2021 was full of changes, updates and trends. But what will 2022 hold with all the new and exciting ways we can use social media platforms to promote our clients’ brands?
- Increased personification by brands:
Take Ryan Air. Theirs and many other brands are now allowing their employees to add their faces to their social media branding. This opens up content ideas and allows the brand to better jump on trends that broaden their reach and bring in new audiences – out with general stock images and slogans and in with trends such as the below (FYI the audio is “Hey, just working, working hard so I can please you” trending sound.
- Genuine storytelling:
Great brands that gain consumer trust are those that show their vulnerability. People trump brands! Think about how people influence your sales; reviews, word of mouth, as well as influencer marketing. We advise our clients to make sure that although presence on social as a brand is vital for awareness, without consumers hearing about you from people of influence, and not necessarily ‘influencers’ per se, you are unlikely to be a trusted, memorable brand.
- More emphasis on paid social.
Facebook will give us better ad results after the 2021 Pixel nightmare. Hooray! A lot of lead generation ads, Messenger ads, etc., within the Facebook experience are more effective after the whole Pixel nightmare of 2021. When the Facebook vs Apple war started (with Apple’s update making it that users had to Opt-in to tracking rather than just Opt-ing out, many users assumed this meant that they were opting out of ads in general, when in fact they will still get ads that are just less catered / useful to them.
Facebook (now Meta) has done some fancy footwork to make some of its easier to use products a lot more effective!
Advice:
- Invest in building a group linked to your Facebook page. This year there will be many features to make groups more solid and appealing to all.
- Take advantage of Live Audio Rooms. This format inside your Facebook group will connect you more intimately with members, and it’s mega easy!
- Let’s not forget about live-streaming in addition to audio. Live video provides a wonderful opportunity to connect in real-time with your followers.
- Instagram reels to dominate, and chronological order coming back may change the way we use Instagram again. Will consumers start posting more often again? We may see stronger impressions of branded content due to chronological order coming back. Before, business pages often got pushed to the back of the algorithm. However, users will have to manually click the chronological order every single time they enter the app, which could hinder the overall power of this change to Instagram.
- Linkedin launched Creator mode in 2021 to support professionals where they can publish newsletters, access LinkedIn Live without going through the application process, and a new ‘Topics You Post About’ section where you add your most relevant hashtags. It’s also set to become a more valuable place for video marketing content with “roughly 88% of video marketers reporting that video marketing offers a positive ROI, and you’ll find that a solid LinkedIn video strategy is a sound investment” (Wyzowl Research)
- Changes in video content, 2021 was all about shorter form content, but TikTok has expanded to 3 minutes in length, and Reels went up to 60 potential seconds of magic content. This is just the beginning of a pendulum swing back towards longer-form content. Video content is an amazing way to build trust with consumers and humanise your brand.
- In 2022, the privacy restrictions that impacted retargeting in 2021 will become more enhanced and will expand well beyond iOS. As marketers, we’ll need to come to grips with the new norm. Facebook is introducing more targeted solutions based on activity over tracking data: iteration of tracking with a steadier Conversions API and an evolved pixel to bring Facebook Ads back to what they were pre-2021 (we hope) – this is great to know, as it should give marketers something more solid to use as targeting data so that ads are shown to the correct audiences once more.
- Podcasts: It’s hard to think that podcasting has room to grow. With all of the content creation mechanisms, audio podcasts—and corresponding video versions and live streams that are being created and optimised towards in 2021, but the average annual year on year growth of weekly podcast listeners since 2018 is still 17% (HUGE) – so invest in one now and take advantage of being one of the first mover’s.
Youtube: What you can do to stay on top of the algorithm in 2022;
- YouTube Shorts is not where the focus should be for this platform. This might be an unpopular prediction but, while some creators have definitely seen success with Shorts, we don’t think that’s where the platform is heading. YouTube users want, and will continue to want, long-form content. This is what will convert to sales, keep your community, and sustain growth. So, focus on both appearing in Youtube searches and building a community on the platform—a community that comes back for every new video you post.
- Be different and own your weirdness. YouTube thrives on people who aren’t afraid to be different and do things a little outside the norm, so use that amazing personality of yours, or your employees, and show it!
So, how can you win in 2022?
Use Facebook ads to your advantage, be bold, get weird, stay authentic and show your brands personality through video.
Happy 2022 Brandlectians! <3
P.S. If you think any of these upcoming trends need to be implemented into your marketing strategy, please get in touch with your Brandlective account manager.
