Future casting Social Media Trends

YouTube has been a popular social media platform for years. Now Facebook allows people to upload videos, as well as Instagram stories and highlights. It’s clear that the public wants to see videos on their social media feeds. This makes sense since videos allow them to learn more about the people that they follow, making things even more personal. With that said, even businesses are getting in on this trend, having their marketing departments create videos that work in a similar manner to commercials. 

In 2022, you’ll see more videos getting shared on these networks, and the advances in posting them (including video sizes and lengths) will move forward as well. You might even see some new forms of social media pop up, especially if a company can find a way to beat YouTube at their own game.

It all started with bloggers. Brands paired with them in order to promote their wares. As blogs slowly began to fall out of favor (although the blogging “trend” is far from over), influencers took over. Now, consumers are becoming more and more aware of the “personas” that influencers push, and their depictions of that perfect Instagram-led life are seen as false. This tarnishes their brands, as well as the ones that they are paid to promote. Look to see more organic and natural influencers take their places. These people won’t be afraid to show their flaws, and their fans and sponsors will reward them. However, this change won’t take place overnight.

Millennials (also known as Generation Y) have been pushed aside in favor of the next up and coming batch of adults – Generation Z. Those born between the years of 1995 and 2005 are either just entering the workforce, going to college, or starting their teenage years. Like the Millennials before them, this group of kids has plenty of disposable income, as well as an attachment to social media. They grew up with smartphones, understand how to use this technology, and aren’t afraid to showcase their purchases to their friends, family, and thousands of social media followers. They’ll be the group that many young-skewing brands target through social media, and you can expect some of them to figure out how to professional influencers (as long as they are “real” and don’t try to depict an idealized perfect life.)

It’s been a few years since a new hot social media site has launched, so the world is due. The last big, popular site, SnapChat, launched their IPO in 2017, but the company actually started in 2011. It’s been over seven years since something new and hot has launched in the social media world, which, when you think about it, is centuries as far as technology is concerned. At some point in the next year, expect to see a new form of social media pop up. It might be something that allows users to create and share videos, but it might be something else altogether. In fact, when you consider the fact that technology and trends seem to be cyclical, this new form of social media might just be text based. Maybe something based off of the roots of Twitter?

Essentially, social media is user-generated content. This is nothing new. The main difference between it and the overall user-generated content trend is the ways in which this information is used. For example, you’ll see more national ad campaigns created by global companies that ask their fans to send in pictures and videos to be used in their commercials. While some of these campaigns might be competitions, it might be something as simple as “use this hashtag” and we might use your post. Since everyone wants their moment in the sun – even if that “moment” is more along the lines of a few seconds – there will be thousands of submissions. This is something that will definitely gain more of a foothold in 2022. Brands are realizing that they can utilize the content produced by their fans for their own gain, in a way.