Social media has changed over the years for marketers and is more popular than ever. Nearly ¾ of Americans use social media to connect with one another, which presents a unique opportunity for marketers to reach these audiences. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, generating new leads or creating conversions, social media is essential to your brand's marketing success and maximizing results. Set yourself apart with these social media marketing trends we think are in store for 2022.
Continuing to grasp audiences with short-form video content
If you haven’t already, it’s time to prioritize delivering social content through video. Short-form videos, not those 2-5-minute videos that everyone scrolls past, are the preferred format, and will dominate in terms of user consumption in 2022. In fact, video will soon be the majority of online content since it continues to have the most engagement amongst other content types on social media.
Since Tik Tok exploded in 2020 there has been an uptick in short-form video - something the other social media companies have noticed. Instagram launched Reels and YouTube rolled out YouTube Shorts to compete with Tik Tok. But why have short-form videos exploded and continue to rise in the social media marketing world you may ask?
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The human attention span continues to shorten, so leveraging short-form content can help engage your audience
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People are always looking for transparency and brands they can trust, and video makes it easier to show off your authenticity
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Video eases the creation of educational content, which can improve lead generation
Promoting authenticity through user generated content
A key to social media marketing success will be introducing more user generated content (UGC) to build trust and authenticity with your audience. UGC is any content type-- text, videos, images, reviews—created not by brands, but by people. Need to boost your credibility with your audience and not sure how? This is the way to do it. Share a user’s post featuring your product or brand with your audience. Trust us, you won’t be disappointed with the relationships that are built. The data speaks for itself: brands have seen a 20% increase in return visitors and a 90% increase in time consumers spend on their websites when incorporating user generated content. With an increase in return visitors and time spent on your site, UGC is a powerful tool for increasing conversions.
With sharing UGC comes a few best practices:
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Requesting permission from the original poster is a must, not just for copywriting concerns, but to build stronger relationships with your best supporters.
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Give credit where credit is due. Tag the original creator in your post to keep them engaged with your brand and to validate with your audience that the content was created by someone else, not the brand itself—building that trust is key.
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Finally, be specific with what kind of content you are looking for. Your followers are more likely to share user generated content when they know exactly what you want.
Building an exclusive community
Exclusivity makes people feel important and for loyal customers, it can also build an even stronger relationship with your brand. Many brands have begun to build these exclusive communities on social media to not only enhance the relationships, but also understand purchasing behavior of their most frequent consumer base. Communicating with consumers in this way allows your brand to create a unique experience, like presenting followers with a promotional campaign prior to releasing it to the public.
Being a part of an exclusive group can be very enticing. It will build stronger relationships with loyal customers, while also attracting others. Set criteria for being invited into the group to give others an incentive to become those loyal customers and a part of the community.
The shift towards social shopping
Although there already was a shift to more virtual shopping before the pandemic, the pandemic forced many of us into the social shopping world since we were spending more time on social media anyway. This presents a unique opportunity for retail businesses since consumers can purchase anything they want from anywhere. According to a recent study, by 2023 the number of social shoppers will exceed over 100 million. People can send direct messages to brands and receive responses or assistance instantaneously. Being able to shop right from a social platform accelerates the purchasing process for users which, ideally will lead to more conversions for your brand.
Fostering trust through your brand’s tone
Social media is the virtual space that people go to connect to brands and to other individuals. People are drawn to brands that show their personality and those that are being authentic. With society becoming less formal, brands need to focus on establishing a relatable tone. For example, brands that use jargon come across as stuffy while brands that don’t sound more real and are presenting their followers with useful content they immediately understand.
Avoid the dramatic headlines to draw people in. Social media users are not interested in “fake news” and will no longer want to click on your content, leading to a lack of trust and failed relationships. Consumers are looking for the real aspect of your brand and want to see lifestyle and emotion types posts to foster that connection.
Up your social game in 2022
Digital marketing continues to change at a rapid pace. From creating engaging content through video to building trust and relationships with your customers, it is important to be aware of the growing trends to set your brand apart from the competition Not sure whether you have the capacity to keep track of all these constant changes? Contact ZAG to see how we can help you get ahead.