Ask The Techspert: The Latest Social Media Trends

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2020 was a pivotal year in the social networking world. Social distancing gave birth to a need for more personalized forms of virtual communication. Therefore, new social media platforms emerged, and existing ones increased in popularity in record time. Social trends and user expectations are ever-evolving. So, this article will cover three completely different social media platforms that launched or made their most significant break in 2020, starting with the most popular of them all: TikTok.

TikTok

Initially released in 2016, TikTok started to rise in popularity in 2020 and soon became the fastest-growing social media app in the United States. In September 2021, it reported a staggering 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, which places TikTok alongside major players like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The platform allows you to create and share short videos that play on a repetitive loop. You can easily add fun effects, Augmented Reality filters, text, and musical overlays to add more excitement.

By capitalizing on using hashtags as an organizing principle for its content, TikTok is an easily relatable platform where content often goes viral.

For more information about TikTok, revisit our article “Too Old for TikTok? Nope!”. You can also watch the video below to get started with the app:

BeReal

Are you tired of current social trends like photoshopped pictures with lots of edits and filters? Then BeReal is for you. This new social platform was launched in 2020 by two French developers, Alexis Barreyat and Kevin Perreau, and brings an air of authenticity to the social media world. The app’s main feature is a daily notification that encourages users to be real and share photos of themselves and their surroundings with friends during a random two-minute window every day.

Every day at a random time, you receive a notification that your two-minute window to post whatever it is you happen to be doing opens. While taking a picture of your immediate surroundings, another photo gets taken from your front camera. There are no editing features or filtering on the platform. So, the images you and your friends share are as natural as possible. 

Everyone in your circle receives the “BeReal notification” and posts within two minutes. This concept allows everyone to know what each friend is doing at that exact moment.

People are currently loving BeReal. The platform went from 921K users as of July 2021 to an outstanding 21.6 million users in just one year. BeReal is presently the number one social networking app on the App Store.

Clubhouse

Another new social platform that rose in popularity amid the pandemic is Clubhouse. A social audio hangout app where you can meet new people and discuss your favorite topics. With over 10 million weekly active users worldwide, Clubhouse is an exciting platform where you can listen in and participate in audio discussions about your issues of interest.

The Clubhouse‘s concept could be described as a platform with live podcasts you could join and be part of as they happen. Please check out this Hootsuite article to learn more about Clubhouse.

Major social media platforms are already rolling out updates to their apps to adopt the same social trend of audio-only chat rooms like Twitter Spaces, Instagram Live Rooms, etc.

Feel free to share with everyone in the comment section below which of the discussed social media platforms you are already using or considering joining. 😃

Leave a comment below with any questions or input that you might have.

Techspert Jonathan is Senior Planet’s Sr. Digital Community Relations and Product Specialist and a former Senior Planet San Antonio technology trainer. He is also an iOS developer with a background in Information Systems and Cyber Security.

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