6 Social Media Trends Emerging in 2022

Want to succeed on social media this 2022?

Then it would help if you were in the know on what trends will matter most. 

The last decade has seen social media grow into thriving, dynamic, and multifaceted communities where more than 3.2 billion people worldwide are active daily, especially in the Philippines. 

At the edge of 2021, two years in the pandemic that left most people away from physical interaction, we saw great value in upgrading online interaction and capitalizing on what many lost for the time being- a sense of experience and social connection. 

Experience is maximized, even pushed beyond its boundaries, forward to next year’s development of social media usage and features. With the success of Tiktok, Kumu, Facebook’s online fora, and Twitter’s digital spaces, social gatherings are resurrected in the digital sphere. 

Not to mention, Meta Platforms, Inc. or Meta (formerly Facebook, Inc.) released Metaverse last year, which proves a game-changer in the virtual community. 

Still, despite the cornucopia of platforms served and to be served on our plate. Experience won’t matter without an audience, and the usual dilemma arises. 

Is our presence felt online? Are we present at the right time, in suitable spaces?

Same questions, but every year, with social media constantly changing, requires a change of answers. 

Here’s a quick guide of some of the biggest trends we’ll see evolving on social media in 2022. 

6 Social Media Trends Emerging in 2022

#1 The Rise of Reels

Instagram Reels is a quasi-new concept where we can share and discover engaging short videos on Instagram. Like TikTok, it allows you to edit 15-second multi-clip videos with various effects and audio for entertaining and creative outputs. 

Users are into video content that is well planned, innovative, creative, and entertaining. These stand out in today’s digital landscape. The only limitation is our imagination. 

This also means businesses must use this content shift to market digitally effectively. Video contents are imperative in marketing strategies. 

You may notice how food and beverage businesses like Jollibee and Pepsi open their own studio departments to cater to this new trend. 

The need for quick and new content has become more and more prevalent, as marketing strategy needs to align with that by leveraging short yet dynamic experiences through videos.

#2 Long-Form Content is making a Comeback

Short-form media dominated this year. The explosion of TikTok, the wide-scale adoption of Instagram Reels, and the introduction of YouTube Shorts had us all focusing on 15-second messages. However, there’s been a subtle change happening across social platforms. 

TikTok has expanded to 3 minutes in length. Reels went to 60 seconds. These minor changes are the beginning of a pendulum swing back towards longer-form content, which helps build digital experience to an almost reality. 

Meta released a guide for businesses on video requirements published via Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Check it out here.

Easy enough, this comeback is made more effective with an exciting title, usually in a clickbait approach, plus stirring thumbnails- expect audiences to finish any video up to the very end no matter how long it is. 

#3 Streaming topples Broadcasted Content

Streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu became prime movers of binge-watching culture, toppling down televised shows and broadcasting network-based content. 

The latter, like Disney and HBO, and in a more local scene- GMA Network and ABS-CBN, even ventured into creating their streaming mediums. 

This 2022, you’d expect even various forms of content would move on from video sharing sites to streaming platforms. Netflix already houses various vlogs and documentary channels which started as YouTube videos. 

Webinars and live-streamed events are not far behind. 

Influencers would go for more traffic and where their contents can as easily be as accessible and profitable at the same time. At the same time, businesses would be taking advantage of low-cost productions that streaming provides for company events. 

#4 Virtual Meetings to boost Huddle Experience

We won’t be bidding farewells anytime soon for virtual conferences. 

The past years opened doors for online huddle calls and virtual meetings, enabling people to work from home and connect with employees.  

Zoom, a top-mark among video conferencing platforms, is developing its features to make the experience as accurate and as convenient as possible- transfer meetings between devices, chat sidebar enhancements, and easy access to rooms like your just walking on office corridors. 

However, newcomers are in the race and are offering game-changing cards on their own. 

Bluejeans by Verizon offers the same features but a more user-friendly interface– recorded meetings can be saved with meeting highlights and automated transcriptions, and simplified management with live meeting controls. It will also provide users with one-touch access to meetings regardless of the device, browser, online meeting platform, or room system used.

Still, the latest paradigm shift on the social media sphere is with the introduction of Metaverse by Meta. 

This digital experience grounded on the internet is persistent, immersive, three-dimensional (3D), and virtual that many audiences are looking forward to this year, offering us the opportunity to play, work, connect, or yes, even buy and sell. 

Though a handful of businesses are already shaping the landscape, with entertainment and gaming companies leading the way, 2022 is long marked as the year when online shopping may become literal online shopping.

#5 Win over Audiences with Personalized Content

In 2022, we’ll say goodbye to third-party web cookies.

According to Google, they’ll be removing the tool on Chrome browsers as part of their campaign to protect their users’ privacy.

Moreover, the effect of the iOS 14 update on marketing for Apple users still looms in the corner. With the seemingly rise of a new wave this post-pandemic year, content creators must up the audience’s craving for a more creative, sincere, and unique approach to the content they consume.

With the limited information due to the absence of third-party cookies and the limiting Apple update, we have to venture to other approaches for content personalization.

As a result, more brands will embrace automation in their marketing mix. 

With automation tools, you can customize elements of your content and make your messages personalized. For example, addressing a user by their first name using your FB chatbot.

Building a mobile app is also a good personalization idea that’s slowly gaining traction among brands to provide consumers with a seamless buyer’s experience. 

Adidas did this idea right with their mobile app that provides a smooth shopping experience like on their site, except with added features like:

• Personalized style feed
• Creators club, a.k.a. their version of an online community
• Product recommendations
• Gift guides
• AI analyzing a user’s sport and style preferences by analyzing the content their interact with on the app

Building a personalized medium with personalized content attracts and creates connections among audience and prospect market and a digital space where they can experience an in-touch environment for their digital needs. 

#6 Semantics is the Future of Digital Marketing

Semantics in digital marketing will be a foundation integral to content creation. 

Ads for businesses and accompanying digital content are heavily weighted on their semantic value, choices of words, phrasing, wittiness, and messaging, transforming the way marketers understand and target their customers’ interests and allowing them to deliver more closely results that align with what customers really need.

Gone are the days for strict do’s and don’t on word usage for captions and ad copies. As evident in real-life social connections, creativity is experiential, and semantics proves this. 

Semantics and context are already a huge part of search engine marketing, and with the latest technological breakthrough on providing an online experience- they’ll only become more critical. Infusing newer languages, terminologies, trend words, or lingo for more cultural and contemporary options on content wordings. 

Semantic search also looks at structured data, content it finds, like categories, tags, image and video attributes, and more to better understand what’s actually on their social media page and accounts. 

Through this future, we see better alignment between search and results, better user experience, better intelligence about customers and trends, and even better customer relationships when marketers understand the language their customers are using.

Wrapping Up 

Do you see yourself using any of these trends for 2022? 

Trying something new may look complicated on the surface. Still, social media trends come with social media tools that will help you achieve exciting and effective outputs for your online presence and online business. 

Evaluate your current digital standing, your growth on social media, and your long-term goals for the coming years. Collaborate with creators and digital marketing specialists.

Get in touch with our experts so you can execute some of these trends to your social media strategy. With the right and able partners, creative and stirring content, and these digital trends strategically applied, you’ll find yourself at the forefront of 2022’s digital growth.