Over the years, we have seen how brands continuously change their product or service promotions on social media platforms according to the latest marketing and social media trends.
Likewise, we’ve also witnessed how social apps shifted from mere channels for public broadcast of opinions into social commerce platforms.
And with 3.7 billion social media users worldwide in 2021, social apps popularity continues to rise this year and for the years to come. With that being said, businesses realized the importance of setting up their business profiles and online shops on different social media platforms.
But the job doesn’t end there. As a business owner with business profiles and online shops across different social media platforms, you have strategies to plan and need to know: what social media trends will emerge this year? Which of these trends will break new ground in 2022?
Curious to know the social media trends that will change the game in 2022? We list them down for you.
Mobile optimization is a must
Almost everyone uses a mobile device to carry out simple daily tasks like paying bills, making calls and sending emails.
But, aside from that, mobile phones have also become an integral part of the Gen Z and Millenials lifestyle. Almost everything they do revolves around using smartphones, such as playing online games, using social media, communicating in the workplace, etc.
In actual fact, mobile phones account for more than half of online traffic, so ensuring that your website is mobile-optimized is necessary and an absolute must.
But how can you optimize your website for mobile? Well, first and foremost, you need to establish or build a well-designed and highly optimized website first. Having a website with responsive design elements is the first requirement for mobile optimization.
If you don’t have one, 75 Social has you covered. Whether it’s a personal online portal, e-commerce or any kind, our competent and talented team of professional web designers can help you achieve your website goals. To learn more about this, visit this link.
Suppose you already have a website. In that case, for it to become a mobile-optimized site, it must include the following:
- Use of responsive design,
- Images and videos optimization according to screen size,
- Ensuring ultrafast load time of web pages for mobile; and
- Simplify navigation menu for easy access and enhanced usability.
However, these are not simple as they sound. Ensuring your website is mobile-optimized is not a walk in the park. To carry this out requires expertise and experience.
To lessen your worries and ensure your website is accurately mobile optimized, hire a professional web developer or partner with an agency specializing in web design.
More efficient and simpler social commerce
Social commerce is an e-commerce subset where all of the contexts of e-commerce transactions happen on social media platforms, such as product discovery, click-to-purchase and after-sales support.
Due to its growing popularity, it is transforming the way we shop online:
- In the US, 60% of Gen Z use Instagram for product and brand discovery.
- Social commerce is forecasted to increase by as much as $80 billion by 2025 in the US.
- More than 70 percent of small businesses in the US are planning to sell on different social media platforms.
For those very reasons, social media channels have introduced innovative social commerce tools unique to each platform:
- Meta Business Suite lets you post your brand content or ads in real-time or schedule posts and stories to Facebook and Instagram Shop. It also has a content planner and all the necessary elements for a business suite, such as insights, notifications, Ads and inbox.
- Recently, Instagram Checkout was introduced to brands and businesses based in the US, enabling its users to make direct purchases in the app.
- Pinterest rolled out a dedicated Shop tab that allows users to browse and shop for products and services through Pins.
- Following TikTok’s partnership with Shopify, it is now testing TikTok Shopping.
- With the increasing appeal of social commerce, chatbots and automated direct messages rose to popularity as an added customer service tool to answer FAQs and communicate with customers.
As each platform competes to make its shopping features the best of the best for brands and customers, social commerce is expected to rise in 2022 dramatically.
Short-form vertical video is here to stay in 2022
In recent years, short-form vertical videos have taken over the world, thanks mainly to TikTok.
More recently, Instagram has introduced Instagram Reels. Likewise, YouTube rolled out YouTube Shorts last year. These two features are short-form vertical videos competing against TikTok.
Aside from the fact that short-form vertical video is snackable and easy to digest, it is also a significant engagement driver.
- Instagram Reels get more engagement than posted images and stories.
- On Twitter, tweets with videos have ten times greater engagement than other formats.
- Pinterest noted a 240% year-on-year growth of organic video Pins for the past two years.
In 2021 alone, we have witnessed the surge of brands, creators and influencers utilizing video content, whether short-form vertical video or long horizontal video format, to interact and connect with their audience, advertise products and services and promote their advocacies and campaigns.
This year, it is expected that short-form vertical video format will continue to dominate the digital sphere. We will see a lot of new trends and unique creative content that brands can benchmark on to create their own marketing campaign on different social apps, especially on TikTok.
Important tip: More than 430 million people with hearing problems or deaf people worldwide, and Facebook has recently reported that 85% of video content in the app is watched without any sound. So, in that case, we recommend putting subtitles or closed captions on your videos to make them more accessible to people with diverse backgrounds and conditions.
Branded audio content is on the rise
Audio content has become one of the key players in the digital marketing world, thanks primarily to the growing popularity of podcasts. As mentioned by the recent research by Hubspot, 74.2% of social marketers plan to invest in audio content in 2022.
Due to this, Twitter has recently launched its own audio content feature called Spaces. It allows creators and brands to create space where everyone can have real-time engagement and audio conversations together, emphasizing the importance of healthy discussion through the power of the human voice.
The following are the ways you can use Spaces:
- First, create an authentic and sincere conversation with your customers and followers.
- To strengthen your connection with your customers, make sure to connect with them during important cultural events.
- Representation is important, so make sure to uplift those who are historically underrepresented and help steer meaningful conversations.
- Get inspiration for brand promotions from the real-time conversation with your customers, followers and peers.
Ultimately, audio content has excellent flexibility. It gives an opportunity to those who might shy away from the camera to participate in meaningful conversations.
To learn more about Spaces, read our blog here.
Prioritization of company’s social responsibility and ethics
After a rough couple of years, people have finally realized the importance of brands and businesses’ social responsibility and ethics. That’s why people have begun to pay more attention to these crucial business aspects.
Social responsibility comes in many forms, from sustainable business practices and inclusive marketing campaigns to creating accessible content and participating in philanthropic causes.
The most important thing a brand needs to do is to be authentic because customers in this time and age can easily identify if a brand is sincere in its efforts or not.
To gain brand loyalty and engagement from your customers, they have to see themselves and their values in life in your business.
But how can you incorporate social responsibility into your social media marketing strategy? The answers are as follow:
Create globally accessible content: Aside from adding subtitles or closed captions to video content for people with hearing problems, you can also ensure that your brand’s published content is globally accessible by creating inclusive visuals, audio and video content. These must also be culturally sensitive and globally relevant.
Share about your brand’s involvement in causes and initiatives: If your brand makes charitable donations, has sustainable and eco-friendly practices and values inclusivity and diversity in the workforce, share all about it with your followers, subscribers and audiences.
Your content should not be all about products or services: You can either inform your audience about an aspect of your business, post some significant research and statistics, or share quotable quotes and statements relevant to your overall branding. As a matter of fact, online audiences embrace published content that gives them an insight into a brand’s identity and core values.
Participate in critical cultural moments and events: To build authentic human connections with your existing and potential customers, you must participate and be transparent in your stance on significant cultural discussions. Not to mention, there’s a 73% significant correlation between a brand’s total earnings or profit and cultural relevance.
User-Generated Content is still in the game
Content created by your customers from their first-hand experiences, suggestions, recommendations, ideas and feedback is called user-generated content (UGC).
UGC is an effective tool for brand perception and credibility, and its significance hasn’t diminished for 2022.
UGC comprises product or service reviews, recommendations, photos, videos, audio and customer feedback.
However, how can you encourage your existing and potential customers to create UGC? Simple. Encourage them to leave a product or service review and include them in brand decisions and product or service brainstorming. You can also conduct weekly, monthly or quarterly contests or giveaways and ultimately create a hashtag unique to your brand.
Live streaming is here to stay
According to App Annie, a mobile app analytics and market data company, live streaming is the forerunner of today’s social media trends. Over the last two years, the popularity of live streaming hasn’t dwindled since, thanks mainly to the drastic increase in hosting live virtual events.
Live virtual interviews, product or service launches, webinars, conferences, watch parties, live selling and product or service giveaways and raffle draws are proven to be effective to engage and communicate with your customers and encourage brand loyalty.
Aside from the fact that live streaming is an excellent way to interact with your customers authentically and engagingly, it is also more cost-effective and practical than holding a face-to-face event.
Affordable and comprehensive social media management service
Talking about social media, 75 Social offers complete, affordable, and effective social media management just for you or your brand. We are here to help your business grow and emerge from the competition in the ever-competitive and constantly changing social media landscape.
To learn more about this, simply click here.
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