In the past two years, there has been a change in the way that brands advertise their products or services on social media.
Social media popularity has exploded in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down. With over 3.7 billion users worldwide, brands are scrambling to keep up and figure out how to best engage their audiences. But with the social media landscape constantly changing, what can brands expect in the coming year?
Social media marketers should keep an eye on the following ten trends in order to be successful in 2022. These trends are backed by experts or research.
10 Trends to Watch in 2022
1. TikTok will dominate the social media space.
I started hearing about TikTok from my colleagues and friends during the pandemic.
TikTok has had extremely fast growth. The term ‘TikTok’ was mentioned 61% more times during the beginning of 2021 than the year before, and was the first non-Facebook app to reach 3 million global downloads.
It’s easy to think that TikTok is just a passing fad because it’s growing so quickly, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The social media team at HubSpot believes that TikTok offers unique opportunities to engage directly with consumers, and major brands such as the NBA and Dunkin’ are using the app to reach new audiences.
Ben Jeffries, CEO of Influencer.com, discusses the opportunity for brands to connect with consumers through TikTok. He states that the app was the most downloaded in 2020 and that its popularity is due to the creative and humorous content. Therefore, brands have the chance to appeal to a new audience and show their brand personality.
Other platforms have used TikTok’s popularity as inspiration to make changes to their features. Instagram, for example, has employed TikTok lookalike features in its own version called Reels. Reddit has also just announced a similar short-form video feature on its site.
TikTok made us part of a global community that was life-affirming, educational, and amusing. It allowed us to express ourselves. “When the pandemic forced us online, social media became our lifeline — for shopping, communication, and work. Looking for entertainment, TikTok became the go-to channel. It made us smile. It made us laugh. It relieved the boredom of being stuck at home. We were eager to join the party. TikTok made us part of a global community that was life-affirming, educational, and amusing. It allowed us to express ourselves,” said Elena Melnikova, CMO at Talkwalker.
In 2022, we’ll see TikTok’s popularity continue to grow as more brands explore how they can use the app to expand brand awareness and reach new audiences. Additionally, we’ll watch TikTok’s ripple effect on the social media landscape at-large, as other platforms change their features to emphasize short-form, “snackable” content.
2. Reaching new audiences will become the number one social media goal for businesses.
In 2021, HubSpot’s Blog Research found the primary goals of most marketers’ social media strategies were:
- Advertising products/services (35%)
- Increasing brand awareness/reaching new audiences (34%)
- Increasing revenue/sales (34%)
The majority of marketers expect their goals to change in the next few years.
As we begin to close out 2022, most marketers primary goals include:
- Increasing brand awareness/reaching new audiences (39%)
- Fostering relationships with customers/increasing brand loyalty (33%)
- Improving customer service and retention (32%)
Most consumers during the pandemic needed to purchase online first.
As we move into the next year, brands are considering how they can use social media to reach new audiences and foster deeper relationships with existing ones. They are also looking to improve customer service to ensure customer loyalty long term.
Posting consistently and staying active on social media is critical to increasing your presence. Leveraging trends and buzzy content can help, as well as investing in high-quality creative assets.
If you want to create deeper relationships with your followers, you should engage with them through interactive elements such as polls, Q&As, and live videos.
3. Companies will make more dedicated social media hires.
Social media can be a powerful tool for your business.
People say that content on social media affects their purchasing decisions 79% of the time.
More companies will be hiring people specifically for social media in 2022 so that social media is not just a side project for the marketing team.
“A dedicated social media hire can solve this problem and help organizations grow platforms, keep tabs on social analytics, be part of industry-specific conversations, experiment with new platforms and trends, and more — all of which contributes to a stronger brand and more leads for your company. We’ve done it at Jotform, and it’s worth it.”
If you haven’t done so already, you may want to consider hiring a social media community manager. These managers can help create and foster online relationships with your audience, and since they play such a key role in shaping how your brand is perceived, it can be worth it if your audience is interested in engaging with your brand through social media.
4. Augmented Reality will become consumers’ preferred way to try-on products and interact with brands.
AR has been around for a few years and is becoming increasingly common for brands to use to enable consumers’ to test products before purchase.
AR has a positive effect on a business’ financial situation. It can increase the rate of people clicking on a link to buy something by 33%.
Carolina Arguelles Navas told me that she believes augmented reality will become the preferred option for trying on products by consumers in 2022.
Put simply, AR is a more personal way for brands to reach people and is more effective at driving results than other forms of advertising and marketing, according to Navas.
Navas stated that the engagement and interest in augmented reality has increased rapidly over the past two years and that over 200 million Snapchat users interact with augmented reality on a daily basis. She also said that this trend is not going to disappear anytime soon and that augmented reality will continue to grow in popularity.
Facebook is not the only social media platform with AR capabilities. Snapchat is also an effective AR platform that reaches a large percentage of young adults in the United States. If you think AR could be a beneficial addition to your brand, testing it out on Snapchat is a good option.
5. Businesses in the B2B space will increase their investments in Instagram and Twitter.
Although Instagram and Twitter have been around for a while, many marketers are still seeing increases in ROI (Return On Investment) across both platforms.
In other words, Twitter had nearly 200 million people using it every day in 2020 who could be shown ads, an increase of 29% from the previous year.
While other social media platforms experienced a decrease in the amount of time users spent on them, Instagram experienced a nearly 14% jump between 2019 and 2020. On average, users spent 30 minutes per day on the app, which was higher engagement growth than all other social platforms.
6. You will start spending big ad dollars on smaller networks.
This phenomenon is particularly surprising given the current social media trends.
The new research indicates that people are more likely to respond to ads on TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest than on the bigger social media sites.
- A study by Kantar, commissioned by TikTok, found that consumers ranked TikTok ads as more inspiring and enjoyable than ads on other platforms.
- A Nielson study commissioned by Snapchat found that ads on Snapchat had more reach than TV ads and led to greater awareness and purchase intent.
- A Pinterest Business study showed that ads on Pinterest had higher ROI and cheaper conversion rates than ads on other social networks.
Many social pros had to change their ads strategy in early 2021 in response to the Apple iOS 14 update. This was when Apple announced an “opt in to ads tracking” option for all Apple users, blocking Facebook’s ability to target a large portion of its audience.
The most important aspect of TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat is that they all encourage advertisers to make their ads more relatable to organic content that is already being posted by regular users.
This means that ads are more likely to be seen and clicked on by users, leading to more sales and a better overall experience for businesses.
French beauty brand MAKE UP FOREVER ran an in-feed TikTok ad as part of a larger brand awareness campaign. The ad featured a creator testing and reviewing a new foundation, just as they would on their own channel.
The campaign resulted in the brand being seen by more than 11 million people and 10 million people watching the brand’s videos across France.
To-Do List:
- Take a closer look at your engagement across all platforms. Have you been underestimating Pinterest users? Neglecting the potential of your Snapchat audience?
- Study the content people post on that network. See if you can improve your brand’s tone to fit in with the vibe there.
- Experiment with creating ads on that network. Or test a new network, especially if you’ve discounted it as too much effort for organic content in the past.
Before the pandemic, social commerce was an opportunity for innovative businesses to sell their products on social media platforms. Disruptors, such as mattress and eyeglass companies, were quick to capitalize on this opportunity.
With more people staying at home and using social media, there has been a significant increase in social shopping. This trend is not expected to go away anytime soon.
The industry for social commerce is predicted to grow to $80 billion by 2025 according to eMarketer. This growth is due to the increase of e-commerce (18% in 2020 alone).
81% of shoppers already used social media to discover new brands and research products before the pandemic. Many businesses have realized that it makes sense to let these users checkout in the same app.
Although it may be an extra step, navigating to a website can lead to potential conversions that would otherwise be lost. This is especially true on mobile devices, where cart abandonment rates are higher.
The majority of social media platforms now have in-app shopping solutions that include live video, in response to increasing demand. The most popular networks for this are Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, with TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube not far behind.
8. No one will want to talk to your brand on the phone.
More and more consumers are finding that they can get answers to their urgent questions from businesses more conveniently using social media.
In a survey conducted by Nielsen, 64% of respondents said they would rather message a business than call them. According to Gartner, 60% of all customer service requests will be managed through digital channels by 2023.
Many organizations are not yet prepared to provide effective customer service through social media, even though there is an increased demand for it.
If Hootsuite’s 2022 Customer Care Survey is any indication, the majority of organizations have yet to invest in social customer care, or have no plans to do so.
A recent survey suggests that social customer care is becoming more valued by organizations. 59% of respondents agreed that it has become more valued.
To-Do List
- Start thinking about a social media customer service strategy.
- Create network-specific response templates for frequently asked questions.
- If you haven’t already, try using a chatbot to improve your response time.
- Merge your customer service conversations in one tool. (For example Sparkcentral or Hootsuite Inbox.)
- Train your social media marketing team in customer support best practices. Better yet, hire dedicated customer service agents for your social channels.
9. Long-form video is bust, except on YouTube.
The average length of videos on the internet has decreased over the years, with 60% of videos published in 2020 being under 2 minutes long. This is according to video hosting software company Vidyard.
We thought that long-form video would be the future with the advent of IGTV and Facebook Watch.
YouTube, known for its long-form educational videos, was rewarding videos that passed the 10-minute mark. Facebook wanted to compete in the same arena.
After Facebook launched IGTV, businesses rushed to create “tv series” for their social platforms. Will Smith even narrated an IGTV show for National Geographic. It seemed like Facebook might be taking on YouTube and cable TV networks.
Many businesses took advantage of social listening for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being able to respond in real-time to questions and conversations with customers during a health crisis was appealing to them.
As the pandemic went on, more and more businesses realized that social listening could help them understand their customers’ changing preferences and avoid PR (Public Relations) disasters.
Hootsuite’s 2022 Social Media Trends survey found that most respondents said that they either somewhat or strongly agree that social listening has increased in value for their organization over the past 12 months.
Google search demand for keywords like “social listening” and “social listening tools” has increased by 22% compared to last year. This means that more people are interested in either finding out what social listening is or buying a tool for their business.
A suite of tools can help you with every aspect of social media for your brand.
From a single dashboard you can easily:
- Create, edit and schedule posts to every network
- Find out what your best times to post are based on your unique, historical data
- Track relevant keywords, topics, and accounts
- Respond to comments and direct messages with a universal inbox
- Get easy-to-understand performance reports to help improve your strategy as needed
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