Top 5 Social Media Trends Your Business Needs to Know in 2022

When looking at marketing techniques, it’s hard to ignore social media. Just about any online marketing strategy will involve social media in one way or another and it's a trend that is only growing in significance.

This trend has been accelerated by the pandemic, MarketingCharts has shown advertisers ad spend on social media increased 25% YoY in 2021 to a total of $137bn, taking over paid search for the first time which saw $135bn spent.

So moving in 2022, it's safe to assume social media will be a significant part of most online businesses' internet advertising. So how can you best leverage this for your online business? The following blog looks into social media trends going into 2022, so you too can take advantage of social media.

1. TikTok is Set to (Continue to) Take Over

With TikTok overtaking Google as the most searched web URL in 2021, it’s safe to say that TikTok has already taken over. But despite its meteoric rise, don’t expect things to slow down any time soon.

The great thing about TikTok is it doesn’t have boundaries and just about any sort of content can make it viral there. In fact, self expression and being yourself is a fundamental part of a lot of the content that goes viral on TikTok. This should be leveraged for your business.

TikTok offers a great opportunity to put some character behind your brand and connect with people on a more personal level. To do this, create content that is humorous, relatable, informative and snackable. But most importantly, don’t be too serious.

To succeed on TikTok you need to have an understanding of who your audience/potential customers are and be a part of the conversations they are in. Identify your target customer and then get involved in the posts they are interested in, engage with them in the comments and most importantly create similar content yourself.

One viral video on TikTok, which these days seems pretty achievable, can make a massive impact on your business.

2. Social Ads will Increase as the Demise of the Cookie Begins

Advertising as we know it will be turned on its head in 2022 as Google begins to phase out the cookie. Cookies have been an essential tool used by marketers for years - allowing them to track visitors on websites and learn more about their users in order to optimise the user experience and collect data which allows for marketers to better target ads. You can learn more about Google’s plan to phase out the cookie and the potential implications it has on this HubSpot article.

So what will be the main implication of the killing of the cookie? Well for years, the use of cookies has made advertisers lives a lot easier because of its ability to translate into targeted advertising. So without cookies, advertisers will have to really make an effort to build meaningful connections with their current and future customers.

The brands that will succeed are those that are able to use consumer insights and social ads to really create an impact with the content and advertising channels being used. Paid social advertising and email advertising will grow in significance. But, gone are the days of shotgun advertising (blasting the same message to everyone and anyone) and now sniper advertising will become more important than ever. Sniper advertising involves building customer relationships and providing hyper relevant content to the right audiences.

Brands need to start creating super specific content, targeting specific audiences based on what is important to them. This may involve creating specific content for a given age, location, gender, hobby, etc.

3. Straight to Purchase - A New Paradigm

Straight to purchase involves consumers having the ability to purchase items directly from social media sites. We have already seen the likes of Facebook begin the trend to allow consumers to shop on social media with Facebook Marketplace and the likes of TikTok offering shopping links. With hashtags like #TikTokmademebuyit creating a real buzz online, the potential of shopping on social media has only really just begun.

According to BlogWiki, 49% of internet users say they are likely to buy brands they see advertised when browsing online. However, it is common knowledge that consumers' attention spans are very short which is a massive contributing factor to shopping cart abandonment.

The potential for consumers to make direct purchases through social media taps into consumers' short attention spans and allows for them to make impulse purchases with less hesitation. However, similarly to point 2 - the success of straight to purchase largely depends on a business ability to deliver personalised ad experiences which taps into the needs and wants consumers already have in their minds.

4. Social Listening

Social listening is the practice of analysing social media to determine the popularity/thoughts and opinions of a particular brand. In 2022, social listening and social intelligence will grow in significance.

Think back to point 2 and the death of the cookie. Cookies make it easy to drive sales through targeted ads and means the need to build brand awareness, brand affiliation and a community around a brand can somewhat be avoided. Obviously, this is currently still important, but as mentioned brands can still drive sales without doing this. This will change when Google removes the cookie.

Now internet brands are going to be more actively required to perform social listening practices in order to see the full picture of their industry and audience and importantly the implications of how this impacts how they position themselves within this landscape.

In order to do this brands will need to have a thorough understanding of their current and future customers' consumer insights. With this in mind, brands are able to leverage social listening to better position their brand and drive sales. This can especially be achieved through the likes of video, with 84% of consumers saying they have been convinced to buy a product after watching a video.

So leverage consumer insights and social listening to build a better understanding of your brands positioning and then act on this by promoting your brand to your target audience with methods such as video.

5. Influencer Marketing is Only Growing in Significance

Influencer marketing is something that not all online marketers consider when it comes to promoting their products. Despite this, InfluencerMarketingHub has show that it is undoubtedly a growing market with influencer marketing spend increasing from $9.7bn in 2016 to $13.8bn in 2021. This is expected to increase to over $15bn in 2022 - signifying the growth influencer marketing is seeing.

With nearly half of all consumers relying on influencer opinions before making a decision, it is clearly a space that is ripe for opportunity. So how can your business take advantage of this opportunity in 2022?

Well, the key to being successful in influencer marketing is to really look at your target audience and find out what type of influencers they are likely to be engaging with but more importantly what kind of influencers are likely to have an impact on their decision to make a purchase.

For example, a lot of men follow female influencers for their bikini pics and selfies, however, if you are a brand selling bulking protein powder, using a female influencer to target males would be somewhat redundant despite their clear reach. Instead, you would focus on male influencers in the health and fitness space. Specifically, those that provide good advice on gym and nutrition and have the type of physique that a product such as a bulking protein powder would help achieve.

Picking the influencers also comes down to understanding the main goals and outcomes you want to achieve from an influencer campaign. Is it to create a more loyal customer? Creating more community engagement? Driving sales? Increased ROI?

Whatever it is, make sure that the influencers you reach out to align with the bigger picture of your brand.

How Can My Business Benefit From these Trends?

So now you know what trends will be big for social media in 2022, what can you take away from this?

The main takeaway is that 2022 will bring a lot of opportunity to brands who really understand their customers. This goes beyond knowing who their customers are. It is about understanding what your current and future customers are looking for in terms of the type of advertising, the type of content and the marketing channel to reach them.

Having a better understanding of consumer insights related to your target market, especially when you can do this across demographics will allow for hyper tailored marketing which can address individual wants, desires and pain points and maximise effectiveness.

Wondering how you can get these consumer insights? Check out our solutions page, where you can see how surveying your customer can provide insights regarding product, brand, digital marketing and everything in between.