Social Media Predictions for 2022

Social media has been constantly evolving since it’s inception, but especially so in the last two years in the pandemic. Users patterns and usage behaviours changed drastically, and the apps changed with them. TikTok blew up and remains highly popular with exponential growth rates, e-commerce accelerated and lockdown evolved the need for digital connection. Along with this, the shift to working from home and more flexible working models have had broader impacts on the social media space. 

With vaccination roll out happening around the world and pandemic disruptions easing we can predict that growth and change on social media should be more stable in 2022 - but then again, it often takes us by surprise. So, lets look at the next year for some of the major social platforms. 

Facebook

Despite it’s dwindling popularity among younger audiences and stream of controversies, Facebook remains one of the most used social media platforms with over 2.9 billion active users. Anticipated developments for Facebook in the next year are 

• Greater e-commerce focus with more stoppable posts, streamlined payment, improved products discovery and livestream shopping
• Algorithm changes (this seems to be a constant with any platform) specifically sensoring and limiting political content in newsfeeds, and giving users the option to twitch the algorithm on and off

Instagram

Instagram reached 1 billion users in 2018 and hasn’t updated that figure since, so it is difficult to distinguish if the app is still growing and at what rate. It is obvious that Instagram has continued its habit of ’trend chasing’ that began with the introduction of stories taken from snapchat and most recently the introduction of reels to rival tiktok. There has however recently been a lot of conversation over the apps impact on mental health and it’s young users.

• Ecommerce has a huge focus on Instagram that is only set to rise, with the push to make every post stoppable within the app
• Video dominant focus has begun for Instagram already and is set to continue in 2022, with this growth in mind it wouldn’t be surprising is Instagram introduce a stories/reels home screen option rather than the traditional feed 

Pinterest

Pinterest was one of the platforms that used the pandemic to restructure their purpose and thrive, many suers turned there for eCommerce, using pinterest as a shopping mall

• Video content will likely become a bigger element of the pinterest formula, adding new video display formats including stories and it’s own version of TikTok duets called ‘take’ where you can share your own variation 
• Live shopping is also expected to make it’s way to Pinterest eventually,  with the platform trialling the format already 
• To facilitate the popularity of shopping through the app it is anticipated that they will develop more streamlined processes to make it eve easier for merchants to promote and sell their products 

TikTok

With usage rates that rival Instagram, it’s fair to say that TikTok has gone viral this past year, surpassing a billion active users. 

• The main weakness tiktok will be working on over the next year is more effective monetisation of the app for it’s creators, if they can’t make money there, they will simply move to other platforms that reward them with ads etc, it has begun this process with it’s ‘Creator Marketplace’
• Simplified tools for brands and marketing, as currently the app has quite high barriers to entry for those looking to move and adapt their current strategies from other platforms (TikTok requires its own dedicated platform specific approach and this can be overly disruptive for some brands)
• Facilitation of a livestream, both to expand users behaviours and for the expansion of ecommerce on the app

These predictions are a condensed and digestible summary of some of the huge changes to come for social media in 2022. It can definitely be hard to keep up with things constantly changing, so my best advice is to stay up to date with news by following key opinion leaders and developers such as the head of Instagram. As well as this, be aware of whats happening with your social media, which strategies are working well? Which have stopped working? Don't just work in autopilot, be aware of things changing and adapt!

Nikki X