As social media professionals, nothing excites us more than keeping up with the latest trends and innovations in the industry. Every so often, we pick up new developments that change the way humans interact with each other and brands online.

Trends are determined by huge, seismic shifts in society, and the last two years have been exactly that. So if you’re feeling like a different person two years into a pandemic, imagine how the digital world has changed.

If you missed our 2022 Social Media Trends Webinar, check it out below:

What’s around to stay?

Marketing trends change are always changing, but that doesn’t mean that the old trends don’t stop happening just because the calendar’s rolled forward one year.

Some of the biggest trends that we saw in 2021 are following us into 2022.

• Social media platforms are still favouring video content. This means that posts published with a video automatically perform significantly better.
• Using platform functionality is still the key to boosting organic engagement. Incorporate functions like tagging, links, hashtags, visual uploads, collaborations etc to give your content a better shot at performing well.
• YouTube has grown to the second largest social media platform by monthly active users.
• Impact marketing is what consumers are looking for. This means that your brands need to support a cause or have something you believe in. 
• Shopping on social media is not only growing, but becoming more accessible. 
• Last year we picked up the trend of Pinterest’s return to glory, and the platform is still growing. Another cool development is the rise and recognition of Pinterest influencers. 

What’s different?

Now let’s talk about what’s changing in social media

• There are now more than 4½ billion social media users around the world, and that equates to an average of 13 new users starting to use social media for the first time every single second.
• QR, AR, and VR are the sectors most likely to see a rapid-scale expansion as brands connect the physical world to the virtual. 
• The latest research shows that more than 1 in 5 internet users aged 16 to 64 around the world now listens to a podcast each week.
• Something keeping us on our toes as digital marketers is the significant increases in the cost of social media ads. Advertisers are spending on average 14 percent more on social media ads than they did a year ago.
• Facebook pages can now expect an average engagement rate of just 0.07 percent. That means that – on average – just 7 followers out of every 10,000 that you have will react to, comment on, or share any given post, organically. 

What’s new by platform:

Facebook: 

• With Facebook’s re-branding to Meta, it will continue to dominate the social media space. 
• Meta’s metaverse is a fully-realised computer-generated world with augmented, virtual and mixed reality technologies in which users are not just scrolling, posting and commenting, but interacting. 
• More than 4 billion video views take place on Facebook every day.
• 93% of all social media marketers are now using Facebook ads for marketing and competition is growing. 
• Ads in Facebook Marketplace are now reaching more than 560 million users each month, equating to more than a quarter of the platform’s total ad reach.

Instagram:

• This year one of the biggest changes we can expect is the switch back to the chronological feed on Instagram. 
• 70% of Instagram users watch Stories daily, this is a good space to post content to improve your reach. 
• Online shopping on this platform will continue to grow as Instagram Shop demand increases. Social commerce will be an $80 billion dollar industry by 2025.
• Ads in Instagram’s “home feed” reach almost all (96.6 percent) of Instagram’s active user base each month, so these placements remain the surest way to reach the largest Instagram audience.

Twitter: 

• Twitter’s timeline generates a 31% higher emotional connection and 28% higher levels of memorability versus the social media average. 
• Videos are a cornerstone of the platform’s appeal, and Tweets with videos get 10x more engagement. 
• We have also seen the growth of Twitter Spaces. This is a functionality in the app, where live audio conversations happen. 
• The popularity of Twitter Spaces also means new updates are being introduced regularly for users to engage with speakers, and ticketing is now also available for those who want to monetize their Spaces.

TikTok: 

• Because TikTok is so new in SA, there’s so much opportunity to break through. 
• If your audience is between the ages of 18 to 24, you can no longer afford not to be on TikTok.
• The latest data suggests that TikTok has been adding an average of more than 650,000 new users every day over the past 3 months, which equates to almost 8 new users every second.
• TikTok ads now enable marketers to reach:
  • 10 percent of the world’s total population, regardless of age or location
  • 15 percent of everybody aged 18 and above, regardless of location
• Meanwhile, TikTok’s content-focused algorithm means that the platform’s billion-plus users now have significantly more chance of being exposed to content created by someone on the other side of the world than they would on platforms where algorithms prioritise a user’s social graph

LinkedIn: 

• LinkedIn’s registered member base has increased by 11 percent over the last 12 months.
• LinkedIn Influencers are also on the rise, with over 180 million senior-level influencers now on this platform.
• A popular trend we’ve been discussing alot at Pomegranite is the 4-step formula to writing a viral, high-traction LinkedIn post. We’ve found that this can be hit and miss, but it’s helped users better understand how the platform’s algorithm works.
• 99% of LinkedIn search traffic still originates from organic search. Meaning that networking and word of mouth still plays a large role in visibility on the platform.

YouTube: 

• The platform now accounts for the greatest total time spent using social media apps on Android phones, and it also clocks the highest average time per user.
• Not only has YouTube closed the gap with Facebook over the past year, the platform’s audience is actively growing almost twice as fast as Facebook’s.
• In fact, YouTube has grown so significantly that ads on the platform now have the potential to reach roughly 1 in 3 people on Earth. 

Although these new trends and rapid developments can feel overwhelming, our advice is to stay in the loop (like you’re doing now) with what’s trending, but place your focus on how to make the best use of what you already have access to.  

Don’t get us wrong; the metaverse has plenty of future business potential, but I doubt that either will be the answer to your marketing woes in 2022.

So, do yourself a mental health favour: set some time to keep up with social trends but focus the majority of your time and attention on the things that will ensure you succeed today, and feel free to make some time with us to talk strategy for the year ahead.