Get Ready for These Social Media Trends

2022 Social Media Trends

1. Tik Tok Will Dominate

If you haven’t caved on downloading TikTok, 1. I salute you and 2. This is the year! If you use it for nothing else, TikTok is an essential trend-spotting tool. Not only was it the most downloaded app in 2021, but I would also argue that a majority of the style, beauty, food, and music trends of 2021 started on Tik Tok… and that will only multiply in 2022! While it may or may not be the right move for your brand to have its own account, it is certainly a smart marketing decision to use it for the trend-spotting tool it’s come to be. It also provides a great opportunity to tie influencer content into your marketing plans!

2. Online Shopping and Purchasing

Most businesses realize that social media is a tool for connection and relationship building, but over the past two years, it has become well respected for generating sales as well. Not only are businesses beginning to realize that if they invest the time to nurture their current audience and invest the spend to reach new audiences the sales WILL follow – they are also starting to understand the importance of the social media shopping experience. In fact, according to online grocery trends, 70% of U.S. shoppers could be buying their groceries online in 2022.

3. More Short Form Video

No surprise here! We’ve been saying this time and time again, but with the emergence of social channels and functions like TikTok and Reels, this has never been more important. Cisco recently declared that by 2022, online videos will make up more than 82 percent of all consumer internet traffic — that is 15 times higher than it was in 2017! At this point, if you don’t jump aboard, you will get left behind.

If you need support with a short-form video, contact us to get a quote!

4. Carefully & Intentionally Crafted Advertisements

With social media users becoming more mature in their ability to recognize advertisements, expect to see more creative and unconventional means of advertising. Think less “buy our product because X, Y, Z” and more indirect plays that will help lead audiences to believe that their problems can be solved by buying this product. Social media provides the perfect opportunity to advertise in a less overt more connection-building way. From simple practices like sharing user-generated content and influencer partnerships to larger plans, like incorporating social responsibility initiatives, social media is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to indirectly (and directly) sell to your audience!

5. Respect for Social

It is no secret that the C-suite often doesn’t fully understand social media or has doubts about the ROI of this tool. However, over the past two years, brands have been forced to rely on social media for the majority of communication they have with their audience. From customer service to sales, companies have started to realize that social media is one of the best and most effective ways to communicate directly with their customers! In fact, this year 83% of marketers in a survey conducted by Hootsuite reported having some level of confidence in quantifying the ROI of their social efforts, up by 15% from the previous year.

With an ever-changing, ever-evolving tool like social media, each year (sometimes even each week!) brings a whole new set of trends. The upside for us social media marketers is that based on these trends, it looks like people will be relying on social media even more than they have in the past! While it certainly has its downsides, being able to create inspiring and educational content for our audiences really is making a difference and encouraging the consumption of “good for you” foods!

We know the beginning of the year can mean an overwhelming amount of planning – Let us help! Schedule a call to see how we can help you create your 2022 marketing plan!