It’s a point that’s been made perhaps too often, a “duh”-worthy claim, but it holds true and influences everything we do as communicators: Social media has changed the world.

Especially through a global pandemic, political unrest and social change, both individuals and companies have relied more than ever on social media to tell their story, connect with others and, of course, make money. Over halfway through 2021, our team at The Wilbert Group is looking back at the year in digital so far, and planning for the future as we (hopefully) come out of the pandemic and prepare to evolve once again.

Our clients have likely already heard these insights and recommendations from us, but, at the high-level, here’s what we’re seeing in the digital space this year:

• Algorithms that reward a quality over quantity approach. We’re not posting every single day in our clients’ social media feeds, but we’re making sure the content we post is engaging, interesting, eye-catching and meaningful, because we know it will live in the feed for a few days now. We’re using Stories more than ever, too, to complement this new approach.
• Video content is king. The organic reach of newer tools like Reels, Live broadcasts and Tiktok can be high if the content is strong and reaches the right audience, and during the “work from home era,” social media users relied on video more than ever to experience other places and people. 
• It’s no longer an option for brands to avoid having a personality. We outline “brand voice” in each of our client social media strategies and work with clients to craft a voice that is authentic to them. In 2021, this voice needs to sound real – it can have opinions, it can make witty jokes, it can have conversations with people, even for the most sophisticated client. If we shy away from this, we see engagement tumble.

Armed with our knowledge of these trends and our digital expertise, here are a few campaigns we’ve launched this year we’re excited about:

• Our client in Sayreville, New Jersey, Riverton, a forthcoming waterfront mixed-use community from longtime Wilbert client North American Properties, relies on social media to connect with the local community while the project undergoes a complicated remediation process. We launched the weekly Nick @ Noon video series, primarily created for Instagram but cross-posted on other channels, where Project Coordinator Nick Solazzo walks our audience through what’s going on onsite, as well as in Sayreville with special Nick in the Neighborhood episodes. Nick @ Noon has been viewed over 200,000 times so far.
• We launched a Tiktok! After successful collaborations with Tiktok influencers from the Collab Crib to a celebrity corgi, we decided Atlantic Station, a longtime client in the heart of Atlanta, deserved its own Tiktok to reach the younger audience who were already using the mixed-use hub as a background for social media content. With over 6,000 views so far, we’re excited to continue showing off Atlantic Station on this new platform.
• Fenton, another longtime client in Cary, North Carolina, has had an engaged social media following for over three years now, and the development is poised to open to the public next April. We’ve worked to cultivate a group of devoted Fenton fans through authenticity, and we debuted Fenton’s official email newsletter, The Fentonian, this month. We were able to launch the newsletter with nearly 700 initial subscribers thanks to our community-building efforts, and we had a stunning open rate of over 56% and click through rate of over 18%. We attribute this success also to our strong content, including sharing videos we’ve produced for Fenton, a Q&A with the project team and a Fenton swag giveaway for subscribers.