Top 8 Social Media Trends to Prepare for in 2022

Over the years, social media has gradually transitioned from being just another recreational tool to an essential tool required to optimize our daily operations and businesses. Individuals and organizations now depend on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter growth, amongst others to boost their brand identity and create a larger audience base.

To expand the scope of its functionality, several trends and updates pop up each year. These trends help users maintain flexibility and creativity when reaching out to their audience. And 2022 has a couple of resourceful trends up its sleeves for its users.

As social media slowly becomes dense and competitors on Twitter and other platforms increase, here are 8 trends that’ll help your brand stay ahead in 2022.

1. TikTok is the next big deal

The world is beginning to embrace video content more quickly than it has in the last decade. And Youtube used to be the perfect platform for such content until Instagram took its spot. But now, TikTok appears to be moving far ahead of Instagram as it’s becoming increasingly popular for social media users across all generations.

To put businesses at an advantage, TikTok has also had a couple of tools like ads, business profiles, and a marketplace for creators to express their most creative sides that appeal to a larger audience. So when it comes to creating short-form videos that entertain viewers and promotes your business, TikTok is your go-to social media platform.

2. “Smaller networks” will be getting all the attention

Smaller networks are becoming the perfect tool for targeting a smaller segment of consumers in 2022. Platforms like TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat have proven to have tremendous engagement rates when used to run ads for businesses. Why? Because, unlike bigger social networks, these ones seem to fit into the lifestyle of each target consumer. Ads and contents are more specific, entertaining, and relatable, making it possible to improve conversion rates for businesses.

3. Short-form videos aren’t leaving anytime soon

Entertaining your audience with short videos will be the key tool of improved engagement this year. Instead of utilizing other forms of visual data like infographics to catch the attention of target customers, businesses will now use short-form videos. To ensure that brands stay up-to-date and improve customer experience, most of their online content will be videos with varying levels of creativity, which depends on the type of business and their target market.

Various platforms have come up with resourceful features that encourage brands and businesses to engage their audience with short-form videos. Instagram has reels, which have a maximum duration of 60 seconds, and Snapchat automatically split videos into shorter bits, so viewers don’t get bored easily. Customers are more likely to engage in several short-form videos than one long-form video. So, when planning your content strategy every month, ensure that you specifically include short-form videos in it.

4. All businesses will venture into social commerce

Gone are the days when only the most innovative brands leveraged social media to sell their products to customers. This year, businesses will be hopping onto this trend – using social media as a direct means of selling their products.

In 2022, brands and businesses will fully optimize their sales strategy by including social commerce. This decision was influenced by the mandatory stay-at-home policy, when it dawned on businesses that there was a need to find alternative means to cope with the disruption the pandemic birthed.

5. Customers no longer find calling businesses appropriate

When customers have urgent questions or demands, they no longer find putting a call through convenient. They prefer sending messages on social media where they can express themselves and send images in real-time, when necessary.

This year, brands and businesses will now have social customer service that tends to the requests of customers. This way, they’re able to build the trust and reliability that buys the loyalty of existing and prospective customers.

6. Huge investments will be made in the creator economy

Many platforms have seen the future of social commerce and are now investing in the creator marketplace. These platforms are creating tools that help brands and businesses connect with their ideal content creator that’ll market their products and services to a larger audience base. Instead of businesses waiting for years to reach their goals, they now collaborate with content creators that will promote their products and boost conversion rates more quickly than normal.

7. Memes’ Growth

A good laugh never gets outdated, and that’s why memes are here to stay. Brands and businesses will hop onto conversations with memes that their target audience can relate to and share. The good part of this is, memes don’t require any fancy editing or compilation, they just need to be funny and relatable.

8. More emphasis on inclusivity

Brands will need to target social issues that apply to their target audience and work towards solving them. From racism to an increasing pay gap, brands will only be able to build trust with their customers if they show their interest in these topics. As customers now believe in the accountability of brands and how much they value social responsibility.

Conclusion

It’s 2022 and social media still remains one of the most resourceful business tools. And these predicted trends are proof of the impact social media has on brand visibility. Use these trends to your advantage to stay ahead of your competitors. However, you must always adopt flexibility in your action plans as social media is a dynamic space.