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 Excelent 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
Response Time 15 min 60 min Growing

vs.
In 2021, social media will continue to play a key role in key experiences
across the customer journey, from research to purchase to customer care.

Average Response Time 1d 7h 12m 1d 3h 47m

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

84%
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
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.

Spend (in USD)

2 000

In Q1 2021, marketers spent 60% more on Facebook and Instagram 1 500

advertising compared to Q1 in 2020.

1 000

In North America, ad spend grew as much as 59% YoY, in Western Europe

500
ad spend grew 44%, but most significantly in Latin America ad spend grew
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
Spend (in USD)

600

400

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
industry only by 20%.

102% YoY
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
Spend (in USD)

4 000

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

Ad CPC (in USD) by Region

Costs to Advertise
Median Weekly Value Increase In Parallel

to Ad Spend
0.70

0.60

0.50
With total Facebook and Instagram spend reaching new highs this year, the
CPC (in USD)

0.40
overall worldwide costs to advertise grew by 37% in Q1 2021 compared to

0.30 Q1 2020.

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

CPC (in USD)

While Advertising Costs
0.12
0.10
0.8

Grow CTR Remains Stable 0.5

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

CTR (in %)
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
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

Q1 2020 +8.43% Q1 2021 Facebook advertising are a revenue source for the company itself.

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
Reach

0.75M

0.50M

0.25M

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
Relative Spend (in %)

60
50
40 Facebook News Feed Still

Delivers the Best Click

30
20
10
0
Feed
Facebook
Feed

Instagram
Stories

Instagram
Video Feeds

Facebook
Instream Video

Facebook
Through for Marketers
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.

Click-Through Rate (in %)

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
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

Audience

Facebook

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

100%
Decrease in Q1
Relative Post Interactions (max 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.

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
Video
71.2%
16.6%
on Facebook and Instagram Link
Status
8.6%
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

Image
Interactions of Video
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

Fashion
9.9%
6.7%

Across Industries Electronics

Auto
5.2%
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 Liv e
30.0%

Industry Trends

25.0%

% of Pages
20.0%

15.0%

10.0%

5.0%

According to Socialbakers data, more than a quarter of Gambling pages 0

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(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

AVG % of Post Interactions

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%

Gambling (32.8%) and Ecommerce (31.1%).

20.0%

10.0%
Those industries showed that when they go live, people pay attention
0
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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

Fewer Hashtags Often

Interaction Median

1 200
1 000
800
600
400
Perform Better
200
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
300 with 1-2 hashtags were slightly ahead of those with 3-4 or no hashtags.

Interaction Median

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
0
it just doesn’t work.
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

Median Interactions
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
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.

Influencers

15 000

After the holiday peak came the annual decrease, but the YoY comparison
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

the Most
and expectations for their post performance. Where does your country stand on this
list?

20%
From All Interactions on Brand Pages
Avg % of Facebook Comments

15%

10%

5%

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

the Most

for media companies to know and factor in to their overall social media strategy.

Where does your country stand on this list?

20%
From All Interactions on Media Pages
Avg % of Facebook Shares

15%

10%

5%

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

Page Count
occurred in 2020 and brands’ feelings that they needed to show more 1 000

support.

750

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.

[Link]

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

Socialbakers database during the quarter analyzed in the report Internal Ads-Benchmarks at a minimum of 200 active

(or if an extended period is used - the state during that period). benchmarks for a region or industry

The data is collected only once for the defined period.

#AD hashtags at a minimum of 10 #AD hashtags per month in

The minimum threshold for the report to be generated is 50 the influencer section

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.

Trends Report | Q1 2021 39

Methodology and Glossary

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.

Trends Report | Q1 2021 40

Methodology and Glossary

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

Have a question regarding any

of the data in the report?

Contact us at ask@[Link]

[Link]

Trends Report | Q4 2019 54