Social Media Year in Review

Coming at you a few days early (because who wants to read a newsletter on New Year's Day?), this edition is all about the year-in-review. How do we make sense of social media in 2021, and figure out how to move forward? Read on.

2021 Year in Review: Seven Top Trends

1. The rise of the TikTok media format.?Not only did TikTok explode into the business and publisher scene in 2021, all the other social media platforms recognized the popularity of the TikTok format – an endless vertical video feed. The most successful copies of the format? YouTube’s?Shorts?and Instagram’s?Reels. Other product launches have been less successful: neither?Reddit’s?nor?Spotify’s video feed?have changed user behavior and Twitter’s “Fleets” product has?already been retired?(to make room for another social feature, see Trend #4). Here’s a great recap of?the “TikTok everywhere” phenomenon.
2. TikTok video features.?Not only are other platforms adopting the vertical video feed, they are quickly introducing features that are popular on TikTok.?Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram have all upgraded their in-app video editing features;?Twitter,?Instagram?and?Pinterest?have all added a “reply to comments with video” feature.
3. Social live streaming and co-watching. This trend got its first major jump in 2020 with the start of lockdown, and has proved resilient as remote work and unofficial quarantines continue. Instagram Live has turned into a go-to platform for celebrities, brands, influencers and every day users to engage in real-time, and live-streaming platform Twitch saw a 45% increase in viewership in 2021 (compared to 2020, which was also record-breaking). Watch Parties became a popular marketing tactic, organized to create social connection between family and friends watching the same thing remotely.
4. Live social shopping. If social live streaming was the trend of 2020, live social shopping was the 2021 evolution.?As Axios reports, TV shopping networks like HSN and QVC are facing new competition as social media platforms shift their focus from advertising to live shopping experiences.?Instagram,?TikTok, Snapchat, Amazon, Instagram and?Pinterest?have all launched live shopping tools in 2021, from shoppable videos to live streams with Shopify integrations.
5. Social audio. Although Clubhouse was exploding in popularity a year ago, Twitter’s?successful launch of “Spaces”?took the wind out of Clubhouse’s sails and is currently the go-to place to host live audio conversations. However, the live audio feature is being adopted by other social media and digital platforms (do we see a pattern here…?), such as Spotify (“Greenroom”) and Facebook ("Live Audio Rooms"). The New York Times has a recent feature on?the war for attention in the social audio space.
6. Make way for the Creators. Move over, influencers. Creators on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and more are now considered the most effective way for brands to engage audiences on social media. The difference is that “Creators” tend to focus on content creation and thus have smaller, niche but more passionate followings.?AdAge has a good article on the evolution of this trend.?

(Sub-trend:?Creator funds & features. Because so many Creators are making a living by creating and posting content, the?social media platforms are bending over backwards?to make their platforms a destination for Creators.?Snapchat started the ball rolling?in 2020 with its “Spotlight” program, and in 2021?Instagram launched an affiliate revenue program, TikTok created a tool for?creators to sell their own products via Shopify, and YouTube?launched its own $100 million creator fund.)

1. Instagram goes all-in on video.?Adam Mosseri’s comment that?“we’re no longer just a photo-sharing app”?in June forecasted some major investments into video features, and they came quickly in the second half of the year. In October, Instagram combined IGTV's long-form video and Instagram feed videos into a new Instagram Video tab. Since that announcement, Instagram has made its Reels video product the default video format across Facebook, Instagram, and (soon) WhatsApp. More features for Reels have followed quickly, such as auto-sync for music, video replies, video scrubbing, and a text-to-speech feature; and other launches show how the app is prioritizing video throughout the user's experience (expanding the video length limit in Stories to 60 seconds, surfacing videos in Instagram search, etc).

My 2022 Social Media Predictions

What's to come in the world of social media in 2022? Here are 10 of my best guesses.

1. TikTok strategies will be the best and easiest path to?growing new audiences in 2022.
2. Short-form vertical video?will be the media format of 2022.
3. The social audio space expands beyond live to include on-demand audio.
4. Those that can package information creatively and effectively for social consumption (for example:?Instagram slides, TikTok explainers) will see the most growth.
5. Social media “decentralization” is here – brands will no longer automatically build their social media foundation on Facebook and Twitter but instead be more savvy in choosing the platforms and approaches that work best for them.
6. People will continue to obsess about the metaverse — but developing audience growth strategies for the metaverse is way premature.
7. Those that are adept at social listening and rapid, flexible approaches to social media content and engagement will continue to succeed.
8. Social media communities, from closed (Facebook Groups and Discord servers) to open (“Toks”) will create the most trusting and lasting engagement.
9. Social shopping?will become tightly integrated with the social experience and provide opportunities even for us in public media (anyone game for a social media pledge drive?)
10. Driven by TikTok trends, there is immense opportunity for UGC and true audience collaboration on social media.

Good Advice for 2022

I pulled out some of my favorite insights from the onslaught of advice columns about social media in 2022.

• How to staff for the whims of social media? Plan for the platforms to pivot tomorrow. Take advantage of what’s popular, but don’t expect it to last. (A Media Operator)
• Social media is no longer fringe; it should be core to your brand’s marketing, reputation management, customer support, and audience development efforts. (Media Post,?Hootsuite)
• It’s never too late to start from the basics when building your social media strategy; reorient your efforts to your overall business goals and work from there. (Sprout Social)
• Live social content allows brands to connect directly with audiences where they are in an authentic and dynamic way. (A List Daily)
• Use social media creatively in 2022, such as for recruitment, shopping, live feedback, hybrid events, and augmented experiences. (Social Media Today)
• Create senior-level social media roles at your organization that will optimize the potential for social media benefits in all corners of your organization. (Sprout Social)
• Understand that the one-person social media team is a thing of the past; behind successful social media accounts now are teams with skill sets in multimedia content production, community management, customer support and marketing (Sprout Social)

Looking for more in-depth advice? Here are three comprehensive 2022 reports:

• Hootsuite’s Social Trends 2022
• Hubspot’s 2022 Marketing Industry Trends Report
• Sprout Social 2022 Social Media Marketing Predictions

My Favorite NiemanLab Predictions

Every December, NiemanLab comes out with dozens of predictions for?the next year in journalism. Here are the most relevant predictions for those working in public media, social media and audience development roles:

• “While its audience remains large and influential, public media struggles to connect with younger and more representative audiences — in both content and form.”?-Kerri Hoffman
• “Engagement and engaging [are]?the?next revenue model for newsrooms.”?-Jennifer Brandel
• “Journalists have conflated audience engagement and community engagement for way too long — and in 2022, we’ll finally start treating them as distinct, complementary newsroom functions.”?-Ariel Zirulnick
• "We’ll mitigate the risks of our often uneasy relationships with Facebook, Google, and Apple by further doubling down on diversifying our audience sources and cultivating direct relationships with readers.” –Sarah Marshall
• “Direct publishing through conversational platforms offers a mobile-native, highly interactive experience in apps and interfaces that most people are using every day.”?-Tom Trewinnard
• “It’s time to take podcast audience development seriously… We’re past the point of “If you podcast it, the audience will come.”?-Joni Deutsch
• “Every single podcast that you’d deem “a success” became successful by focusing on audience building.”?-Eric Nuzum
• “Journalists who’ve found success with young audiences show their personality outside of the newsroom, revealing what it’s like behind the scenes, and having fun while doing it.”?-Julia Munslow
• “Short-form content is the foundation of a viewer’s relationship with a journalist. One video is all it takes to start building trust with a viewer, who will recognize an engaging, personable journalist in future pieces of content.”?-Julia Munslow
• “Legacy media has stood on the tall pillars that have informed its editorial strategy for so long — but in just a few short years, creators have been able to bulldoze outdated practices and find new ways to reach audiences. They’ve learned how to cut through the clutter of content and directly serve their audiences with information that simultaneously entertains and teaches.”?-Candace Amos
• “If audience expansion and development tactics aren’t chief priorities in the new year — with detailed plans broken out for each platform — publications risk losing even more relevance.”?-Candace Amos
• “How a story is packaged today corresponds directly with the platform in which it will be consumed. It’s up to the individual reporter to recognize what each platform can do best and to exploit those qualities in the way the story is written and designed.”?-Mario Garcia