State of Social Media and CX
Q1 2021 About the Report
In the Q1 2021 Social Media Trends Report, Socialbakers provides an "The data shows that brands doubled down on social media, as ad spend increased 60% analytical look at the growing importance of customer experiences and the YoY. This continues what we saw throughout the last half of 2020, as brands put more data in paid, organic, and influencer marketing that marketers need to know and more time and resources into their digital efforts to reach audiences that want great to deliver stellar CX in 2021.
digital experiences.
Highlights of this report include the effects of social on the pre- and Along those lines, one thing we’ve seen that will continue in a big way is the rise of social post-purchase customer journey and the role of empathy in closing the CX commerce. Shopping experiences that take place entirely in the app and allow the user gap. Socialbakers data also highlights a 60% YoY increase in digital ad to see the item live, interact with the business in the app, and complete the purchase with spend, as well as regional and industry breakdowns of ad reach and CPC.
one click also in the app – are the way forward. That’s what delivering great CX looks like now.
The report also details some developments in influencer marketing, including #ad usage and which type of influencers have increased their In the world of influencer marketing, the usage of #ad on Instagram decreased by 15% interactions compared to last year.
compared to the previous year, although interactions on influencer posts grew. Many industries were affected differently, so when looking at influencer partnerships it’s Delivering great CX has never been more important, and this report important to do the necessary research beforehand. provides insights and data for marketers to make decisions that will benefit their audience and achieve the goal of putting the customer first. Yuval Ben-Itzhak, President, Socialbakers
Trends Report | Q1 2021 1 Table of Contents
Consumer Expectations and the CX Gap 3-7 Organic Social Media Trends 21-36 Brands Struggle With CX Gap 4 Number of Followers, Posts, and Interactions 22 Impact of Social on Customer Journey 5 Evolution of Relative Interactions 23 Role of Empathy on Closing the CX Gap 6 Distribution of Post Types 24 CX Takeaways 7 Performance of Post Types 25 Paid Social Media Trends 8-20 Distribution of Interactions Across Industries 26 Social Media Ad Spend 9 Median Interactions: The Live Commerce Trend 27 Social Media Ad Spend YoY 10 Facebook Live Industry Trends 28 Social Media Industry Ad Spend 11-12 Median Interactions by Hashtags 29 CPC by Region 13 Median Interactions by Post Length 30 Evolution of CPC and CTR 14 Influencer Marketing and #Ad Usage 31 Facebook Ad Reach YoY 15-16 Median Post Interactions on Celebrity Influencers 32 Facebook Ad Reach by Industry 17 Top 10 Countries That Comment on Brand Posts 33 Ad Spend and CTR by Ad Placement 18 Top 10 Countries That Share Media Posts 34 Distribution of Ad Spend by Placement 19 Brand Pages Mentioning Black History Month 35 Paid Takeaways 20 Organic Takeaways 36 Methodology and Glossary 38-42
Trends Report | Q1 2021 2 Consumer Expectations and the CX Gap
Trends Report | Q1 2021 3 Consumer Expectations and the CX Gap
In a Digital Economy,
Brands Struggle to Keep Up With Customer Expectations Exceeded
62% 38% The importance for brands to deliver outstanding digital customer experiences (CX) only continues to increase. In fact, one study found that 74% of customers today are likely to buy based on experiences alone. Met
29% 71% The challenge? Keeping up with what consumers need, expect, and prefer from their brand experiences on all channels, including social media. Although, research shows that brands that can better fill the CX gap – the Fell short distance between customer expectations and brands’ ability to meet them – see notable results. 3% 97%
A survey by Forrester shows a moderate correlation between how well brands meet customer expectations and the quality of their overall CX Excellent CX score Less-than-excellent score (good, OK, poor, very poor) (see right). A study by Adobe and Econsultancy also found that CX leaders (brands further advanced in their approach to CX) were three times more likely to “significantly outperform” their sector than CX laggards.
Source: Forrester, Expectations And Experiences: The Impact Of Your Customers' Expectations On CX Quality, May 2020 Trends Report | Q1 2021 4 Consumer Expectations and the CX Gap
The Impact of Social in the Pre- and Post-Purchase Customer Journey Is Consumer Expectations for Growing
Response Time 15 min 60 min
vs. In 2021, social media will continue to play a key role in key experiences Average Response Time 1d 7h 12m 1d 3h 47m across the customer journey, from research to purchase to customer care.
eMarketer predicts social commerce will continue to expand in 2021, increasing 12.9% YoY to reach 90.4 million US consumers who purchase at least once via a social channel (like Facebook Marketplace and Instagram Checkout).
Source: Jeff Toister, How Fast Should a Business Respond to an Email?, 2018 & 2020 Eptica Digital Customer Experience Study Trends Report | Q1 2021 5 Consumer Expectations and the CX Gap
Empathy and the Growing Role of Social Media in Closing the CX Gap
Walking in consumers’ shoes – to empathize with their needs every step of the way – remains essential to delivering experiences customers crave on digital channels like social media. 84% Social media will play a key role in fostering this empathy. Social media listening and tracking sentiment about specific topics will provide key of surveyed B2B leaders feel the pandemic has insights to power empathy efforts. enabled them to become more empathetic to their customers’ needs (vs. 49% for B2B laggards). At the same time, being able to quickly (or automatically) escalate issues and questions shared on social media to help ensure quick responses will play a key role in driving positive CX via social channels.
Source: Deloitte Digital, Close the expectation gap with your B2B customers, 2021. Trends Report | Q1 2021 6 Consumer Expectations and the CX Gap
CX Takeaways
The economy is becoming increasingly digital. At the same time, customers' behaviors are continually evolving along with their expectations, resulting in a more complex customer journey. From the research and purchasing stages to post-purchase experiences, the role of social media across this journey will continue to grow.
In 2021 and beyond, it will remain essential for brands to approach their CX efforts on all channels – including social media – with empathy towards their customers’ needs, and to have the measures in place to meet their expectations across their journey.
Trends Report | Q1 2021 7 The Paid Social Media Trends
Trends Report | Q1 2021 8 The Paid Social Media Trends
Global Social Media
Ad Spend Grows 60% YoY Ad Spend by Region Median Weekly Ad Values
3 000 Worldwide reliance on social media marketing to reach consumers at home has grown over the course of 2020 and it continues to be on the 2 500 same growth trajectory this year.
2 000
In Q1 2021, marketers spent 60% more on Facebook and Instagram 1 500 advertising compared to Q1 in 2020.
Spend (in USD) 1 000 In North America, ad spend grew as much as 59% YoY, in Western Europe ad spend grew 44%, but most significantly in Latin America ad spend grew 500 68%.
0 Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec Feb 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2021 We are likely to see the uptrend continue as the world reopens after the pandemic lockdown and businesses ramp up spending to reach East Asia Northern America Western Europe Latin America consumers - especially in sectors that, due to circumstances, were not Southeast Asia Southern Europe Central America Worldwide able to provide businesses or services during this time. You can find a detailed breakdown of industry spend on page 12.
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 9 The Paid Social Media Trends
Facebook Ad Spend on Continuous Growth Trajectory
Q1 Year-Over-Year Comparison of Ad Spend (in USD)
Median Weekly Spends of Individual Ad Accounts
1 000
800
600
400 Spend (in USD)
200
0%
Q1 2019 Q1 2020 Q1 2021
All brands
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 10 The Paid Social Media Trends
Social Media Spending
Grows Across Industries
While overall commerce has slowed compared to the record setting holiday season in terms of total social media spend, when compared Year-over-Year (see data on next page) social media spending grew across almost every industry analyzed in the report - the only exclusion being the Accommodation sector, where in Q1 2021 spending decreased by 5% compared to Q1 2020.
In other key sectors spend grew significantly. The Auto sector increased their ad spend by 102% YoY, the Alcohol industry by as much as 81%, and Ecommerce by 66%.
The Auto sector increased their ad spend by
The fashion industry increased their YoY spending by 52%, while the beauty 102% YoY industry only by 20%.
FMCG food sector YoY spend grew 59% and the Finance industry spend, 55%. Overall industry spend for the sectors included in the data analysis grew by 65%.
Trends Report | Q1 2021 11 The Paid Social Media Trends
Facebook and Instagram Ad Spend By Industry
Ad Spend (in USD) by Industry
Median Monthly Ad Account Value
8 000
6 000
4 000 Spend (in USD) 2 000
0%
Accommodation Alcohol Auto Beauty Ecommerce Fashion Finance FMCG Food Retail All Industries
Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020 Q1 2021
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 12 The Paid Social Media Trends
Costs to Advertise Ad CPC (in USD) by Region Median Weekly Value Increase In Parallel 0.70 to Ad Spend 0.60
0.50 With total Facebook and Instagram spend reaching new highs this year, the 0.40 overall worldwide costs to advertise grew by 37% in Q1 2021 compared to
0.30 Q1 2020.
CPC (in USD) 0.20 In Western Europe, the cost to advertise grew by 35% YoY, while in
0.10 Southern Europe in Grew 44% YoY. In North America it grew 32% YoY, in Latin America and Central America costs grew by 31% YoY, and in 0 Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec Feb Southeast Asia by as much as 66% YoY.
2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2021
In East Asia the costs to advertise grew the least at 12% YoY.
East Asia Northern America Latin America Southeast Asia
Southern Europe Western Europe Central America Worldwide The growing advertising costs signal higher competitiveness among advertisers and future success will be increasingly more dependant on the expertise, advertising tools, and the accuracy of data advertisers use.
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 13 The Paid Social Media Trends
Cost per Click for Facebook and Instagram Ads
0.18 0.15 0.12 While Advertising Costs 0.10 0.8 0.5
Grow CTR Remains Stable CPC (in USD) 0.3 0 Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec Feb 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2021 Since the global coronavirus pandemic started, both total advertising spend Cost per Click and costs have been increasing; however, what remains stable is the click-through rate that Facebook and Instagram ads return.
Click-Through Rate for Facebook and Instagram Ads
This trend suggests that businesses can depend on social media 1.00
advertising to return value even if other channels seize to work. It points to 0.80
the resilience of social media advertising and the effectiveness of the app 0.60
algorithms to find the right people that will engage with your business and 0.40 CTR (in %) CTR will yield positive advertising ROI. 0.20
0.00 Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec Feb 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2021 Click-Through Rate
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 14 The Paid Social Media Trends
Facebook Advertising Reach Grows 23% In North America, 8% Globally Reach is arguably one of the most important metrics marketers have to watch when it comes to Facebook advertising. Overall, reach has been growing significantly over the course of the last year. As earlier data from Worldwide Facebook Ads Reach Socialbakers suggests, the increase in Facebook ads reach from 2019 to Median Monthly Facebook Ad Account Reach
2020 was at 30% YoY.
In Q1 2021, Facebook reach has slowed in growth, but still expanded by 8% compared to Q1 2020.
Advertising reach is a key indicator not only for marketers, but also for Facebook growth, as additional users that can be reached through Facebook advertising are a revenue source for the company itself.
Q1 2020 +8.43% Q1 2021 COVID brought an immense amount of changes to the customer experience landscape and altered behaviors for the long run. The increasing ads reach may be a reflection of both, the rise in Facebook ad spend as highlighted on previous pages, but also a mirror of a change in user behaviors.
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2020 & January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 15 The Paid Social Media Trends
Facebook Ad Reach by Region
Worldwide East Asia Southeast Asia Northern America Southern Europe Western Europe Central America Latin America
Q1 2020
+8.43% -12.52% -14.25% +22.60% -2.53% -4.66% +3.33% +18.35%
Q1 2021
Median Monthly Facebook Ad Account Reach
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2020 & January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 16 The Paid Social Media Trends
Facebook Ads Reach by Industry
Ad Reach by Industry
Median Monthly Ad Account Values
1.50M
1.25M
1.00M
0.75M Reach
0.50M
0.25M
0
Accommodation Alcohol Auto Beauty Ecommerce Fashion Finance FMCG Food Retail All Industries
Q1 2020 Q2 2020 Q3 2020 Q4 2020 Q1 2021
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 17 The Paid Social Media Trends
Ad Spend by Platform Position Top 5 by Relative Spend
70 60 50 Facebook News Feed Still
40 30 20 Delivers the Best Click 10
Relative Spend (in %) Relative 0 Feed Feed Stories Video Feeds Instream Video Through for Marketers Facebook Instagram Instagram Facebook Facebook Relative Spend
While Facebook has been actively seeking to increasing advertising space Click-Through Rate by Platform Position on its platform, the majority of spend is still allocated to the Facebook News Top 5 by Relative Spend
Feed. 2.00
1.50 The Facebook News Feed placement also returns the best CTR at 1.8% on
1.00 average. That’s significantly higher than Instagram Feed placement (0.3%).
0.50
0.00
Click-Through Rate (in %) Click-Through Feed Feed Stories Video Feeds Instream Video Facebook Instagram Instagram Facebook Facebook Click-Through Rate
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 18 The Paid Social Media Trends
57% of Total Facebook Ad According to Socialbakers data, more than half of the advertising revenue is generated from the Facebook News Feed. The Instagram Feed, the second most popular Spend Is Spent on the placement by spend, is trailing behind at just 16% of total allocated ad spend by Facebook News Feed marketers, while Instagram Stories gathered just over 9% of total spend in Q1 2021.
Instagram Feed Instagram Stories
Facebook Feed
Facebook Instagram Facebook Instream Video Explore Marketplace
Rewarded An Classic Audience Video Facebook Audience Stories Network Network Facebook Video Feeds
Facebook Other Instant Article
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 19 The Paid Social Media Trends
Paid Takeaways
2020 ended with social media advertising reaching unprecedented heights and Q1 2021 results reveal that the trend continues this year. This came as a welcome new chapter after a hard to predict 2020; however, the trend that emerged more strongly than ever is that today social media marketing is the go-to format to reach modern consumers.
In parallel, more reach has been delivered to advertisers yet again signalling both, Facebook’s ability to find the right audiences to serve those ads to and also the increasingly more savvy user base that’s now interacting with digital advertising more than they were previously.
The challenge that remains is social media advertising competitives. The space is becoming a game of expertise, data, and the overall quality of the delivered ads experience, and it’s likely to intensify in future quarters.
Trends Report | Q1 2021 20 Organic Social Media Trends
Trends Report | Q1 2021 21 Organic Social Media Trends
Instagram Audience Size Total Audience Total Posts Total Interactions 40% Larger Than Facebook
In Q1 2021, the total audience size of the 50 biggest brand profiles was 40.3% bigger on Instagram than Facebook. Looking at YoY results, Instagram’s audience grew by 10.3% compared to Q1 2020 while Facebook’s audience basically remained the same, increasing by 0.8%.
Engagement remained significantly stronger on Instagram, which had 22.7x more interactions than Facebook, while 53.7% of all brand posts were on Facebook. The share of Instagram posts increased from Q4 2020, when Facebook posts made up 54.9% of all posts from the top 50 biggest brand accounts. Q1 2020 Q1 2021
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2020 & January 01, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: 50 Biggest Facebook & Instagram Brands Profiles Worldwide; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 22 Organic Social Media Trends
Evolution of Relative Post Interactions Relative Interactions Decrease in Q1 100%
80% Over the last 15 months, the relative post interactions for the 50 biggest brand accounts on both Facebook and Instagram were at their lowest in Q1 60% 2021.
40% Instagram interactions had been relatively steady through most of 2020, but started to decline at the end of the year. On Facebook, a sharp uptick at the 20% beginning of the pandemic skewed the rest of the data, but the decline in early 2021 is still clear.
Relative Post Interactions (max 100) Interactions Post Relative 0%
Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec Feb 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2021 One possible explanation is that as regions have started opening back up, people have spent a little less time engaging on social media. Instagram Facebook
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2021; Sample: 50 Biggest Facebook & Instagram Brands Profiles Worldwide; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 23 Organic Social Media Trends
Distribution of Post Types Image 71.2% Video 16.6% on Facebook and Instagram Link 8.6% Status 2.8% Live Video 0.7%
For worldwide brand profiles, images made up around 71.2% of all content on Facebook and 65.5% of all content on Instagram.
On Facebook, video was the second most common post type (16.6%), followed by links and status updates. Facebook Live videos, which actually garner the highest number of organic post interactions (see next slide), were used only 0.7% of the time.
Image 65.5% Carousel 18.6% Video 15.9% Looking at YoY changes, Facebook’s distribution has remained relatively steady while there’s been a shift on Instagram, where carousel posts increased by 26.5% and images decreased by 7.1%.
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: 164,039 Facebook Brands Pages & 58,791 Instagram Brands Profiles Worldwide; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 24 Organic Social Media Trends
Facebook Organic Interactions by Post Type Facebook Live Delivers
Live Video More Than 3x the Link Interactions of Video Image
Status In Q1 2021, Facebook Live was by far the most engaging format on the Video platform with 42 median post interactions, according to Socialbakers data. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Images (13) and regular video (12.5) had the next highest amount of Median Post Interactions interactions on Facebook.
Instagram Organic Interactions by Post Type On Instagram, carousel was the most engaging format with 182 median post interactions. Carousel posts, which can contain both images and videos, have consistently outperformed image and video.
Carousel
Compared to Q4 2020, most of the formats remained relatively stable. Image Facebook Live and carousel on Instagram increased slightly, while the others remained basically the same or decreased slightly. Video
0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
Median Post Interactions
Chart Time Range: January 1, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: 145,277 Facebook Brand Pages & 53,347 Instagram Brand Profiles Worldwide; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 25 Organic Social Media Trends
Ecommerce 26.4% Retail 12.1% Distribution of Interactions Services 9.9% Fashion 6.7% Across Industries Electronics 5.2% Auto 4.9% FMCG Food 4.6% Finance 4.6% Looking at worldwide brand profiles, Ecommerce received by far the most Others 25.5% interactions on Facebook and the second highest share of interactions on Instagram, behind Fashion.
Fashion 24.0% Compared to the end of the previous quarter, the share of engagement for Ecommerce 22.1% Ecommerce pages in Q1 2021 increased by 32.3% on Facebook and Auto 10.0% Beauty 9.8% 8.7% on Instagram.
Retail 9.4% Electronics 4.5% Overall, the top 3 positions on both platforms remained mostly the same. Services 4.2% The only change was that on Instagram, Auto increased by 6.2% and Sporting Goods 3.6% moved fifth to third, ahead of Beauty and Retail. Others 12.5%
Chart Time Range: January 1, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Facebook Brand Pages & Instagram Brand Profiles Worldwide; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 26 Organic Social Media Trends
The Live
Commerce Trend
The emerging trend of live commerce is arguably the largest new development in the way businesses transact with consumers using social media.
The trend was skyrocketed by the changes in user behaviors during the Coronavirus pandemic that made it necessary for businesses to provide
alternative shopping experiences to consumers.
This type of a shopping interaction provides an end-to-end user experience all the way from product discovery through video and live content
to purchase through automated or personalized messaging. The key point is that the entire experience takes place within the app environment instantly.
The word cloud to the right is a compilation of the most used words that appear in the comments sections in the eshop pages during their live stream events.
Chart Time Range: January 1, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: 156,671 comments under live videos of Eshops' Facebook pages; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 27 Organic Social Media Trends
Share of Pages That Went Live on Facebook in Q1 % of Pages
Facebook Live 30.0% 25.0% Industry Trends 20.0% 15.0%
10.0% % of Pages 5.0% According to Socialbakers data, more than a quarter of Gambling pages 0 Auto RetailBeauty Travel AlcoholAirlines on Facebook – 27.2% – went live at least once in Q1 2021. That was the GamblingTelecom Finance Services IndustrialSoftware Fashion Electronics Ecommerce Healthcare Retail FoodFmcg FoodBeverages Conglomerate Home & Living Fmcg CorporateSporting Goods Accommodation highest of any industry, followed by Telecom (19.4%) and Electronics Household Goods (17.8%).
Industries Ranked by % of Comments on Live Videos However, Beauty and Ecommerce, which are two industries that pivoted Average post comments / interactions ratio well to the digital landscape in the pandemic, received some of the most 40.0% comments on their live videos compared to overall interactions. For Beauty, 36.8% of interactions on live videos were comments, followed by 30.0% nteractions I Gambling (32.8%) and Ecommerce (31.1%).
20.0%
10.0%
Those industries showed that when they go live, people pay attention % of Post 0 and take the step of commenting on the video. AVG Auto Beauty Retail Alcohol Travel Gambling FashionTelecom Software Services Finance Industrial Ecommerce ElectronicsFmcg FoodBeverages Retail Food Healthcare Home & Living Sporting Goods Conglomerate Household Goods Accommodation
Chart Time Range: January 1, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: 14,516 Pages of Brands on Facebook & 126,689 Live videos of Brands on Facebook; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 28 Organic Social Media Trends
Median Interactions on Instagram By Number of Hashtags Used by Media Worldwide
1 400 1 200 Fewer Hashtags Often 1 000 800 600 Perform Better 400 200 Interaction Median Interaction 0 0 1 or 2 3 or 4 5 or 6 7 and more hashtags hashtags hashtags hashtags hashtags According to Socialbakers data, worldwide media posts with no hashtags Media on Instagram had nearly double the amount of median interactions as other posts that did use hashtags.
Median Interactions on Instagram By Number of Hashtags Used by Brands Worldwide However, when looking at worldwide brand accounts on Instagram, posts with 1-2 hashtags were slightly ahead of those with 3-4 or no hashtags.
300
250 200 What’s consistent in both cases is that throwing on a bunch of hashtags is 150 not an effective strategy. Social media managers should avoid tacking on 100 unnecessary hashtags in an effort to gain more traction as data shows that 50
Interaction Median Interaction it just doesn’t work. 0 0 1 or 2 3 or 4 5 or 6 7 and more hashtags hashtags hashtags hashtags hashtags Brands
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: 2 970 903 Instagram posts; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 29 Organic Social Media Trends
Median Interactions Short Posts Garner Most By Post Length on Instagram Interactions 500
400
According to Socialbakers data, posts with less than 100 characters 300 received the highest number of median interactions.
200 While there wasn’t a huge disparity in performance among the various Median Interactions lengths – the overall median was 257 – the data suggests that short and 100 very long Instagram posts performed the best.
0 One takeaway from this data is to not be afraid to have long, detailed posts < 50 50-100 100-150 150-200 200-300 300-500 500-1000 1000-1500 1500-2000 >=2000 when necessary. If the information is useful or interesting, audiences won’t be deterred from interacting just because it’s longer.
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: 2,203,696 Instagram posts from 58,895 profiles tagged as Brands worldwide; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 30 Organic Social Media Trends
Influencer #Ad Usage Decreases 15% YoY
25 000
20 000 In Q1 2021, the number of Instagram influencers who used #ad in their posts decreased by 14.9% compared to Q1 2020.
15 000 After the holiday peak came the annual decrease, but the YoY comparison
Influencers 10 000 shows how much influencer marketing has been impacted by the pandemic.
5 000 The Socialbakers data factors in regional and other sponsored hashtags,
0 including #sp, #paid, and #promo, as well as #ad usage. Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec Feb 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2021
Influencers
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2020 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Instagram influencers associated with Brands Worldwide; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 31 Organic Social Media Trends
Well-Known Influencer Obviously, a lot has changed over the last year. Those changes need to be accounted for in all areas of your social media strategy, including the ways that celebrity Interactions Increase influencers may have changed.
7% YoY According to Socialbakers data looking at types of celebrities on Instagram, the median post interactions on posts from writers increased by 50%, DJs increased by 40.6%, and broadcasters increased by 20.9%. Conversely, musicians decreased by 18% while actors and artists also saw a small decrease.
All Celebrities Actor Artist Broadcast Star Disc Jockey Fashion Star Musician Singer Sport Star Writer
Q1 2020
+6.9% -2.3% -2.0% +20.9% +40.6% -2.5% -18.0% -1.2% +13.8% +50.0%
Q1 2021
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 32 Organic Social Media Trends
Top 50 Countries That Egypt (15.8%), Netherlands (14.7%), and Zimbabwe (14.5%) top the list of countries that commented on Facebook brand posts the most compared to other actions in Q1 Comment on Brand Posts 2021. Knowing the habits of your audience can help marketers set up realistic goals and expectations for their post performance. Where does your country stand on this the Most list?
20%
15%
10%
5% Avg % of Facebook Comments % of Facebook Avg
From All Interactions on Brand Pages on Brand All Interactions From 0%
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 33 Organic Social Media Trends
Top 50 Countries That France (14.6%), Singapore (12.3%), and Tunisia (12.2%) top the list of countries that shared the most Facebook media posts compared to other actions in Q1 2021.
Share Media Posts Some countries are more likely than others to share media posts, which is important for media companies to know and factor in to their overall social media strategy.
the Most Where does your country stand on this list?
20%
15%
10%
5% Avg % of Facebook Shares % of Facebook Avg
From All Interactions on Media Pages All Interactions From 0%
Chart Time Range: January 01, 2021 - March 31, 2021; Sample: Socialbakers Suite Benchmarks; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 34 Organic Social Media Trends
Pages Mentioning Black
History Month Nearly Number of Distinct Pages Mention Black History Month Tripled in 2021 Number of Facebook pages in each year 1 750
1 500
The number of brand pages that mentioned Black History Month more 1 250 than doubled in 2021, reflecting both the contentious racial issues that occurred in 2020 and brands’ feelings that they needed to show more 1 000 support.
750 Page Count Page One major thing that changed for brands on social media in 2020 is that 500 silence – staying away from difficult social issues or conversations – is 250 tolerated less and less. Even though many social issues may not seem to 0 have a direct relationship to a business, a brand’s values matter more and 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 more to the audience, and because of that it’s become more important to make it clear where your brand stands on various issues.
Chart Time Range: January, 1 - March, 31, 2015 - 2021; Sample: 54,392 posts with hashtags #blackhistorymonth, #blackhistory or #bhm; Source: Socialbakers data Trends Report | Q1 2021 35 Organic Social Media Trends
Organic Takeaways
The data in this section offers some advice for marketers to factor into their overall social media strategies. Though used infrequently, Facebook Live videos continue to perform very well, and on both platforms there’s a small shift away from images to other types of posts like videos and carousels.
While not necessarily surprising, the large growth of interactions on Ecommerce content on both Instagram and Facebook is likely a harbinger of the way consumer behavior has changed during the pandemic. That sector was already growing, and because of the pandemic it became the only way many people could make any purchases.
Now that is behavior is ingrained, many consumers will incorporate those choices going forward because of the improvement in the social commerce experiences, which makes it not only possible but easy to search for, select, and purchase an item all within the app.
What does that mean for marketers? It means that your digital experience needs to keep pace with the expectations that are coming from your audience. That includes more robust chatbot capabilities, a strong social commerce experience, and social listening and monitoring to stay on top of your audience’s wants and needs.
Trends Report | Q1 2021 36 Socialbakers is the trusted social media management partner to thousands of enterprise brands and SMBs. Leveraging the largest social media dataset in the industry, Socialbakers’ unified marketing platform helps brands large and small ensure their investment in social media is delivering measurable business outcomes. With over 2,500 clients across 100 countries, Socialbakers is the leading social media management platform.
Socialbakers has been a Facebook Marketing Partner since 2011, a Pinterest Marketing Partner since 2017, and a LinkedIn Marketing Partner since 2017. Socialbakers was named in the 2018 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in Europe.
www.socialbakers.com
Trends Report | Q4 2019 49 Methodology and Glossary
Methodology and Glossary Additional thresholds are applied for specific data sets:
Total interactions distribution at a minimum of 300
The Socialbakers quarterly trends report reflects the state of the Internal Ads-Benchmarks at a minimum of 200 active Socialbakers database during the quarter analyzed in the report benchmarks for a region or industry
(or if an extended period is used - the state during that period). The data is collected only once for the defined period.
#AD hashtags at a minimum of 10 #AD hashtags per month in the influencer section
The minimum threshold for the report to be generated is 50 Profiles on Instagram and 50 Pages on Facebook for any given
category.
Trends Report | Q1 2021 38 Methodology and Glossary
Reactions: Social media landscape
The sum of Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sorry and Anger reactions on posts Audience size: published by a Page on Facebook. Sum of all Followers (or Fans) of the profiles in the sample
Interactions: Activity volume: Interactions on Facebook are calculated as a sum of all Reactions, Sum of all posts published in given time period (stories are not
Comments included)
and Shares on posts published by a Page. Interactions on Instagram are calculated as a sum of Likes and Comments on posts published by a Profile. User engagement: Sum of all interactions on posts published in a given time period.
Median interactions in time: The bubble sizes are calculated for each metric separately in order to Median value for profiles (pages) in the sample. The value is the compare each pair of metrics between platforms sum of Interactions gathered on posts published in a given month. ADS Relative median interactions in time: Organic means not promoted (not paid to be shown in the feed). We use Same as Median Interactions in time, but the values are the ratios of the Socialbakers' internal algorithm that detects with almost 100% accuracy maximum value in the given time period (separately for each platform). whether a post has been promoted or not.
Median weekly value: Cost per Click (CPC) or Impressions by Device Platform: Calculated as median weekly ad account spend. Per each account we look at Median of given metric for all available Ad Accounts. As an Ad Account weekly spend value and from all of these ad accounts in one category we can be used on Facebook, Instagram in Messenger or Audience Network, calculate median value. data is for all platforms together.
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Cost per Click (CPC) and Cost per mille (CPM) by Platform Position: influencers
Median for all available Ad accounts. Platform positions are different for Influencer: Facebook and Instagram. The chart shows only the top 5 positions by Instagram business profile of a person followed by more than 1000 profiles.
relative spend (see below).
Evolution of #AD Usage: Relative Spend by Platform Position: The total number of distinct Influencers who have posted #AD (or available Identifies on which positions the highest budget was allocated. The data is local equivalent) aggregated by month. To be included, the post must contain normalized (%) and shows the average distribution of an account's spend. both the #AD hashtag and a mention of a profile from the given region and category.
Click-Through Rate (CTR) by Platform Position: CTR median values of the top 5 positions by relative spend. CPC, CPM and Influencer's score: Spend metrics are in USD. The score represents influencer's relative performance in key metrics: the
sum of interactions, Interactions per 1000 followers, number of followers and Post grade: their posting activity.
Post grade is a metric provided exclusively by Socialbakers for performance
prediction and uses an A+ to D grading system to show how each post is Top Influencers Mentioning {category} Profiles: predicted to perform based on the previous 72 hours organic performance. Ranking of influencers who mentioned at least one profile from a given category and region in the given time range. Influencers are not filtered by country and therefore may occur in multiple rankings.
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Influencer Marketing Efficiency: % Paid Media: percentage of all posts on promoted posts
Is the ratio of Interactions acquired on influencer's (e.g. Hermione Granger) post mentioning the profile (e.g. Hogwarts Express) compared to Activity: post published by the Hogwarts Express itself. Average posts published by a profile on the platform in a given time period.
The higher the score is, the more efficient the cooperation. To be included in Community Size: the ranking, the influencers posts must include both #AD (or local equivalent) Average Fans/Followers/Subscribers count on the platform
and a profile mention (@Hogwarts_Express) to be displayed in the report (transportation brands in the UK). Interactions: Average Interactions per page received on posts published in the given APPENDIX time period % Comments: the percentage of total interactions on comments
#AD Usage: % Reactions: the percentage of total interactions on reactions The total number of influencers who used #AD (or available local equivalent) in Instagram posts Extended glossary available on Socialbakers website % Shares: the percentage of total interactions on shares Reach (Total): % Live Video: the percentage of all posts on live video posts The number of people who had any content from your Page or about your Page enter their screen. This includes posts, check-ins, ads, social % Other Than Like: shows the percentage of reactions excluding like information from people who interact with your Page and more. (Unique reactions (love, haha, wow, sorry, anger) Users)
Trends Report | Q1 2021 41 Methodology and Glossary
Paid Reach: Southern Europe: Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, The number of people who had any content from your Page or about your Gibraltar, Greece, Vatican City State, Italy, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Page enter their screen through paid distribution such as an ad. (Unique Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain Users)
South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Organic Reach: Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, The number of people who had any content from your Page or about your Uruguay, Venezuela
Page enter their screen through unpaid distribution. This includes posts, stories, check-ins, social information from people who interact with your Page East Asia: China, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Macao, and more. (Unique Users) Mongolia, Taiwan
Ad Benchmarks Regions Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Western Europe: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor, Vietnam Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Switzerland
Central America: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama
Northern America: Bermuda, Canada, Greenland, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, United States
Trends Report | Q1 2021 42 Methodology and Glossary
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