NCET Biz Tips: 2022 Social Media Predictions
Cinammon Davies
As we continue to survive together in this pandemic, we look for meaningful ways to maintain connections through the thriving landscape of social media. Here are six predictions for Social Media in 2022!
1. Top Platforms: Facebook will remain the top platform for time spent and volume of users, but Tik Tok is on track to scale to 1.5B users which would be unprecedented growth for any social platform. Meaning marketers will begin to shift more of their attention, efforts, and budgets to Tik Tok’s budding e-commerce potential.
2. Social Careers: Businesses will recognize the importance of employing a social team versus resting the task of social management upon one person’s shoulders. Moreover, senior positions in marketing will begin to require social marketing experience as a must and no longer a “nice to have.”
3. E-Commerce: According to Visa, one in four online purchases are made via an interaction with a social media platform. Facebook and Instagram have been experimenting with in-stream shopping by making conditions easier for consumers to complete their transaction without leaving the Facebook and Instagram platforms. Expect to see more innovation in this space to improve the online shopping experience including advances in AR to increase consumer confidence in purchases.
4. Social Tipping: Platforms like DeSo are experimenting with combining crypto currency plus social activity amongst creators and participants to facilitate social tipping. Essentially audiences will be able to tip creators directly for content they appreciate. Likewise, creators will be able to price their levels of interaction with their audiences according to what they feel their time and talent is worth. It’s an interesting shift that removes the ad revenue stream equation and elevates the notion of audience participation to a pay-to-play arena, all while deepening the connection between creators and audiences. Expect to see more pronounced relationships between social media and crypto currency as this space continues to evolve.
5. Influencers and Virality: Trends used to be set by a few trend setters and then trickled down to the masses. Now everyday users can have viral moments that set trends in big ways. An example of this is a London dating app called Thursday that paid a man to wear a sign stating he cheated on his girlfriend on Thursday, and this was his punishment. Onlookers snapped photos of this spectacle and began to spread it among their channels of choice. The brand capitalized on this user generated content for their brand and doubled their number of weekly downloads. Inspiring user generated content that is authentic will be key for brands that want to stay in front of consumers that are becoming numb to traditional marketing strategies. Likewise, there will be a push for campaign creators to consider the virality potential of their campaign work at the ideation phase.
6. Video Formats: Vertical video formats could become the norm. While I personally appreciate anyone who turns their camera horizontally to allow me to see more of the east and west of a screen, versus a hard skinny north and south perspective, the sheer volume of video that is created exclusively for social media is undeniable. With social media commanding so much of our screentime it has the power to shape our perspectives of what we consider “normal.” Expect to continue to see more vertical videos as creators abandon the 16:9 aspect ratio while creating content for the social platforms of their choice.
Cinammon Davies is a Senior Dealer Success Consultant at Cox Automotive (coxautoinc.com), a global company that makes buying, selling, owning, and using cars easier for everyone, and NCET’s VP of Newsletters and Social Media.
NCET is Northern Nevada’s largest member-supported non-profit that produces educational and networking events to help people explore businesses and technology. (www.NCET.org)