Global Social Media Trends-2022 Report by Hootsuite (backed by global data and expert insights):
Based on an annual survey of 18,100 marketers, exhaustive research, and interviews with industry experts, customers, and partners (backed by global data and expert insights), Hootsuite identified major 5 social media trends for 2022 in its 43 Page Social Trends 2022 Report and are as follows:
The Brand Strategy Trend: Brands finally get community right (with the help of creators) Digital communities are only becoming more central to consumers’ lives and identities, and creators are the key to unlocking them. Brands that partner wisely with creators are connecting with new audiences, earning their trust, and gaining cultural capital.
The Social Advertising Trend: Marketers get creative as consumers wise up to social ads Consumers are holding brands to a higher standard when it comes to creativity in social advertising—but rewarding those that get it right. As marketers plan to spend more on social ads in 2022, they’ll have to work harder to create ads that mirror and enrich the distinct experience each social network offers.
The ROI Trend: Social quietly matures out of the marketing department Having seen the value of social in marketing, business leaders are buffing up employee advocacy programs, mastering social listening to gather consumer insights, and looking to deliver the kind of impact they’ve seen social have on their marketing elsewhere in their organizations.
The Social Commerce Trend: Social becomes the heart of the post-pandemic shopping experience The era of social commerce is in full swing and the opportunity is only getting bigger. Competitive small businesses are finding a balance between social storefronts and bricks and mortar, while large brands test the outer limits of the online shopping experience.
The Customer Care Trend: Social marketers rescue their brands from the customer service apocalypse Amid halting global supply chains and staffing shortages, many businesses can expect an influx of not-so-happy customers in 2022. Meanwhile, demand for customer service over social has been surging. Social media managers now find themselves in an ideal position to play the hero and steer their organizations through the upheaval.
Explore these personally compiled 47 Key Insights/Findings and Stats from Hootsuite's 'SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS 2022 Report' that may assist any e-commerce business owner, brands owners, entrepreneurs, any business in general or any online marketer in planning for the future of Social Media Business Marketing to connect, engage, build relationships, and looking for progressive opportunities to increase sales or conversion rates, including staying ahead of the competition in a post-pandemic era:
Seventy-seven percent of people surveyed for a joint report by Facebook and NYU’s Governance Lab indicated that the most important group they are part of operates online. And according to a recent Squarespace survey, young people now find digital life more important and memorable than in-person life.
Over a billion Facebook users regularly engage within groups. On TikTok, plant fanatics, witches, and rug aficionados are carving out their own spaces to share and develop their interests—no matter how obscure.
Twitter has started testing a feature that has the potential to fundamentally change its platform called (wait for it…) Communities, which Twitter says will give people “a dedicated place to connect, share, and get closer to the discussions they care about most.”
“Thriving communities on social media present a big opportunity, especially for smaller brands,” says Lower. “You no longer have to create a niche community from the ground up—you can find a community that you fit into and if you show up for them, they’ll do the same for you.”
Instead of trying to build a community from the ground up, the smartest brands in 2022 will tap into existing creator communities to learn more about their customers, simplify content creation, and build brand awareness and affinity.
In 2022, the key to unlocking online communities (no matter the size of your business) is in the hands of digital creators.
And as the tide on social shifts away from glossy mega-influencers towards smaller and more authentic communities, brands that partner wisely with creators are connecting to new audiences, earning their trust, and gaining cultural capital.
In 2021, almost every major social network introduced features to help creators monetize their work, or funds to pay them directly. Across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Snapchat, there is no shortage of ways for creators to build and sustain their communities, or for brands to support them.
Stop thinking about your followers as your community. A lot of small and midsized businesses make the mistake of thinking that all they need to do when it comes to online community building is get people to follow them. Instead, seek out online communities that are active and engaged around interests relevant to your product category. If you make dishware, talk to home cooks. If you service cars, find auto clubs. By using creators to tap into these circles where you’re not well known and adding value there, you’ll reach new audiences, build cultural relevance, and learn more about your customers.
Support the growth of content creators in earnest. This goes beyond handing out freebies and swag (although those are nice too). Build trust by investing in your creator partners, taking the lead in distributing their content, and actively amplifying their content on your channels.
If people within the community see you as an active partner in supporting the creators they admire, they’ll be more likely to trust that you have their best interests at heart too. Then it’s just up to you to deliver.
Marketers get creative as consumers wise up to social ads. More than half (51.4%) of the marketers that we surveyed said they plan to increase their paid social spend in 2022. This year, investment in Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn has caught up. The largest increases in spend relative to last year are going towards TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
Marketers are finding platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest to be far more effective for reaching business goals than they have in the past. Although marketers in our survey unsurprisingly ranked Facebook and Instagram as the most effective platforms overall.
A study by Kantar, commissioned by TikTok, found that consumers ranked TikTok ads as more inspiring and enjoyable than ads on other platforms.
A Nielsen study commissioned by Snapchat found that ads on Snapchat had more reach than TV ads and led to greater awareness and purchase intent across the funnel.
And according to Pinterest Business, ads on Pinterest had higher ROI and cheaper conversion rates than ads on other social networks.
TikTok’s whole brandfacing wing operates on the tagline “Don’t make ads. Make TikToks.” Pinterest’s call to action for advertisers is “Stop interrupting, start inspiring.” And Snapchat invites advertisers to “Become a part of Snapchatters’ everyday conversations.”
Brands that want to stand out in 2022 will have to work harder to create ads that mirror and enrich the distinct experience offered by each social network.
In 2022, we expect to see more niche networks pop up as consumers seek new experiences—and as developers and investors eye opportunities to build the next TikTok.
Our research shows that small businesses in particular find niche networks more effective. In a survey we conducted with 800 small business owners, we found that 62% were active on Facebook, yet only 24% said it was highly effective. In fact, our survey found that the more established the social network was, the less effective small businesses rated it.
Instead of zeroing in on metrics, focus on shifting the internal culture and mindsets of your marketing teams, embracing experimentation, and accepting that measurement may be murky and imperfect in the short term.
New channels promise potential: the potential to impress customers with your ability to innovate, to beat your competitors to the punch, and to push your own creative boundaries.
Social quietly matures out of the marketing department. Confidence in social ROI is at an all-time high. For over a decade, marketing leaders have struggled to quantitatively link social media to business outcomes. Now, after being forced to rely on social significantly more during the pandemic, it seems something has clicked.
55% say their social ads strategy is completely integrated with other marketing activities. Meaning these marketers know that social works in conjunction with other marketing efforts to drive awareness and help with brand recall.
48% strongly agree that social listening has increased in value for their organization. Meaning these marketers are using social to learn more about what their customers want and need so that they can deliver exactly that.
65% have completely integrated their paid and organic social media efforts. Meaning these marketers understand how to strategically use both to attract new customers while deepening relationships with existing ones.
VPs and directors were most likely to choose “expanding social’s impact on other departments” as the most exciting opportunity for their social strategy in 2022.
Bold businesses in 2022 will buff up their employee advocacy programs, get better at using social to gather consumer insights, and strive to deliver the kind of impact they’ve seen social have on their marketing elsewhere in their organizations.
Social listening gives brands an opportunity to track, analyze, and respond to conversations happening all over social. Find new customers, retain existing ones, discover what people are saying about your brand, and build sharper social strategies with immediate feedback.
Make your paid strategy smarter by using your organic audience to help you figure out who to target with paid ads. Use retargeting ads to let your organic audience (your best customers) know whether you’re having a sale, changing operating hours, or adding new products to your shelves. Your paid ads can bring new customers in while your organic channels build community and push people further along the buying journey.
Social becomes the heart of the post-pandemic shopping experience. Lockdowns shot ecommerce forward a decade—in three months.
Suddenly, 84% of consumers were shopping over the internet, according to Shopify.12 eMarketer reported a surge in ecommerce sales growth to 18%, the highest increase the firm had ever reported for this figure.13 And in what McKinsey dubbed “the quickening,” ecommerce penetration rocketed ahead more in the first 90 days of the pandemic than it had in the previous decade.
And with eMarketer projecting that double-digit annual growth will drive ecommerce sales from $792 billion in 2020 to $1.6 trillion in 2025, it’s clear that our new ecommerce habits aren’t just here to stay—they’re very much on the rise.
Younger generations now turn to social networks to research brands more than search engines. Search engines: 51.3%. Social networks: 53.2%.
“Ads on social media are one of the primary ways in which the world’s 4.8 billion internet users discover new brands, new products, and new services,” says Kemp. “It’s clear that social media has a role to play all along the purchase cycle.”
“Social used to be just a satellite of the business, an extension of the brand’s voice,” says Mérineau. “Now it is the brand’s voice. It is its core platform to engage with, sell to, and service customers. Social is the interface of commerce and the backbone of the new customer experience.”
While the brick-and-mortar storefront lives on postpandemic, it’s become clear that social commerce is an opportunity businesses can’t afford to miss. Small businesses in 2022 will work to extend the experience customers have with their brands across social storefronts and real life, while global enterprises test the limits of the online shopping experience.
Remove moments of friction. The easier you make the purchase process, the more likely your customers are to follow through.
Given the size of the social commerce opportunity, brands should invest as much energy and effort into their online storefronts as they would in keeping their brick-and-mortar locations tidy. Invest in photography, hire a writer to craft product descriptions, and put consideration into how you’re organizing your storefront.
Your next step is to personalize the shopping experience at scale by investing in conversational AI tools. With an AI-powered assistant at your disposal, you can manage all your customer touchpoints in one place, serve up instant product recommendations, and let bots handle routine inquiries while you take the complicated stuff.
Social marketers save their brands from the customer service apocalypse. Marketers bear the brunt of a crisis in customer service.
Social has become the front line of this crisis. In a Nielsen survey commissioned by Facebook, 64% of people said they now prefer to message rather than call a business. That same Nielsen survey shows us that 60% of consumers say they’re open to receiving personal messages from companies.
According to Gartner, 60% of all customer service requests will be managed via digital channels by 2023.25 Consumer expectations are mounting. Demand for integrating customer care channels is increasing—and social is where that pressure is peaking.
Our internal data from research conducted in July 2021 tells us that 71% of organizations have either not started investing in social customer care yet, or they don’t plan to to invest in it at all. Simply put: The more confident organizations are in their use of social media to achieve other business goals, the more likely they are to see the value of social customer care.
Social marketers have an opportunity to shine. In 2022, business leaders will look to social marketers to take a greater role in customer care. Pioneering social marketers will break from their departmental silos to build deeper inroads with customer service teams and take more agency in delivering customer care.
Your customers don’t make the distinction between your customer support, marketing, and sales teams. To them, every interaction is just an experience with your brand. Make sure your marketing and customer service teams have clear lines of communication with one another so they can streamline common inquiries and mitigate issues in tandem.
Invest in trusted training and services programs that will help your social marketers develop critical business skills, set themselves apart from other marketers, and help them thrive within your business.
I hope these insights and statistics give you the confidence to take your neo-social media business into the new year in style!
All the best….
By the way, you can find the whole Social Trends 2022 report here.
In addition to the above, if you are interested in Digital Trends-2022, you can find the 38 Personal Key Findings/Insights and Stats here.
For any other Business and Marketing Stats and Insights, you may find them here.
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