Among the latest research and data, a few social media trends clearly stand out to pay attention to. More on what we will face and what the challenges will be for users and content creators below:
Short-form video is still the number 1.
TikTok is the biggest among the social media with short-form video content and with billions of active users but keeps the most important rule to provide value to the viewers with high-quality content.
Wyzowl’s video marketing statistics report for 2022 shows that video marketing is growing:
- 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
- 78% of people say they have been convinced to buy or download a piece of software or app by watching a video.
- 90% of consumers use their mobile devices to watch video content.
In second place ranks YouTube.
While the short-form vertical video dominates, the world’s second most visited website, YouTube, is vying for that number one spot.
If we talk about demographics, TikTok and vertical video lean towards a younger and more tech-savvy demographic. On the other hand, YouTube draws all demographics, including one in three baby boomers.
Social commerce will continue to grow.
Social media long before the COVID-19 pandemic heavily influenced consumers’ buying habits. Back in 2018, 30% of consumers said they would make purchases through Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat (forbes.com). Nowadays the smartphone shopping is reaching its all-time high.
Social media comes up as the place for reviews
It is not a surprise that more and more consumers prefer online shopping. As we are still living in a pandemic culture, most of them prefer to shop online. But before purchasing, they first take a look at a social media platform for reviews.
Content creators and influencers lead to opinions.
More than 80% still trust reviews and recommendations from family and friends who received a brand experience and 71% still trust bloggers, vloggers or social media influencers who have received the same service or used the product.
Customer reviews are trusted 12 times more than marketing coming directly from the company (statista.com).
Community has a bigger power.
One of the ongoing messages we see on social media is that you need to build a community.
This might sound vague or idealistic, but the fact is that more than 50% of branded communities say that the community has had an impact on customer retention. And according to the Global Web Index, 76% of internet users are participants of online communities.
Changes in LinkedIn followed by digital trust expectations.
Digital trust is the confidence people have that a platform will protect their information and provide a safe environment for them to create and engage with content. The 2022 report by Insider Intelligence shows that it’s seen a decline for LinkedIn. There should be a change in this platform. LinkedIn reshaped the posts and massively there are more and more personal posts – without links.
The rise of AI generated content
The latest trend is creating content using artificial intelligence tools such as natural language processing, machine learning, and computer vision (sendible.com).
Several AI tools have emerged and here are the most famous ones:
- Chat GPT is a natural language processing tool that can be used to generate social media copy. ChatGPT has continued to dazzle the internet, morphing from a novel chatbot into a piece of technology that is driving the next era of innovation.
- Synthesia is a video creation tool that uses AI to create personalized videos at scale.
- Lexica is a tool that can be used to generate images using natural language descriptions.
While there are benefits to using AI generated content, there are also some drawbacks. One of the biggest concerns is the lack of creativity and potential for errors in AI-generated content. As AI tools continue to improve, we will likely see even more creative and innovative uses of AI generated content in social media marketing.
Sources:
https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/277045/us-social-commerce-revenue-forecast/
18 Online Review Statistics Every Marketer Should Know (searchenginejournal.com)
Digital Trust Benchmark 2022 – Insider Intelligence Trends, Forecasts & Statistics
https://www.sendible.com/insights/ai-in-social-media