5 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TRENDS & PREDICTIONS TO WATCH OUT FOR IN 2022

January 24, 2022 | Fox Tales

It’s that time of the year again. Surprisingly, 2021 seemed to have drawn on endlessly but also seems to have gone by in a blink. Multiple lockdowns and staggered reopening may have fundamentally changed the way that businesses operate (yassss to WFH and hybrid work schedules!) but what has remained unchanged is the impact and importance of social media marketing for businesses! If anything, social media has only increased its influence on consumers, industries, and markets. Social media trends dominated the marketing landscape in 2021, and as its prevalence continues to grow, social media marketers have realized that their jobs are so much more than just creating and scheduling content- they are responsible for building shared experiences and culture on the internet!

So, for all the social media aficionados, here are 5 trends predictions for 2022:

1. Reels Continue to Reign Supreme: Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the reels feature on Instagram is insanely popular! So much so that Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, recently said that the social media platform is embracing a paradigm shift where users are asking for more entertaining video content. It has been consistently observed that reels are the top performing organic and paid creatives on Instagram in 2021, and this will continue well into 2022. If you have not jumped on the #ReelItFeelIt bandwagon yet, now is the time. But remember that even on reels, your content should provide value to your audience and should remain authentic to your brand voice and offerings. Blindly hopping on to trending reels (remember bachpan ka pyaar?) without aligning them to your marketing goals will not work.

2. Long Form Content Will Make a Comeback: While 2021 was undoubtedly the year for short-form content (Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc.), there was a subtle change happening across all social media platforms that skewed towards longer content. Instagram Reels extended to 60 seconds, Clubhouse (long-form audio lives) gained popularity, Twitter came out with Spaces and even Facebook introduced Live Audio Rooms (in addition to the Live feature on both Instagram and Facebook for longer content). Clearly, longer content formats are making a comeback and is worth paying attention to in 2022.

3. Social Commerce and Influencer Marketing Dominate Social Media: A quick look at the number of new features Instagram released in 2021 shows that the platform (and other social channels) are investing very heavily in social commerce and content-creation tools! We expect this to grow in 2022, leading to an increase in influencer marketing and social selling, both of which dominated social media in the last year. This will make it even more important for businesses and brands to be mindful of their content and messaging on social media, and business owners (even smaller ones) will be forced to learn and use Instagram as a legitimate sales tool.

4. LinkedIn Skews Towards Social and Leans into Video: Although traditionally viewed as a professional networking platform, LinkedIn has moved towards social networking over the last few years. In 2021, the platform introduced Creator Mode for personal profiles allowing for enhanced content creation- access to LinkedIn Live, the ability to publish newsletters, and subsequently the ability to build a base of followers. Video marketing also grew tremendously on LinkedIn in 2021 especially after the platform acquired a short-form tutorial company called Jumprope that allows creators to share short tutorial videos in a style like YouTube Shorts. LinkedIn is fast becoming a valuable place for video marketing content with a great ROI!

5. Paid Social May Become Indispensable: Think about all the brands, influencers, content creators and businesses that are vying for audience attention on social media. The stories, the posts, the polls, the reels, the videos- social media clutter is real! With all these constantly growing, let’s face it- in 2022, you must amplify your social media content with paid ads, or it simply will not make it to your audience’s feed. For 2022, your best bet would be to include a monthly budget for paid advertising on social to help you grow and reach your target audience.

These are our predictions for 2022. As a social media marketer or consumer, what do you think will work well this year? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section!

(The Author of this article is Nikita D’Souza, Sr. Social Media Manager, Bombay Fox)