Top 11 Facebook Trends for 2021 for Marketers

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Love it or hate it, use it personally or just fight with it for business, Facebook is a big part of the online world.  You can ignore it but it has a habit of sneaking back in.  For digital marketers, that means we need to not only look at what’s going on now but spy ahead to see what might come.  To do that, let’s take a look at some of the experts top predictions on Facebook trends for 2021.

A new ‘fifth’ version of Facebook coming

According to Hootsuite, there’s a new ‘fifth’ version of Facebook currently being tested that looks set to start rolling out in 2021.  Known as FB5, it will put Facebook Groups at the heart of the platform.  Some of the features will include personalised feeds for groups, more group updated in the News Feed and a new look to make it easier to find groups.

Of the 1.4 billion people using Facebook groups already, some 400 million say they find them ‘meaningful’.  So there’s no doubt that the redesign will take note of this and ensure the user gets what they think they want.

Everyone loves Live

Social media marketing trends already predicted that live content will continue to be popular into next year and Facebook is at the head of the queue for this trend.  

While the lockdown definitely played a part, the use of Live content increased by 26.9% according to Socialbakers during 2020.  In Q2, nearly 1% of all branded posts were Live content.

Messenger gets a desktop focus

For years now, the big focus of almost everything has been mobile.  Mobile friendly, mobile optimised, all of that.  But one thing is bucking the trend next year and that’s Messenger, Facebook’s hugely popular messaging app.

Instead, it will be getting a pivot to desktop focus.  The desktop app will feature all the things we are used to seeing on mobile and looks a bit like the Facebook Workplace app from early signs.  But it is interesting to see that we desktop users are finally getting some love somewhere.

AR takes off on Facebook at least

Hands up if you are sick of hearing about the virtual reality/augmented reality takeover of the world?  Seems like I’ve been including it in trends reports since I started blogging!  However, while the trend seems to be bubbling quietly in most areas, Facebook is really embracing it.

Facebook’s Spark AR studio has already been very popular with half a million creators from 190s countries around the world diving in.  They’ve created some 1.2 million AR effects during 2020.  This looks set to continue to grow in 2021 as Facebook finds new ways to use the tech – dynamic Stories formats is just one possible example.

Video marketing continues to evolve

Video marketing has been around long enough now that it doesn’t qualify as a trend.  But there are notable trends within it to watch.  With the Facebook filter, for example, longer video content is proving popular.

For 2021, aiming to create content between 65 seconds and five minutes looks to be a good bet.  Videos are the second most popular type of content on Facebook and make us 17% of all content.  So there’s tons of potential there.

Interest driven groups continue to be popular

We’ve already talked about Facebook Groups and their importance in the big redesign that’s likely in 2021.  But it is worth mentioning them again and a little more specifically.

2021 will see the continued rise of Groups that are interest-driven communities.  There are 10 million groups on Facebook and as marketers, they are a brilliant way to interact with our audience and offer them something more.  Private groups around a specific interest will be a big deal next year.

Big push for social commerce

Facebook is very keen on diving into the world of online shopping and social commerce.  E-commerce has been a core part of how we shop for many years now and 2021 will see social media sites getting into this.

Facebook Shops launched this year and allow people to sell through their Page.  This trend and its continued growth look set to get stronger in 2021.

Ads focused around News Feed remain

While everyone talks about groups and video, one thing for sure – in terms of ads, the News Feed remains the top place to show up.  

The news feed received 58.2% of ad spend in the third quarter of 2020 and these ads see the highest clickthrough rate of 1.82% compared with 0.85% on video and 0.65% on Instagram video.  So expect to see a news feed focus on ads recommendations and training in 2021.

More chatbots (in a good way)

Personally, I don’t mind talking to a chatbot.  If they’ve been done well, then it is a simple and quick way to get information or assistance.  And it seems I’m not alone.

There are already 40 million businesses using Facebook Messenger to communicate with their customers and the use of chatbots in them is also growing.  

User-generated content a top marketing tactic

User-generated content or UGC has been around for a while and is a great way to get that social proof and highlight your customers or readers.  Particularly with video, this is going to continue to grow in 2021.

The COVI-19 restrictions have also shown how important this avenue is and videos published by brands that were created by users has seen an increase from 223 billion views in January 2020 to 495 billion views by August.

Hashtags come back

I’ve always thought it was weird that we were virtually told not to use hashtags on Facebook unless it is a cross-post from Instagram.  But it seems that 2021 will be the year hashtags firmly return to the platform.

Facebook has been working on its hashtag feature to help with engagement and reach.  There are predictive hashtag suggestions as you type and more ways to use them on the way.

Could the ‘like’ count days be numbered?

In September last year, Facebook ran a test where it removed like counts from posts in Australia.  Instagram then brought in private like counts globally after some trials and received mostly positive responses.

There’s a lot of belief that Facebook will do something similar and like counts will vanish from posts.  How this will affect marketers and particularly influencers isn’t clear but is something to watch develop into 2021.