Social Media Trends 2022 - Expectations and Predictions
In a fast-evolving world, social algorithms function in inexplicable ways; with no assurance if current exceptional content may still work in the future. Social media has become an essential part of our lifestyles in a short period of time. What appeared as a medium to stay connected with friends and family, soon became a medium for brands and businesses to reach out to their target audience through sophisticated social media marketing strategies.
With the swift growth of such channels, various social media trends have been popularised and evolved over the years. Adapting to these advanced and upcoming trends is what helps brands keep abreast of the competition. So, without further confusion, let's take a brief look at the most crucial social media marketing trends for 2022 to skyrocket your business.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing will dominate this year, and continue to do so in the future too. After all, the way through which businesses and influencers collaborate will inevitably evolve in the coming years.
Brands see the potential of working with influencers not just for a sole promotion post, rather, collaborating over a sequence of social media promotion posts. By corresponding efforts into promoting the content made by these influencers, influencer marketing will boom in popularity
Business giants are expected to collaborate with niche bloggers and micro-influencers to establish inclusivity and transparency in their promotion strategies. This also indicates that businesses will be tentative in picking influencers and crackdown imposters relying on fake followers.
When it comes to backing branded products or services, influencers must always keep up by posting pictures promoting their associated brands. They also have to put equal efforts into content creation for businesses, concentrating more on long-form content, such as, how-to videos, photo stories, etc.
Social media platforms are now extending exclusive monetisation options for influencers to help back their vigorous work leveraging brands. In a recent social media trend, many social media channels like Facebook and Youtube have introduced a paid subscription model for followers to receive exclusive content from their favourite influencers.
Video Content Continues to Boom
Video content may be the most engaging form of social media content today, asit continues to boom in the long run. In fact, businesses are swiftly shifting to video content and prioritising it more than written content and images.
Many businesses are also considering bringing in premium video-based content to attract more clients. Videos can expeditiously grab the attention of people and keep them in front of their screens.
After the success of Tik Tok, Instagram has also initiated a similar feature very recently, called “Reels”, where the users can record and share short videos. It is likely that more social platforms will launch additional features that’ll support video content creation in the future too.
Growing Ad Budgets
Social media evolves day by day in its influence on the marketing field. Due to the pandemic, most businesses were forced to limit their marketing activities and started spending some of their marketing budgets on social media paid ads.
These new marketing strategies have helped businesses reach their target audience better than previous strategies that didn’t involve social media marketing. As the most recent trends say, in 2021, global brands have increased their paid advertising budgets, both for Instagram and Facebook; highlighting the success of social media marketing.
This trend towards social media marketing is predicted to grow into 2022, as the money spent on paid ads grows year after year. For now, Instagram ads are more appropriate for building up brand awareness, while Facebook ads are built for conversion purposes. However, the thriving interest in Instagram marketing may be a clear sign of where the future of social media paid ads lies.
Adapting to AR and VR Technology
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have become the latest social media trends in 2022, as businesses try to extend an exciting user experience. Many e-commerce businesses have adapted to AR-powered e-commerce, favouring users to try-on products before purchasing them. This will help customers make deliberate purchase choices before investing.
Facebook's announcement of the Metaverse has brought AR and VR technology into the mainstream; flooding endless resources into AR and VR gadgets and operating systems.
Platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, etc allow people to apply various filters to their pictures or videos and have included the creation of logos or mascots for personal display pictures.
Top technology firms are producing VR gear available to users at an economical price, which can be used to enjoy a mesmerising gaming experience.
While there are still many advancements needed in the VR and AR arena;, VR and AR technology will become entirely mainstream and complement the user experience by many folds.
There are a lot of social media trends that will rule this year and will have a huge impact on brands and their target audiences. If you haven’t adapted to these latest trends, now it is time to leverage your business on social media and stay ahead of the competition.
