Top Social Media Trends For 2022

The ultimate lead magnet is the one that few are taking advantage of – the private podcast. – Jerry Potter, Five Minute Social Media 

There are certainly some big overarching 2022 social media trends, but a lot of the most basic things are actually based on human psychology and the way that we interact and the things we like to do and watch.

Let’s look at TikTok. Even Though TikTok exploded in 2021, it’s not because our brains suddenly craved that type of content. The fact of the matter is, TikTok’s success was about timing. Consumers wouldn’t have enjoyed a network like TikTok five or 10 years ago because our phones were probably not fast enough to play that many videos in a row. Obviously, a whole generation of creators have learned to edit quality video. It’s not that TikTok blew up because all of a sudden we want that type of short, entertaining content. Not to mention the music industry has adjusted their world view. 10 years ago, the record companies wouldn’t have let an app like TikTok or Facebook or Instagram actually use commercial music from Drake or Olivia Rodrigo. If you’ve watched TikTok, you probably would agree that the music is a huge part of the appeal. Now, I use TikTok as an example, just to kind of preface that just because something becomes trendy, it doesn’t necessarily mean that our tastes are changing.

As you are going through your own social media strategy, I wouldn’t expect a thousand things to change every 30 days, because even though there are lots of changes, most of them don’t affect what we do as long as we are sticking to the things that work for communicating and connecting with humans so that we bring in more buyers. 

Let’s look at seven social media trends going into 2022. 

1. VIDEO. Everybody should be creating video pretty much at this point. I think it was six or seven years ago that mark Zuckerberg said, “…in five years, I expect Facebook will be pretty much all video” – Facebook has now added Reels and still going big on Facebook Watch content, which is their video platform and Facebook Lives and all of the things we’re still headed in that direction really, really quickly. The good news is that to create video, you don’t necessarily have to create 12 minute videos with fancy editing. A lot of the people that are just killing it with video are just doing quick pieces of video on their phone and that’s it with no other equipment. A recent survey found 60% of marketers said they were using video in 2021 and 94% of those plan to continue using it in the coming year. Video is not going anywhere. If you don’t have video as part of your strategy, definitely something to consider. 

2. SHORT CONTENT. Why is short content going to be big in 2022? Well, first of all, it was the biggest thing of 2021. TikTok growth is insane. Reels copied the format, put it on Instagram. Now they’ve put it on Facebook. LinkedIn is talking about adding some sort of quick short form video content. Short video is not going anywhere. We’re going into the age of snackable, content, quick little pieces of content that people can consume quickly. Then if they like what they see, it can absolutely move on to longer content. That trust factor that we’re all trying to build with our customers and clients is going to now require multiple touch points more than ever before. There’ve been studies where they say a brand has to have eight touch points or a consumer has to have eight touch points with you before they’ll buy from you. There’s been a shift away from that. Your brand has to be consistent because the impression is now being built across 4 pieces or 10 pieces or 20 pieces of short content. In addition to that, in terms of these, you know, snackable content pieces, I think short content in general is going to continue to become more of a trend. I think for those of us that are in the education space, like I teach and coach around social media marketing for business owners, I think that the training needs to be shorter and results driven. I recently wrapped up teaching a new course to all of the members in my Streamliners Club, all about the Streamlined Entrepreneur system, it was a longer multi-week course and I tried to make each week almost like its own workshop. If you are in the education space, I think that shorter content is really important. People don’t have time to sit through repeated long trainings.

3. LONG CONTENT – Jerry, you just said short! Follow me on this. You’ve got this short content, which is great for quickly getting somebody’s attention, letting them build rapport with you, letting them like you, making them even aware that you exist, but then long content is the thing that’s going to help them become a customer or client in a big way. 

TikTok, started out with 15 seconds – now they’re allowing TikTok up to three minutes. Podcasts have now been added to Facebook. You can connect your podcast to a Facebook Business Page. So there is this longer content that’s really good for getting somebody to really know,

like, and trust you and get them into the mindset they need to be in to become your client or customer. You just have to build the trust first in order to get them to consume it. 

4. REPURPOSING LONG CONTENT – Repurposing long content into shorter content and vice versa. There’s no room for medium content anymore, whatever the medium might mean, but repurposing long content at a shorter and vice versa. One of my favorite pieces of long content is the listicle. If this blog post was titled “284 Social Media Trends”, then you might go, whoa, Hard Pass. But if it’s seven, it’s an okay that’s consumable. And from the creator standpoint, if you create a list of seven things and somebody likes the first three or four, they’ll probably hang out all the way through seven. For example, I could make each one of my 2022 trends into an Instagram story. I can make each one into a TikTok video. I can make each one into a tweet or a Facebook post. I could count them down in a Facebook group. There are so many different ways that they can break them down into smaller pieces of content. And the same thing goes the other way, turning shorter content into long content. 

5. PRIVATE PODCASTS. A private podcast is a podcast that’s…wait for it…private. You create audio like you would for a regular podcast but it’s not listed in any of the podcast directories. You won’t find it on Apple podcasts or Google podcasts or on Spotify, but instead it is a private feed and nobody else can find it unless you give them access. According to Insider Intelligence, podcasts users will continue to increase. By 2023 it’s estimated that 25% of digital audio will be delivered as podcasts. So that means of all the audio that is streamed or downloaded in any way whatsoever, you know, Pandora and Amazon Music and Apple Music – a fourth of it will be podcasts. That’s massive. Plus podcasts know audio is a very intimate medium for building know, like and trust. 

The ultimate lead magnet is the one that few are taking advantage of – the private podcast. With private podcasts, now this is sort of what I’m calling the ultimate freebie or the ultimate lead magnet. You want to get people on your email list, you can require somebody to email to access your private podcast. It’s a great way to grow your email list. I use private podcasts in my Streamliners Club membership, where we offer replays of all the coaching calls, as well as any trainings, as audio, only as a private podcast. And in my other membership, Five Minute Social Academy, I’m going to be adding replays to certain key content and maybe at some point even additional content, but I know my audience is busy, right? 

6. STANDING OUT. Not that it hasn’t always been important to stand out, but as the internet gets even more crowded, companies are going to have to do even more to stand out, especially entrepreneurs with small businesses like us. This is why I’ve been working with our members so much on messaging through our profitable pages and profiles framework, as well as the rest of our businesses. People need to know exactly what you do. What’s the problem that you solve and why are you different? What w why should I go with you? It’s not enough anymore to just be, oh, well, I offer this and so do a million other people, or even eight other people in my town.

People need to know what it is about you. That is different from all of your competitors. So they actually remember you and then you stand out and if they have a great experience, then they’ll be able to go and tell their friends.

7. COLLABORATING WITH INFLUENCERS. Are you rolling your eyes at the word influencer? Step away from the stereotype. Your perfect people are already getting together on the internet somewhere. A message board on Reddit, listening to a podcast in somebody’s Facebook group on somebody’s email list, on somebody’s YouTube channel. They’re already the perfect people that you need are already getting together somewhere. Collaborating and working with influencers in your niche is going to be a big way to grow. That could mean paying someone, cross promoting products etc. 

2022 is going to be a great time for smaller businesses to start chipping away from bigger companies because it’s harder for bigger companies to change. Think about turning a cargo ship, it takes time – meanwhile, you are a sleek speedboat…with a punny name like “Yacht-C” or “For Reels”.   

If you have questions about any of this, check out Five Minute Social Academy, or if you’d like to work more directly with me, feel free to send me a message about our Streamliners Club. This is where I work with full-time entrepreneurs and I’m available every week to help you grow your business throughout 2022 and reach your goals faster.

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