Social media changes and trends for 2022

By Rachel Luke

There are 4.62 billion social media users around the world , a number that has grown by 77 million since last year, with the average daily use being 2 hours 27 minutes.1 Mind-blowing, right?

So, as a business, it makes complete sense to have a strong social media presence, even more so now in 2022 compared to last year. A key point to note is that the average person uses 7.5 social media platforms,1 so you might want to use more than one for your business. And when you’re deciding which to use, take into account the world’s most used social platforms: Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram. People do use different apps for different purposes, so it’s important to not just use the same posts across all platforms.

Okay, so you understand that social media is important for your business, but what’s changed in 2022 and what are the trends?

Well, it’s impossible to predict the trends for the whole year, but we know one thing is for certain… … short-form video is here to stay.

We all remember TikTok exploding onto the scene in 2020; in fact, it was the soundtrack to many people’s first lockdown. Many predicted it would be a flash in the pan (just like Clubhouse) but, here in 2022, TikTok is the 6th most popular social media network.1 In response, Instagram rolled out Reels – its version of this short-form video trend, and the popularity of those is still rising rapidly. In February 2022, Facebook launched Reels worldwide, so now Facebook users as well as Instagram users will be able to watch your Reels, reaching even more people than before. I highly recommend having a go at short-form video content. It can be used on so many networks and is great for brand awareness and audience building.

There is another trend that is common across all social media channels and that is…

… nostalgia for millennials.

Millennials are now reaching the age where nostalgia creates a hugely emotive response, and many posts that tap into this market are going viral – just look at all the song recognition challenges and the music being used for videos. If you can stimulate nostalgia within us millennials, you’ll be quids in!

IT’S ALL ABOUT COMMUNITY

Groups are one of the most popular parts of the Facebook platform, with over 1.8 billion people using them regularly, 2 and let’s not forget about the communities on TikTok like PlantTok, CleanTok, and pretty much any other community you can think of. Twitter has even started testing a feature called Communities. If you can build a community around your brand, your marketing efforts will do really well, but don’t underestimate the amount of work a good community takes to build and maintain.

SOCIAL COMMERCE

Did you know that, after search engines, the second most important place people research a brand is on social media? Almost 60% of internet users (aged 16–64) buy something online every single week.3 Having an active presence with visible reviews is absolutely key to tick the boxes of these people doing research on your brand online. That dusty Facebook page you’ve not posted on for 2 years just won’t give an aura of confidence, will it?

METAVERSE

In case you haven’t heard, the Facebook parent company has rebranded to Meta, and you might have noticed that Facebook Business Suite is now called Meta Business Suite. But what is Meta and the Metaverse? The Metaverse is an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. (If you’ve seen/ read Ready Player One, you’ll have a bit more of an idea of where we’re heading!) It’s not going to impact us too much in 2022 and not from a business perspective, yet. But it’s one change that we’re going to start to notice more of from now on. INSTAGRAM FEED CHOICES

Something users have been asking about for a long time is the ability to have their chronological feed back on Instagram, and this has finally been delivered in 2022. Businesses panicked, but it doesn’t seem as though too many people are using the feature, opting to stick with the normal settings they’ve had for years now. Will this change as more people realise it’s an option? Perhaps, and this is where building community around your business is key, as it will promote you to someone people want to see more of in their feeds rather than just a business.

HASHTAGS

Hashtags are an area of social media where use and trends are ever-evolving. At the time of writing, #aesthetic is a trending hashtag and rising rapidly, but as language evolves, so will hashtag use. If you keep an eye on language use (especially among your target audience), you will be able to keep on top of the most current hashtags. And don’t forget, you should check your hashtags every 3–6 months to make sure their use hasn’t evolved and now mean something completely different to what you intend them to. I’ve had clients learn the hard way about this one!

TWITTER

Twitter is trialling several new features in 2022, such as downvotes – the ability to record reaction videos (shortform video again!) and more options for Super Followers (a way for creators to create subscriber-only content).

CONCLUSION

Hopefully these tips will get you started on what’s new in social media for 2022. But, it can be hard to keep track of the current trends and changes on social media, which is where a social media manager (SMM) comes in. If you feel overwhelmed by your socials, you can bring in an expert to help. An SMM can help you create and plan content, build brand recognition, manage engagement, build a relationship with your audience, and increase traffic to your social pages. So don’t feel you have to do it all alone if this is a task you would rather outsource. Outsourcing to an expert can save a lot of time and help drive business results.

RACHEL LUKE CREATING INSTAGRAM CONTENT

About the author Rachel Luke, Social Media Expert and Virtual Assistant

You can find me online at contact@rachelluke.co.uk www.rachelluke.co.uk rachellukeva rachellukeva

References 1 www.hootsuite.widen.net/s/xf2mbffsbq/digital-2022-toptakeaways 2 www.facebook.com/community/whats-new/power-virtualcommunities 3 www.hootsuite.widen.net/s/xf2mbffsbq/digital-2022-toptakeaways