10 Social Media Marketing Trends To Watch Out For In 2022
Updated on: 21 January 2022
If you have been using social media over the past few years, you have most likely noticed the increasing popularity of social media as an effective marketing channel. As a matter of fact, social media is becoming the most popular media platform nowadays. This is because it has given enterprises of all sizes unlimited opportunities to connect with new audiences.
Additionally, social media marketing can boost your website’s organic traffic, which means that it can reinforce your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
Social media as a marketing channel
Social media has proven to be better than traditional media in promoting brands, reaching a wider audience, and converting leads
· Wider customer reach
In 2017, there were 4.4 million social media users in Singapore alone. This year, it has increased to 5.2 million and is estimated to reach 5.6 million by 2025. These figures only prove that the number of people using Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok, and other platforms daily continues to increase. This also means that social media is the perfect platform to reach out to a wider audience and even grow your business globally.
· Establish your brand name
It can increase brand visibility and recognition, too. Through such platforms, you can drive more traffic to your website, making your brand more popular.
· Improve customer service
Through social media, you can connect with your audience on a personal level. They can directly interact and engage with your brand, allowing you to get to know your followers a little better. They can give feedback on your page, allowing you to improve your products and services and increase customer retention.
· Cut down on marketing costs
Because using social media is cost-effective, you’ll be able to save money on your marketing spend. For one, setting up accounts on any social media platform is free. Social media ads are also relatively cheaper.
Social media marketing trends to look into in 2022
Social media marketing does offer boundless and endless opportunities to all kinds of businesses. This is why it’s important that you keep yourself updated with the biggest trends to ensure that you’ll be able to keep up with your competitors.
1. Bite-sized content to continue its upward trend
People’s attention span when on the internet has dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds since 2000. While people are spending more time on social media, they are spending less time engaging with content. This is why various social media platforms have shifted to offering bite-sized content, such as Instagram Reels or short videos. Leveraging short entertaining videos is one way to align your social media marketing strategy with people’s decreasing attention span.
2. Niche Facebook experiences will be more in-demand
Facebook has over 2.9 billion active users every month. However, Facebook users are demanding experiences in smaller communities or subcultures. These niche Facebook groups can help businesses deepen their relationships with their audience.
For one, you can take advantage of the new features of Facebook groups, including being able to create subgroups, sell merchandise, create community fundraisers, and host admin features, to make your groups more appealing to both members and admins alike. Another way to create niche communities is to use Live Audio Rooms, which allows you to connect more intimately with your followers. Also, Facebook Live gives you a unique opportunity to connect with your audience in real-time.
3. Social commerce will keep on expanding
Social commerce will keep rolling out to keep up with how consumers shop for goods and services online. Aside from being accustomed to purchasing online and picking up the goods curbside or scheduling an appointment, people now want to be able to buy the products they want as quickly as possible. This is why social media channels have integrated social commerce, which allows consumers to buy directly from posts on social media.
4. Augmented Reality becoming more popular
More and more people are becoming increasingly interested in Augmented Reality (AR). While 4 in 10 adults say they have not used nor are interested in using AR or Virtual Reality (VR), 23% of those say they are quite interested to do so, according to a study in the United States. This means that marketers should use AR to enhance customer experience.
5. Personalized and personable experiences
Personalization will continue to be a game-changer in all areas of marketing, including social media marketing. Even before, a majority of consumers say that they are more likely to engage with brands with customized marketing messages. This is why virtually all marketers are investing in improving their personalization efforts.
Brands are personalizing social media experience through laser-targeted ad campaigns. This is done by using collective customer data, which includes persona, behavior, location, etc. to segment your audience and create and deliver highly personalized ads. By focusing on marketing to specific segments, such as using geotargeting to maximise advertising ROI – it’ll help boost your overall marketing strategy. Similarly, brands are personalizing their audience’s social media experiences by using chatbots. This allows organizations to connect with their audiences through messaging apps that make people feel more at ease.
6. TikTok to dominate the social media world
Since the pandemic started in 2020, one of the most popular apps in the entire internet-verse has been TikTok. Over the last two years, it has seen unprecedented growth. The social media platform has become quite famous in that it has enjoyed a 61% increase in mentions. It was the first non-Facebook app to reach 3 million downloads worldwide.
While others thought that it could be another passing trend, statistics show otherwise. In fact, HubSpot believes TikTok will offer never-before-seen opportunities to allow businesses to engage with audiences directly. This ever-increasing popularity has motivated the more established social media platforms, like YouTube and Instagram, to find new content forms that will effectively entice the TikTok generation.
7. Number one goal: to reach new audiences
In 2021, research shows that the primary goals of most social media marketers were to boost sales (34%), increase brand awareness/customer reach (34%), and level up the promotion of products/services (35%). This year, 76% of the marketers say their goals will most likely change: 39% say they want to reach more audiences; 33% foster relationships and increase brand loyalty; improve customer service and retention (32%).
This means that brands are contemplating how they can reach new customers/audiences through different social media platforms, increase brand loyalty, and ensure customer retention.
8. Videos to be more engaging, more effective
Studies show that by this year, 82% of all web content will be dominated by video content. This means that it’s high time you start investing in video content strategy to reach your social media marketing goals in 2022.
Short-form vertical videos, in particular, will be more in-demand this year. Thanks to the rise of TikTok and Instagram Reels, marketers now have more engaging, more effective content to market their products and services and to drive sales. Aside from that, videos can help highlight products, increase brand awareness, and share the causes that different brands care about. More and more brands have used video content to connect to new and existing customers on a deeper level. This is why experts believe that there will be more creative video content this year.
9. Memes will be even bigger
Memes whether static or videos have been quite popular. Marketing experts believe that memes are going to be even bigger this year and in the coming years. This is because you can find a lot of memes that are so relatable and thus, shareable.
What makes memes effective as a marketing tool is that they are a great way for brands to connect with their audiences and engage in trending conversations. On top of that, they don’t need to be professionally made. There are lots of meme generators that can be used to start sharing fun and engaging memes with your audiences.
10. Influencer marketing to be more mature
Since the start of 2020, the number of unfiltered and everyday influencers has increased. Consumers also started to trust influencers more in their opinions on different brands. This is why influencer marketing has become a strong marketing avenue brands should be exploring.
Social media marketing experts say that the rise of influencers in platforms will continue, especially for spaces where brands have a harder time establishing themselves, particularly TikTok. Influencer marketing will become an increasingly crucial part of increasing business sales. However, to be able to tap into the powers of such a marketing strategy, it’s important for brands to partner with influencers that make the most sense for them. These can be influencers that specialize in niche topics and those with smaller but more engaged audiences.
Conclusion
If you haven’t started adapting to the social media marketing trends mentioned above, then now is the perfect time to do so. However, it’s important that you start small and test every strategy you include in your marketing plan. This is to ensure that you won’t be wasting precious marketing money.
To recap, you need to leverage video, create relatable content, personalize messages, take advantage of influencer marketing, use memes, start getting on TikTok, and use augmented reality to increase brand awareness and boost sales in 2022 and beyond.