Social Media News & Trends Worth Knowing in 2022

Happy New Year! If this is your first time visiting my blog, I provide consistent updates and recaps of the latest social media trends. You can find some of the recent blog posts here, here, and even a blog post about influencer marketing. Without further ado, let's get into our first weekly newsletter of 2022:

8 Emerging Visual Trends for 2022 [Infographic]

An infographic put together by Depositphotos asked digital marketers what visual trends they expected in 2022. Intending to provide some perspective on where consumers are looking on their favorite social media platforms and what's catching their eye in-feed. Some of my favorites include: 

• Psychadelic Art: Vivid, eye-catching visuals that will stop users scrolling in-feed. Culture is cyclical, and many expect visuals popular in the 70s (e.g., Kaleidoscopes, anyone?) to be popular once again.

• Acts of Self-Love: Creative authenticity will continue to shine as brands look for ways to showcase art that feels simple or minimalist. And a good reminder for us all is that just because a social post looks easy to create doesn't always mean it's easy to replicate.

5 Common Social Media Myths

It's a blessing and a curse that social media is synonymous with so many people's lives. It allows us to reach millions of consumers across the globe, and means that millions of people have their idea of what makes successful social media content. 

Sprout Social spent some time addressing social media myths; here are two of my favorites below: 

• Follower Count is a Vanity Metric: Let me preface by saying a brand's success should not be judged by the number of followers, as all brands are not made equal, and you can easily purchase fake followers or bots. Additionally, it doesn't account for the "90-9-1 rule". According to this rule, only 1% of social media users create content, 9% Share, Like, and Comment on said content, and 90% simply scroll. Sprout Social data shows that 90% of consumers will buy from brands they follow on social, while 86% will choose that brand over a competitor.

• Marketers Have Gone All-in on Video: We've talked about video content before and how social media platforms want to prioritize video content to match consumer trends. We also know that video content is more time and resource-consuming when compared to static images. Sprout Social data sees that as well, with less than 15% of content published by brands across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is video content.

Study: Consumers Want Funny And Reassuring Emails From Brands

More consumer insights to share this week! In a study shared on EmailMarketing Daily, we can learn a little more about how consumers want to be communicated with when it comes to email. Some highlights from the study: 

• Gen Z has the lowest receptiveness to inbound email out of all generations, even though that generation is the most comfortable with digital shopping.

• 57% of all consumers want inbound marketing to amuse and entertain them, up from 4% last year.

• Of the Gen Zers polled, 53% prefer getting email marketing at least once a week, versus 66.5% of millennials, 63% of Gen X, and 58% of boomers. 

Until next time! Thanks for reading!