Social Media Trends During COVID-19

COVID-19 forced our world to go into hibernation overnight. Without the ability to go to restaurants, bars, movie theaters, and even our friends and family houses for dinner we all turned to the internet for community. The trends that came out on social media during the coronavirus were not only interesting but might give some insight into the future of social media.

Instagram editable stories

• Brands and influencers created stories for users to edit and fill in with their own spin or circle easily for their favorite
• Some included space for text while others included spaces for GIFs
• What was brilliant about this is at the bottom they encourage you to tag friends!
• Then these circulated like wildfire and the creators IG handle was directly on the picture
• People loved getting tagged and it gave them something fun to read on their friends stories and fill out on their own

Brands sharing real stories

• Inspiring pictures of handmade signs thanking first responders posted in windows of stores were shared and went viral
• Almost every business posted a response to the virus and the messages were similar: “we are all in this together, we care about your safety, and we will be back stronger than ever”
• Brands got creative and had their employees and fans film things at home
• An awesome example of this is Chick-fil-A, employees from their corporate office and their families filmed videos in a “nightly nuggets” series where they took Chick-fil-A ingredients and turned them into new recipes.

Push up contests

• Since no one was going out to the gym, people went to social media to show off their work outs
• Then they started tagging their friends and “nominating” them
• The chain would get incredibly long with people tagging each other not just for “reply push up’s” but also “reply chug” (drinking), “reply dog” (pics of their dog), and even “reply throwback” (pics from the past
• These created a sense of community and people got excited when they saw themselves tagged

Songs to sing while washing your hands

• Hygiene became a #1 priority and people took to social media to sing songs while washing their hands
• This was done to show that you really should be washing your hands longer than most people do- but on social media it was turned into a game, a meme, and a fun thing to share
• Check out this theme song retweeted by Schitt’s Creek

Live concerts go virtual

• While concert venues were closed for the unforeseeable future, tons of singers took to Facebook Live and Instagram Live to put out virtual concerts
• Some were in collaboration with TV shos and radio stations and others just to make people smile
• Stars like John Legend, Billie Eilish, Blake Shelton, James Taylor, Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys, and more went the virtual route
• This has people asking, will music lovers pick streaming over live-concerts after the coronavirus?

The major takeaways from trends during COVID-19 on social media is that people are using it for connections now more than ever. Finding humor and community online can be a light in the darkness during uncertain times. It’s likely it will take a long time for our world to return to “normal”, so these connections online aren’t going anywhere. Virtual concerts, real stories from real customers and tagging friends are the way of the future when it comes to social media.