Most Important Social Media Trends for 2022

The social media landscape is, and always will be, changing. According to the recent global social trends report for 2022, the below trends are those that stood out amongst the rest. These trends have dominated the social media marketing industry so far this year, and may have you reevaluating your current marketing practices.

1. TikTok will become the most important social network for marketing (??!)

Instagram has held the #1 spot in most social marketers’ hearts for the past few years. It was growing the fastest, had the highest returns on investment (depending on your industry), and (bonus) was pretty fun to hang out on. But that’s changing now.

In January 2021, it only had 689 million users. That’s a 45% increase in less than a year.

And this comes after its largest growth spurt of all: a global user base increase of 1,157% between 2018 and 2020.

To put this into perspective, Instagram’s monthly active users grew at a rate of 6% in 2020.

Even more interesting? Google Search Trends shows that TikTok completely dominates Instagram’s short-form video content.

2. You will start spending big ad dollars on smaller networks

Of all the social media trends on this list, this one is perhaps the most surprising.

New research shows that consumers may be more receptive to advertising on smaller channels like TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest than the bigger social networks.

3. Shoppers will want expect to buy your products directly on social media

Increased social media consumption combined with stay-at-home mandates created the perfect conditions for a social shopping explosion. Which is not going away.

eMarketer predicts social commerce will be an $80 billion industry by 2025. It’s riding the coattails of equally massive e-commerce growth (an increase of 18% in 2020 alone).

4. You need to learn paid advertising (even if you don’t do ads yet)

43% of respondents said “the decline of organic reach and the need to increase paid advertising budgets” was their biggest challenge on social media. This is second only to consistently coming up with ideas for content. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) listed the decline of organic reach as their #1 challenge.

5. No one will want to talk to your brand on the phone

In a Nielsen survey commissioned by Facebook, 64% of people said they would prefer to message rather than call a business. And according to Gartner, 60% of all customer service requests will be managed via digital channels by 2023.

Despite the rise in demand, many organizations aren’t ready to deliver effective customer support over social media yet.

Which of these social media marketing trends have you seen already? Are any of these trends new to you? Whether you’ve been in the social media marketing game for a long time, or you’re a business just getting started building a social media presence, it’s important to brush up on the most current trends!

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