After the year 2021 under the sign of Covid-19, trends are changing. More than ever, social media networks are a link to animate your community and even expand it.
Thanks to them, you will be able to generate more qualified traffic, you will be able to seduce new targets and build customer loyalty. However, to achieve this, you must also take into account the new trends.
Here are the ones you should follow in 2022 to boost your potential on social networks.
1. Old-school marketing is making a comeback
Until a few months ago, marketers worked tirelessly to innovate. Today, the trend has completely reversed. Against the backdrop of the health crisis, consumers are in great need of reassurance and specialists are predicting a strong comeback of old-fashioned marketing.
As a reminder, this type of marketing includes very classical methods such as phoning, distribution of flyers and advertising objects, product demonstration, loyalty card…
The objective is to reconnect with human contact after being deprived of it for so long but also to reward loyalty. Of course, thanks to social networks, new tools could be created.
2. Conversational marketing is gaining momentum
We just highlighted the fact that old-school marketing is making a comeback.
For the same reasons, conversational marketing will be reinforced. Its objective is to better communicate with its community and give it the opportunity to express itself. Conversational marketing is based on a personalized interaction with the members of its community. Thus, each member feels valued and above all reassured.
There are many ways to communicate with your audience on social networks. Among them, there are :
- Messenger
- Polls and surveys
3. Stories are still in the spotlight
As you know, for several years, communication media have multiplied. Stories are nowadays alongside videos and podcasts which are still very popular.
Stories, short-lived content, have exploded. They allow us to communicate differently and to push Internet users to connect more often to not miss anything. Stories are particularly useful for event communication.
4. Informing differently:
Communication has changed with the internet.
Today, it is easy to find information, but especially very easy to fall on the wrong information, because of the very dreaded Fake News. This information is shared as much as the others but above all, it is a source of stress.
At a time when we spend more time on the Internet than on television, it is important to provide the right information to Internet users. Make sure you always check your sources and don’t hesitate to quote them.
The right idea: Involving professionals is a great idea for Internet users. It is an approach whose benefits are no longer to be proven, and this has been so for several years. In 2022, it is therefore wise to persevere in this direction.
5. Recycle your content
Some of your content is almost never obsolete, these are the famous evergreen contents.
Others, on the contrary, are out of date in a few weeks or months. Instead of deleting these pages, you can recycle and update them. One of the current trends is remixing. In addition to allowing you to communicate at a lower cost, remixing allows you to play the authenticity card.
It’s possible to do it with TikTok!
The good idea: If you want to recycle your content, you should know that one of the 2022 trends is to bet on short videos. Specialists advise not to exceed 30 seconds. This is the opposite of television advertising, which is getting longer and longer!
6. Promote Social Gaming
Social Gaming has been democratized, it is now time to exploit it fully. This will be one of your objectives in 2022.
This approach allows you to involve Internet users and above all to energize your community. Thanks to Social Gaming, you can show all the authenticity expected by your audience, entertain them, and even communicate differently.
There are many ways to exploit Social Gaming. You can set up a hashtag or integrate your brand into a game. You can even exploit some tools like a webcam or augmented reality. The goal is to offer new experiences to your audience.
7. Communicate your commitments
With the Covid-19 crisis, mentalities have changed. Consumers choose their products and services based on the company and especially on its brand image. Companies that are committed to the local community and those that support great causes are now favored.
Consumers are looking for more than products and services. They want to experience and belong to a community.
8. The proliferation of private groups
Because more and more people don’t want to expose their life to everyone on their wall and because the trend is towards digital detoxification, private groups are a big success.
Indeed, their members want to spend less time on their engagement on social networks. They, therefore, prefer more meaningful interactions by getting closer to those who are most like them or at least share a common passion or desire.
We can mention for example platforms like discord, clubhouse, and even more recently Twitter with its new tab “communities” to gather groups around themes, which makes the exchanges quite targeted and relevant.
In 2022, it’s up to brands to find a way to make a place for themselves in private groups without their presence being perceived as a negative intrusion…
9. Authenticity above all
As we know, influencers’ job is often to give a perfect image of the products or services they promote. Some of them do not hesitate to “correct” the reality a little bit in order not to let any imperfection show through. Instagram is thus a catalog of splendid photos that can only make you drool…
However, Internet users are not fooled and the need for authenticity, already sought after in 2021, is asserting itself and becoming a trend in 2022.
Rather than smooth and perfect content, they are looking for content where slight flaws may be present because it certainly sounds more real. They will not hesitate to consult other users’ reviews on many sites before making the choice to buy your product.
10. TikTok, an application that has become essential
Remember, two years ago, we told you about the TikTok phenomenon. The application was exploited by all the brands that wanted to attract a young audience. Today it has become a must-have and its success will continue in 2022.
As a business or professional, you need to display your presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Of course, the communication media are chosen according to the nature of your business and the objectives of your communication strategy. In 2022 as well as in 2021, you should not ignore TikTok, which today gathers 14.9 million active users in France against 4 million in 2019. The social network is still expanding!
11. The rise of the micro-influencer
Up until now, brands used to put a lot of emphasis on the number of subscribers when recruiting an influencer, as it gave them the opportunity to reach a larger audience.
Caution: However, this model shows its limits because the big influencers would be too far away from the brand’s consumers.
Thus, 2022 should mark the rise of micro-influencers. Of course, they have a reduced number of subscribers but they have the capacity to engage consumers and to be close to them.
In other words, there will be a little less bling-bling and a lot more authenticity, and consumers should appreciate this at a time when early influencers are more and more often decried.
12. Podcasts take over social networks
If podcast consumption has surged since 2020, especially in the U.S., it looks like 2022 could be the year that those same podcasts go viral thanks to social networks.
It must be said that marketing experts have well understood the potential of this type of content and should therefore seek to exploit it in their content marketing strategy.
It’s no surprise that podcasts should invade social networks. However, it remains to be seen if they will be successful and if they will succeed in dethroning video, which is now the reference format for engaging Internet users.
13. More and more content… in augmented reality?
Offering live content on social networks is not really a novelty, but in 2022, it should be more and more numerous.
This is mainly due to the fact that these contents are very engaging – the fact of being able to communicate directly with a brand or its representative tends to bring us closer to it – but also due to the fact that augmented reality multiplies the field of possibilities.
Indeed, it is not for nothing that all social networks have an AR feature. For the moment, it mainly allows you to apply filters to your live content, but this technology has such a potential that surprises are to be expected in the new year.
While the “digital detox” has many followers, brands have understood that they must change their way of doing things on social networks.
Good to know: In 2022, quality should be preferred to quantity and everything should be done to design particularly engaging content (podcasts, live content with augmented reality…). Authenticity should also find a real place in the communication of brands.
Finally, the TikTok phenomenon will offer new communication opportunities that brands will have to learn to seize. It’s now up to you to anticipate these 2022 trends for social networks in your content marketing strategies.