Over the past two years there has been a shift in the ways brands promote their products or services on social media. Long gone are the days of the humble status update, now brands focus on social commerce and growing digital communities.

While it feels like new social media features and trends are never-ending, they give you the opportunity to experiment and connect with your audience in a different way.

Below are 7 research-backed trends businesses should watch and leverage in 2022.

Creator Economy 

Many platforms have started to heavily invest in creator marketplaces and tools – and with the creator economy booming, now worth over $100 billion it’s easy to see why!

Aligning your brand with the right type of content creator or influencer can help build community, brand awareness and increase brand affinity. Content creators act as ambassadors for a particular brand, helping to improve customer outreach by creating content that aligns with your brand whilst promoting it. Influencers focus more on engagement and community-building and typically have a following. 

Social Ads

Brands need to be more creative with their ads and make them flow seamlessly within the platform they’re advertising on, as consumers are now wise to ads on social media. Advertisements aren’t readily welcomed by many (especially Millennials and Gen Z) so focusing on engaging ads that entice the consumer to click through is vital.

The Power of Communities

Fostering and growing a digital community around your business is one of the key trends to focus on in 2022. Like-minded individuals are coming together online, bonding over shared interests (no matter how obscure), having meaningful conversations, and influencing each other. This is what makes these communities so impactful—and by finding existing communities that your brand naturally fits into, you can join the conversation to build trust and earn support. 

Better yet, by partnering with creators in those communities and leveraging their influence, you can get closer to and better engage with your audience where they feel most

inspired and excited online.

Social Commerce 

Social commerce is a subset of e-commerce where everything happens on social media – product discovery, click-to-purchase, and post-purchase support. Shoppers on social media aren’t just scrolling feeds and clicking “buy now” buttons on sponsored ads for consumer packaged goods. They’re using social media for every stage of the purchase journey, across almost every product category.

Social networks are now the second most important channel for online brand research, after search engines, according to the Hootsuite and We Are Social’s Digital 2021 report. What’s more, if we look at people aged 16 to 24, social networks actually rank even higher than search engines like Google when it comes to brand research.

TikTok

It’s no surprise that short-form video content is here to stay in 2022. With TikTok being incredibly influential even if you don’t have an account. This is where trends start and can translate to creating content for other platforms.

Tiktok has increased as an effective platform for reaching business goals from 3% last year to 24%, according to Hootsuites 2022 survey. 36% of marketers plan to increase their investment in TikTok as per the same survey.

Rise of Web 3.0 

Metaverse is positioned to be the next big way for brands to connect with their consumers and it will become consumers’ preferred way to try-on products and interact with brands. This will require a big team and large budget to test this feature. We suggest keeping an eye on the space and seeing how other businesses are using AR (Augmented Reality) before diving in.

User Generated Content (UGC) 

According to the TINT User-Generated Content 2022 Report there is a lot of untapped potential around UGC, as 72% of consumers believe that UGC is more credible than branded content. 

Consumers want more personalised content, personalised shopping experiences and product recommendations. Reviews and testimonials from real customers are vital to this trend and are super important in building trust amongst your community.

Sharing images of your products that have been organically posted by your community is another great way of incorporating UGC into your strategy.  With 62% of consumers being more likely to click on ads and social posts that feature customer photos.