While using social media as a marketing tool is nothing new, our society saw a huge upheaval in 2020 that helped make social media marketing even more useful and profitable than it was before.
Let’s explore 5 ways social media marketing will likely be trending in 2022:
Video content
Video content took the cake in 2021. This trend was primarily driven by TikTok and Instagram Reels. We’re a visual culture, and people enjoy being able to watch what’s happening in real-time, as this can make them feel closer to the action than simply reading about it. This trend is likely to continue through 2022 and beyond. A HubSpot survey noted that around 30 percent of marketers are planning to put their investments in short-form video. Of these marketers, 33 percent will be using short-form video for the first time.
Short-form video is effective because it’s engaging and easily cross-posted. That said, long-form video should not be crossed off your list. These videos can often be repurposed into short-form pieces.
Personalization & brand connections
For successful social media engagement, there must be some acknowledgment of the human doing the scrolling. This means that even though you’re a business engaging with another business, you have to do so on a more personal level to incorporate the people into the equation. One easy way to do this is through storytelling, which you can accomplish by producing relatable content and videos.
Utilizing boosted and focused ads
In a survey from HubSpot, over half the marketers surveyed said they’re planning to increase their investment in social media ads in 2022. Other findings from the HubSpot survey showed that Facebook provided the biggest return on investment (ROI) and that 25 percent of marketers were considering investing more in Facebook ads.
TikTok has also made a big splash. While it only ranks 6th in terms of social media marketer usage, 62 percent of those who use it said they’re planning to increase their investment. This is the highest of any platform.
Utilizing smaller platforms
Speaking of TikTok, it and other smaller platforms, such as LinkedIn and Pinterest, have become more widely used in recent years by marketers. This is due, in large part, to their highly visual nature. Some reports show there’s been an 8 percent increase in users visiting Pinterest.
Building a social community
Social communities aren’t new; however, they’re now being used in ways that allow for a deeper connection between businesses and audiences. Facebook has recently released new features that make it even easier to connect. Businesses that create their own business-to-business (B2B) communities create a stronger connection to their target audience.
