6 ways social media has changed in 2022
Today’s digital platforms are ever-evolving – here’s how to stay on top of the changes and use to them to your business’ advantage.
In July this year, Instagram rolled out a set of changes to their addictive social media platform: feeds were suddenly flooded with videos, ads were more prevalent than ever, and photo posts were stretched to fill the screen.
The platform started to look eerily reminiscent of TikTok, and user feedback was swift: a Change.org petition to ‘Make Instagram Instagram Again’ received nearly 300,000 signatures, while a meme with the same slogan was shared by hundreds of thousands of Instagram users, among them influencers with huge followings and mega-celebs like Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.
Within days, Instagram reversed some of the changes, but the uproar highlighted how dependent we’ve become on social media algorithms, and how important it is to keep abreast of updates and trends to inform our social media marketing strategy.
"There are huge opportunities for businesses when they stay up-to-date and utilise social media well.”
“Even when you’re working in social media it can be hard to keep up with the changes,” says Sarah Forbes, a senior social strategist at Thrive PR, who’s worked on social media campaigns for brands including MG, Harley Davidson and Reddit. “But there are huge opportunities for small businesses when they do stay up-to-date and utilise social media well.”
From curating pinned posts to refining video content [add link to this month’s video story] and the rise of in-app shopping, these are the six ways social media has changed in 2022 – and how you can use the trends to your business’ advantage.
1. Instagram introduces pinned posts
You can now permanently pin three posts – photos or reels – to the top of your Instagram grid, and it's a strategy that will up your social media game.
Forbes suggests thinking like a social media marketer and using this functionality like a shopfront window display. “You should be thinking about what you want your brand to represent and what your key message is,” she says. “Pinned posts should tell a follower exactly who you are and what you have going on.”
“Pinned posts should tell a follower exactly who you are and what you have going on.”
She recommends starting with Instagram’s Insights tool to find your most popular posts, as well as pinning any call-to-action posts like sales, competitions or events. “If a customer has to scroll through your feed to find that competition or sale post, you’ll lose them,” Forbes adds.
Harness the trend:
· Pin content that encapsulates your brand
· Pin CTA posts like promotions, giveaways and sales
2. Instagram extends Reels length
Instagram has also extended the length of Reels (the social media platform’s new, immersive short videos) from 60 to 90 seconds in a clear effort to compete with TikTok.
But Forbes says that while it might be tempting to capitalise on the extended time limit, longer isn’t always better when it comes to a social media strategy.
“Ninety seconds is great for content like an interview piece or a trailer, but you should be asking yourself: ‘What value am I bringing to the brand with this piece of content?’” says Forbes. “If you can bring that value in 30 seconds, don’t stretch it out because people aren’t going to watch it.”
“If you can bring that value in 30 seconds, don’t stretch it out."
For Tatiana Preobrazhenskaia[HMH1] , the founder of US sex-toy brand V for Vibes, social media trends are moving the needle, and Instagram Reels have provided an opportunity to share educational content for consumers in a new and longer format, without being banned by the platform.
“Instagram’s algorithm is better for us [over TikTok] and we’re using this to its full potential, using this style of content production to create videos that are fun, entertaining, helpful, informative, or that share our range of products,” she explains.
Harness the trend:
· Keep reels only as long they need to be, and ensure they offer value to your audience for maximum impact
3. Pinterest rolls out carousels and product tags
While Pinterest used to be considered the social media platform for older female users, in recent years it’s undergone rapid expansion thanks to its embrace of broader social media trends.
Its newest features include carousels to display multiple images, and ‘product pins’, which include information on pricing, availability, product descriptions and more.
These new features are getting social media marketers excited and shaking up the Pinterest user base. Data shows that the platform’s audience is experiencing 40 per cent and 35 per cent year-over-year growth in its Gen Z and Millennial audiences respectively (the ones who are more likely to be found lurking on TikTok) and is now 40 per cent male. Notably, each month consumers on Pinterest spend twice as much as people on other platforms, and their shopping baskets are 40 per cent bigger.
Experimenting with carousels and product pins could help businesses become more engaging to consumers and drive more sales, says Forbes.
“The ability to tag multiple products in one shot is something all brands should be taking advantage of."
“Carousels are amazing because if one product isn’t right for a person you can show them options two, three and four while they’re there and you’ve already got them,” she explains. “The ability to tag multiple products in one shot is also something all brands should really be taking advantage of. If people can see how a product is styled and see that all products are available, it will lead to a much higher conversion rate.”
For Australian fashion brand ROWIE the Label, using these new features, along with paid ads on the platform as part of their social media strategy, has helped bring about substantial sales growth in the past few years. In the month of July 2022, the independent label attracted over 500,000 unique views on Pinterest.
“For us, Pinterest is currently the best social media platform in terms of return on advertising investment and engagement,” says ROWIE’s brand manager Maya Edin. “It’s much more affordable than TikTok and there’s flexibility to work to a specific budget.”
Harness the trend:
· Use carousels to highlight multiple products for consumers.
· Try product pins and tag all the products so that consumers can click through to your store and shop.
4. Social commerce continues to streamline
Social commerce (where every step of an online purchase takes place within a social media app) is changing the way people browse and shop for just about everything. And with social commerce sales expected to hit around $80 billion in the US alone by 2025, it’s little wonder social media platforms are rushing to update their offerings.
Earlier this year, data from Earthweb revealed that around 130 million people tap on an Instagram shopping function each month. Additionally, 44 per cent of all users engage with one or more of the shopping functionalities like shopping stickers, shopping tabs and the IG checkout.
Other social media apps are now jumping on the bandwagon, with Pinterest introducing a Shop tab that serves like an online shopping list where Pinners can save their product pins. There are also plans to introduce an internal checkout in the near future.
When it comes to TikTok, new research from tech company Bazaarvoice showed that this year alone nearly 75 per cent of TikTok users shop on the platform, and as a result are giving TikTok Shopping a go.
“Taking advantage of in-app shopping opportunities is so important.”
“Taking advantage of in-app shopping opportunities is so important,” Forbes says. “We have really short attention spans and something like a slow landing page could cost you a sale, so where you can sell directly via a social media app, take advantage of it.”
Harness the trend:
· Learn which social commerce shopping features are available on your social media channels and utilise them as part of your marketing strategy
· Combine shopping features with a post including high-performing SEO terms in the caption to maximise your reach and capture new consumers
5. TikTok trends: the algorithm now leans towards SEO content
When most people think SEO (search engine optimisation), their minds automatically jump to Google.
But a number of social media platforms are starting to provide more sophisticated SEO offerings, including TikTok. In fact, one of the biggest changes to TikTok’s recent algorithm update is its move towards favouring SEO-based content, which will see the social media platform become more and more like YouTube over time, where users search for content on specific topics.
To be truly successful, Forbes says TikTok videos need to be tailored to specific search terms within your brand’s niche while remaining true to the platform’s aesthetic. This can be done by finding the most popular terms relating to your business through a keyword search (you can use Google Analytics), then creating original video content and adding the relevant hashtags.
TikTok isn’t the only platform leaning into SEO as a trend. Instagram has also implemented greater SEO scope within its search function. In the past, you could only search for accounts, locations and hashtags, but now the platform also recognises keywords.
For Preobrazhenskaia, the return to an SEO focus offers a huge opportunity for V for Vibes, which faces countless hurdles on social media due to the content they share, despite it being educational in nature and not sexually explicit.
“There’s no viable option [for paid advertising],” Preobrazhenskaia says. “On the bright side, that’s allowed us to focus our efforts on organic growth strategies, primarily through SEO.”
Harness the trend:
· Find the top search terms within your business’s niche and include these within captions on Instagram and TikTok
· Create engaging content (like Instagram Stories) designed to address these terms and include the terms in captions and with hashtags
6. LinkedIn’s Creator tools expand
LinkedIn has long been the preferred social media platform for many services and business-to-business brands – and over the past few months it has extended its ‘Creator mode’ offering.
Launched in 2021, LinkedIn’s Creator mode is aimed at helping users grow their reach. Now, small businesses and creators can use it as part of their strategy to gain insight into the success of their posts, create newsletters, include a website in their profile bio, and potentially be featured on LinkedIn’s main page feed of recommended contributors.
While the platform might not seem the most obvious place for capturing new consumers and commercial conversion to sales, Preobrazhenskaia says LinkedIn’s new changes have led to growth for V for Vibes in other ways.
"Use social media as a form of visual storytelling."
“We use social media as a form of visual storytelling. As of now, Instagram leads our social media traffic, followed by LinkedIn,” she says. “LinkedIn is unique because it allows us to not only talk about sexuality but also the business side of things.”
Using LinkedIn to discuss the logistics, challenges, successes and interesting stories behind the business as a marketing strategy, she continues, has led to “solidifying wholesale deals and creating critical relationships with brands and individuals” that might not have been found through other platforms.
Harness the trend:
· Set up Creator mode and check your eligibility for creator privileges like newsletters
· Use hashtags and website links to improve your search visibility
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