. In a Facebook IQ report, it was mentioned that online shopping caused ecommerce to boom in a matter of months.

To empower small businesses online, Facebook launched Facebook Shops. This new feature lets you create a branded shop where you can feature your products. The shop can also be accessed on Instagram.

Note that creating and designing your shop is free. So, if you’ve got products to sell, create a shop now.

Let’s have a look at Ink Meets Paper’s Facebook shop:

How to take advantage:

• First, check that the Facebook Shops feature is available in your country.
• Write concise descriptions that highlight your products’ features and benefits.
• In your Facebook posts, tag your products to spark interest and sales.

8. Newsfeed ads remain popular

When it comes to ad placement, the news feed is still being used by most advertisers. This is because people find your ads easily as they’re scrolling through News Feed on their phone or laptop.

According to AdEspresso, “Feed ads have a higher click-through rate and lower cost-per-conversion than right column ads.” Of course, this should not stop you from using other placements. But if you’re targeting audiences for the first time to raise brand awareness, the news feed is the best option.

How to take advantage:

• Choose attractive ad images with colors that stand out to capture your audience’s attention.
• Use video. Facebook stated that ads with movement stand out in News Feed.
• If you have customers or clients that love your product/service, feature their testimonials on your ads for social proof.

9. User-generated content campaigns

User-generated content (UGC) is any form of content created by your customers/fans.

UGC campaigns build influence with your audience much better than brand-led campaigns. This is because they can see that people have had happy experiences with your business. Because of that, they trust you.

Break the monotony of the usual product images on Facebook with authentic images or videos from your users. Before you share them, make sure you have their permission.

Check out this user-generated content on Warby Parker’s Facebook page. They shared an Instagram photo of artist Iliana Galvez wearing their product. Then Warby linked to the actual product page:

How to take advantage:

• Link to the product used by your customer to encourage purchases.
• Set specific UGC campaign goals and track the results of your efforts.
• Be sure to credit the original creator of the content.
• If you intentionally ask for UGC, offer something in return.

Conclusion

These are the top Facebook trends today. Are you prepared to take advantage of them? From groups to AR to UGC, there are so many things you can do to move your business forward in 2021 no matter the size.

Also, if you’re running ads this year, don’t forget to try Connectio’s Facebook tools. They’ll improve your targeting, grow your leads, save time, and more. Click here to learn more.