The 9 Most Important Social Media Trends for 2022
It can be hard to know which social media trends to pay attention to and which ones to ignore. Here are the ones that matter most in 2022.
1. TikTok will become the most important social network for marketing (??!)
Instagram has held the #1 spot in most social marketers’ hearts for the past few years. It was growing the fastest, had the highest returns on investment (depending on your industry), and (bonus) was pretty fun to hang out on. But that’s changing now.
TikTok surpassed the 1 billion user mark in September 2021. That made it the 7th most popular social network in the world.
If you exclude messaging networks, TikTok is the 4th most popular social media network after Instagram.
Why is this a big deal? Well, in January 2021, it only had 689 million users. That’s a 45% increase in less than a year.
And this comes after its largest growth spurt of all: a global user base increase of 1,157% between 2018 and 2020.
To put this into perspective, Instagram’s monthly active users grew at a rate of 6% in 2020.
Even more interesting? Google Search Trends shows that TikTok completely dominates Instagram’s short-form video content.
Over the last year, search demand for TikTok has grown by 173%. But search demand for Instagram Reels has only grown by 22%. And it has decreased by 33% for Instagram Stories.
But despite TikTok’s rapid growth, most businesses are hesitant to invest in the network. Take the results from Hootsuite’s Social Media Trends report.
Only 35% of respondents said they planned on increasing their investment in TikTok in the next year. Most businesses continue to place big bets on reliable networks like Instagram and Facebook.
But that’s not the whole story. When asked which social platforms they considered most effective for reaching their business goals, 24% said TikTok. This is a 700% increase over 2020.
TikTok introduced several helpful business tools in 2020 and 2021, including business profiles, ads, and a creator marketplace. This could be why businesses are feeling more optimistic about it this year.
To-Do List: If brands aren’t flocking to TikTok yet, they will be soon. We recommend being at the front of the wave rather than behind it.
Grab an account handle for your brand
Explore TikTok so you can start feeling fluent on the platform and find some ideas
Sketch out the basics of your TikTok marketing strategy
Use a social media management tool like Hootsuite to easily schedule your TikToks, moderate comments, and measure your success on the platform from one handy dashboard.
Next time.....You will start spending big ad dollars on smaller networks
Info provided by Hootsuite