As we step into 2022, social media managers are thinking about their strategies and approaches for monthly and annual content calendars.
Social media is a unique character within the marketing field because it constantly changes. What worked yesterday may not work today. To stay competitive, your social media strategy needs to evolve with the changing algorithms and trends. And that means staying up on the social media trends in 2022 and beyond.
But that’s easier said than done.
Keeping track of the ever-changing social media environment is a challenge. How do you know which changes will benefit your unique business needs? It can be incredibly tough to work in an industry that is always in metamorphosis.
Social media has become an integral part of a business’s marketing plans. And given the importance that social media holds for the awareness and success of a business, social media managers must be keeping track of these changes. While this should be happening at a consistent pace throughout the year, the start of a new year offers unique opportunities to research, reflect, and reimagine your strategies.
Now is a time to reflect on the previous year’s trends, successes, and failures and analyze how we can take lessons learned into the new year and calculate which trends will mark digital media in the coming months.
2022 is shaping up to be a very busy year for social media marketers. Let’s discuss some of the most important social media trends we expect to see in 2022, so you can feel better prepared for the months ahead.
Facebook (a.k.a. Meta) Offers a More Mature Community
Although the metaverse is still in its infancy and far from becoming a full reality, now that the process has started, we expect more details and updates to drop in the metaverse in 2022. One of those will be a focus on a more mature audience.
What was once a place where younger generations found community, Facebook has become a hub for older generations. A recent leak of the infamous Facebook Papers confirmed that younger users are fleeing the platform at a fast rate. On the flip side, people ages 55+ are the fastest-growing age demographic on the site.
Although the metaverse will continue to promote new features to attract the younger generations, we expect the older generations to continue to have a hold on the social media platform and require a more mature voice and conversation.
Live Streaming Will Improve Audience Engagement
Social media marketing trends have changed a lot since their beginnings. Five or more years ago, you would only find overly edited, perfect images and videos across the social space.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen this shift significantly to feature more and more real-life, non-edited content. People are craving raw, authentic, and unfiltered organic content on their feeds. And the algorithms have followed that trend. As a result, social media networks now actually prefer more authentic, real-time content.
Even more than simply posting an unedited photo, social media network brands and influencers are prioritizing live streaming as a way to showcase their authentic selves.
Many businesses have already jumped on the live stream bandwagon and found great success in that space. Hosting live events, showcasing new products or services, answering questions, and showing behind-the-scenes situations are all ways you can incorporate live streaming into your social media strategy.
Any good reason to go live is an opportunity for you to engage and connect with your audience. It can keep your social channels fresh and engaging, which will make more people want to follow and engage with your business.
Make Things Personal to Follow Social Media Trends in 2022
More than 72% of consumers say that they’ll only engage with brands online if the marketing messages are tailored to them in some way or another. This trend has steadily grown over the last five years, and we anticipate that it will continue to grow with each passing year.
Making things personal is all about using your collective audience data – persona, location, behavior, demographic, and more – to segment them to deliver highly-tailored and personalized experiences within the social media space.
A crucial part of effective personalization on social media is attention to the engagement history within its context. When you pay attention to what and how your audience engages, it will inform your marketing decisions in the future.
Forget Long-Form Video Except on Youtube
According to a report by Vidyard, 60% of all videos published on the internet in 2020 were under 2 minutes long. This statistic puts video lengths on social media into perspective.
Another study by Cisco reports that in 2022, 82% of all online content will be video content.
A few years ago, when IGTV was first released, there was a time when everyone thought that long-form videos would be the future of social media content. Social media platforms all wanted to be the “next YouTube” where videos over 10 minutes were the most successful. However, marketers quickly realized this was not the case.
The problem is that consumers didn’t actually want other platforms to be like YouTube. But as soon as TikTok arrived and brought with it the phenomenon of short-form video content, and the launch of Instagram Reels followed shortly after, it was apparent that long-form videos should stay on YouTube.
When it comes to video content in 2022, stick to creating short, entertaining, and engaging videos rather than long-winded videos for any platform outside of YouTube.
Influencer Marketing Will Continue To Soar
Influencer marketing is not a new trend, but it’s a trend that we anticipate will grow substantially in 2022.
No matter which platform you look at, influencers dominate the space. The adoption of this trend is beneficial on both sides of the spectrum. Not only is the influencer career path getting more and more popular, but there is also an increase in marketing spending by businesses. This can bring more brand awareness, new audiences, and more sales for the businesses that can budget for influencer marketing.
If you think there isn’t enough money in the budget for influencer marketing, think again. Investing in influencers is often cheaper than running paid ad campaigns and still delivers excellent results. Additionally – influencers can help marketers achieve other marketing goals rather than just generate new leads.
More and more marketers are anticipated to partner with influencers in the coming years and make influencer marketing a standard part of their marketing strategy.
There is also a space for reaching out to micro-influencers – those personalities that have a smaller following on social channels. These influencers typically have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers and may be more accessible to small businesses that don’t have huge social media or influencer budgets.
Make 2022 Your Business’s Best Year Yet for Social Media
These are just a few trends we expect to dominate the social media space in 2022 and beyond. The world is constantly changing and adapting to new successes and challenges, and with those changes, fresh and emerging trends will come throughout the year.
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that social media is a dynamic and competitive space constantly changing and evolving. What worked before likely won’t work in the future, and generating the same results is never guaranteed. The best thing you can do is remain positive, and open to change, and keep your creative juices flowing in new and authentic ways.
When it comes to marketing, one of the best things you can do is continue to research social media trends in 2022 and every year, be open to adjusting your strategies and mindset, learn more about consumer behaviors, and communicate with your team to determine which trends or strategies will work best for your brand.
For strategic guidance in social media marketing, try SharedTEAMS – we help businesses of all sizes plan, implement, and maintain high-performing social media programs, all tailored to your brand and personnel needs.