State of Social Media and CX: Key Insights From Q1 2021

In the Q1 2021 Social Media and CX Trends Report, Socialbakers provides an analytical look at the growing importance of customer experiences and the data in paid, organic, and influencer marketing that marketers need to know to deliver stellar CX in 2021.

Highlights of this report include the effects of social on the pre- and post-purchase customer journey and the role of empathy in closing the CX gap. Socialbakers data also highlights a 60% YoY increase in digital ad spend, as well as regional and industry breakdowns of ad reach and CPC.

The report also details some developments in influencer marketing, including #ad usage and which type of influencers have increased their interactions compared to last year.

Delivering great CX has never been more important, and this report provides insights and data for marketers to make decisions that will benefit their audience and achieve the goal of putting the customer first.

Here are some of the report highlights:

Global Social Media Ad Spend Grows 60% YoY

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 same growth trajectory this year.

In Q1 2021, marketers spent 60% more on Facebook and Instagram advertising compared to Q1 in 2020.

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 68%.

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.

Social media will play a key role in fostering this empathy. Social media listening and tracking sentiment about specific topics will provide key insights to power empathy efforts.

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.

According to Deloitte Digital, 84% of surveyed B2B leaders feel the pandemic has enabled them to become more empathetic to their customers’ needs (vs. 49% for B2B laggards).

Fewer Hashtags Often Perform Better

According to Socialbakers data, worldwide media posts with no hashtags on Instagram had nearly double the amount of median interactions as other posts that did use hashtags.

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.

What’s consistent in both cases is that throwing on a bunch of hashtags is not an effective strategy. Social media managers should avoid tacking on unnecessary hashtags in an effort to gain more traction as data shows that it just doesn’t work.

[“source=socialbakers”]