Once upon a time, social media was a place for socializing and staying connected with friends, family, and social groups. Today social media has evolved into a platform to express business thoughts and ideas. According to Statista, 91.9 percent of U.S. marketers in companies larger than 100 employees were expected to use social media for marketing purposes in 2021.

Nowadays, social media trends are changing rapidly to match the needs of customers. Here are our predictions for 2022 social media trends and beyond.

1) Social media shopping

Social media with a focus on e-commerce is the future of social media. We have already seen Instagram turn toward this with the introduction of Instagram Shopping.

The platform that was once for sharing photos of you and your friends, art, and memes has now embraced the e-commerce market with a posting option that allows creators to tag links to their products. Now, anyone who stumbles upon your post and thinks, “Wow, that’s so cool, where can I get that?” can find a quick answer. All they have to do is tap the photo, and the links will appear!

This development may have risen to meet the demands of at-home shopping during the pandemic, but now that it’s here, it won’t be going away! Look out for this as one of the most significant future SMM trends!

2) The Metaverse will build up steam

If you’re not familiar with the Metaverse, now is an excellent time to start getting comfortable with it. In essence, the Metaverse is a concept that allows more overlap between our digital and physical lives in terms of money, socialization, productivity, purchasing, and entertainment, whether in virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) or on our screens.

John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity, describes a future in which, “You’ve got your goggles on, 10 years from now, but they’re just a pair of sunglasses that happens to have the ability to bring you into the metaverse experience. You’re walking by a restaurant. You look at it. The menu pops up. What your friends have said about it pops up.”

After Mark Zuckerburg’s move to rebrand Facebook as a metaverse application, we expect to see this build up more steam as one of the biggest 2022 social media trends.

3) Influencers will keep influencing

Influencers will not fade out, that’s for sure.  It will be interesting to see how social media stars evolve their social presence in the coming years. Right now, social stars are giving brands and individuals a great resource for advertising. There’s a lot of room for developing content personalization to target a niche audience through influencers!

4) Social communities will keep developing

There are social communities for just about everything, and the online world is no exception. In fact, online socialization has become integral to our lives and especially to the lives of younger generations. You can expect to see stronger online communities in the future of social media.

5) Geo-Social Media

Geo-social media marketing is social media marketing done geographically and is only going to grow in the coming years. 

Social platforms will keep coming up with ways to target social media audiences based on their geographic location. Being able to find social connections near you is only going to be advantageous for social media platforms and users alike.

6) Rise of short-form video content

With the rise in the popularity of Tik Tok, we have seen an equal rise in popularity for short-form video content. Even Instagram, primarily a photo-sharing social media site, has introduced a new Reels feature to cater to this.

Viewers aren’t interested in sitting down to watch a 20-minute video anymore! The 15-60 second formats are the way to go.

7) More automation of social media marketing campaigns

With social media marketing campaigns, the push has been towards automation and social media management tools. There are so many social media tools out there that can help social media managers optimize:

  • Posting schedules
  • Writing engaging social media content
  • Targeted advertisements

8) Tik Tok will become an important marketing platform

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This might sound a bit strange, but Tik Tok is quickly becoming one of the most popular social media platforms for advertisement. Small businesses are all over Tik Tok, with over 43.8 billion views on the small business tag. Small business trends and video sounds are everywhere and continue to rise, so this is one of the best social media tips you can follow!

9) Everything will go more mobile

Mobile social media users are increasing at a rapid pace. We have already seen social platforms invest in developing mobile social products, whether it be live video, social messaging apps, social TV, or social news feeds. With social media networks catering to their mobile audience well, it looks like everything is going social media mobile.

10) Social listening will become an important marketing strategy

Social media social listening will continue to be a core social media strategy for 2022. Social listening is the process of monitoring social channels, social sites, and social conversations to understand online demographics and buyer personas. This can give marketers fantastic insight into what people say about their brand or product across social media!

This strategy can also help you keep a pulse on social media trends, social media stats, and social listening statistics that you can use for social media marketing.

Conclusion

There’s a lot to look out for in the world of digital and SMM trends as we enter the new year. Some social media trends will be expected, but others might come as surprises to many. Keep track of everything social in the world of SMM across social media channels, social communities, social influencers, social listening, social media service providers, and more!

Reach out to Paton Marketing for SMM services in Miami and let us help you out with game-changing social media tips today!