Top Trends on Social
Calling all social managers, influencers, digital marketers, and beyond! Let’s have a quick chat about the top trends in the world of social media in 2022.
What’s Trending?
The Short Video
We live in the age of the short attention span, and it’s certainly obvious through the trending 30 second videos on social right now. TikTok and Instagram Reels are dominating the game! If you are looking to increase engagement, follow count, and overall social success in 2022, you better hop on the short video train!
In terms of content, what’s currently trending could be different depending on what field or audience you are marketing for. However, trending hashtags and sounds are universal and it’s how and when you choose to implement these into your content that makes all the difference in increased engagement. But, be careful! Trending hashtags and sounds can change anytime from a daily basis, to a weekly basis– so keep your eyes open!
Tip: always keep your videos vertical and use bright, clear footage.
UGC Content
When you scroll through your feed, what are you hoping to see? If you’re like me and every other consumer out there, you’re hoping to see real people, having real experiences, doing real things. The #nofilter feed is taking over and that’s all in the User Generated Content!
UGC is necessary for any digital marketer to implement into their social calendar. It provides authentic content, easily increases engagement with your online community, and shows proof that what you’re promoting is actually as great as you claim it to be. For some of our clients, we use the CrowdRiff platform to help us implement UGC content into our client socials and it’s fabulous– easy and efficient!
Check out the content we’ve gathered from CrowdRiff for our client, Destination Markham!
Paid Advertising
This one is VERY necessary for any brand. The ‘Metaverse’ algorithm is not on anyone’s side and that’s a fact. It doesn’t matter how good your post is, or looks – the algorithm is a gamble. Organic reach can turn out great, but paid content allows your message to reach new heights. For many of our clients, we encourage the use of paid advertising in the promotion of events, specifically.
Kindness & Mental Health
Because of the pandemic, the push for brands to develop a sense of community, to promote kindness, and encourage discussion around mental health, has been huge on social. I don’t think there is one brand, company, or influencer that has not tapped into this trend– and rightfully so. This trend and all of the content and conversations that have come along with it, have been super successful.
Mental health is important. Your happiness is important. Be kind to others. Reflect these messages through your clients’ social channels through video, photo content, stories, questions… and you will see the response. It doesn’t matter who your client is, what the brand is, or what sort of profile you run: this trend is for everyone. Consider pushing out a post on this once or twice a month.
Unique Experiences
People use their phone to get away from work, boredom, awkward conversations, or to find something new and exciting. Sharing unique experiences has been a forever trend on social, and will never get old because everyone wants to see it!
Are you a tourism business? Feature that insanely cool hidden gem in your area.
Are you an art gallery? Feature the eye catching aspects of your new exhibition.
Are you a theatre? Feature top moments from last night’s performance.
…the list goes on. Unique experiences are currently blowing up on Instagram Reels– so get on it! Find out what’s cool about you, or your client, and bank on it! Your engagement numbers will thank you later.
What’s Not Trending?
- We’ve read a lot of articles claiming memes will be a top social trend in 2022… but we just can’t be convinced. Memes are so last year, right?
- Unless you’re on YouTube or watching TV, no one wants to see long videos on their feed.
What’s Coming in 2022?
Rumor has it…
- The ability to manually rearrange your Instagram feed is coming! Finally! We can put our favourite content on top!
- The death of Instagram likes. Could it really be happening? It’s long overdue! Likes don’t even measure a quarter of your engagement and most definitely don’t speak to the quality of your content.
- Social ads on TikTok and Pinterest will grow.
Okay, that’s it for now. Happy scrolling, creating, posting, and promoting!
Talk soon,
Caitlin Ammendolia, Digital Engagement Coordinator