Social media marketing in 2022
While there are many factors that will influence social media marketing in 2022, personalization and video content are the most notable ones.
2021 sure brought a lot of changes to social media marketing. Snapchat became a major marketing platform with revenue growth of 57%. Facebook slowly became Meta, as it faced numerous legal issues and new regulations. Web stories became one of the fastest-growing trends, taking prime real estate on Instagram, Facebook and Google. And TikTok became even more present, especially amongst the younger audiences. So, we can safely say that there is a lot to dwell upon if you want to make sense of what social media went through in 2021. But, we won’t focus on that here. In this article, we will use the ongoing trends to give you our prediction of social media marketing in 2022.
Predictions for social media marketing in 2022
Predicting social media marketing is a bit like trying to predict the weather. Sure, you can take all the factors into account and make an educated guess. But a new social media platform or a new content trend can easily catch you by surprise. VR marketing, for instance, can grow overnight from having a relatively marginal presence to becoming a marketing phenomenon. So, while we feel that our predictions will stay true in 2022, don't be surprised if a new innovation in social media marketing brings drastic change. We certainly won't be.
Turning towards video marketing
A quick look at the marketing statistics of social media will give you a good idea of where content creation is heading. Namely, an average organic post on Facebook will only have a 5.2% reach. If that doesn't sound bad enough, keep in mind that it will also have a 0.25% engagement rate. So, even if you write decent content for Facebook, you can hardly expect a decent ROI. On the other hand, video content has stellar performance, especially on platforms designers around it. TikTok has taken social media by storm in the past years, and will likely continue to do so in 2022.
The one major change is that marketing managers will soon realise that YouTube is a social media platform, and is therefore viable for social media marketing. With an estimated audience of 130.8 million for 2022 in the U.S. alone, YouTube stands to be a major marketing platform for many businesses.
Increased personalization
Personalization is slowly evolving from being a neat method that large scale businesses can apply, to a industry norm for any serious company. In the modern marketing landscape, you need to apply personalization if you are to get any kind of engagement. You can no longer hope that finding and addressing your target audience will be enough. Now, you need to monitor the user's behaviour and set up your social media presence so that it feels tailor-made for them. This is not only done through presenting the right content, but also by picking the right design choices. Modern UX designers tend to change colour pallets, images and even add placement, based on what the users are likely to respond to.
The two major driving forces behind increased personation are AI advancements and data-gathering technologies. Modern AI algorithms do wonders in outlining what your visitors are like and what kind of content is likely to resonate with them. And what makes this possible is that data-gathering has become more robust and more precise than ever before. If you take a look under the hood, you will see the staggering amount of data modern software is able to gather. And, as technology is progressing, we only see this trend picking up in 2022.
B2B marketing on LinkedIn
Business managers, as a whole, are becoming more invested in social media marketing. As they use it over time, they tend to become aware of all the marketing strategies and methods. This usually leads them to avoid standard platforms like Facebook or Instagram, as marketing content is seen as tiring. But there is a platform where standard social media marketing methods have little to no place. LinkedIn.
When it comes to B2B marketing in 2022, LinkedIn will be the primary platform. Trying to engage businesses on any other platform is a waste of time and resources, as your content will most likely be ignored. Luckily, LinkedIn has built up itself as a serious, professionally-oriented platform where businesses can market themselves in an efficient way.
Working with influencers
A big part of social media marketing in 2022 will be influencers. As YouTube marketing will become more prevalent, so will YouTube endorsements. After all, what better way to engage with your audience than to have their favourite YouTuber mention your product. This, of course, has to be done in a tastefully, well-thought-out way. Otherwise, it will likely seem pushy or redundant.
When it comes to other platforms, it does make sense to work with content creators. But, only if they have a natural connection with your brand. Trying to work with someone simply because they have a big following won't yield much success, and will usually have a bad ROI. So, we feel that "out of the blue" promotions (like Raid Shadow Legends) from content creators will soon become a thing of the past.
Final thoughts
All things considered, social media marketing in 2022 will be about personalized, engaging content. All content forms, be it images, videos, web stories or blog posts will require some form of personalization if they are to succeed. Luckily, modern software will make personalization much easier, and will likely aid in it becoming the norm. Video marketing is likely going to be the primary focus of most companies, as it has the best ROI. We also wouldn't be surprised if more companies choose to add interactivity to their social media presence. While there are considerable demographic differences in platform usage, the biggest one will be that most businesses will only be present on LinkedIn. So, if you plan on dealing with B2B marketing in 2022, we suggest that you start there.
