Top 3 Social Media Marketing Shifts in 2022

What a wild year it has been across the social media and influencer marketing industries.  Huge shifts have been made in our post-pandemic world as both brands and agencies alike continue to figure out what strategies are rising to the top.

There have been an enormous amount of industry updates this year that have all had significant impacts on how social media marketing has been utilized.  Here are our picks for the top 3 social media marketing shifts in 2022. 

Elon Musk Buys Twitter

This is what we'd assume everyone would be expecting to be at the top of this list and we would be remiss if we didn't put it on here.

Overall, Musk's ventures have been a rollercoaster of emotions this year and have resulted in both good and bad publicity for both him and his now $44 Billion pet project.  The three biggest impacts coming from this are:

• The Implementation of Purchasing Blue Verification Badges
• • As a top-tier social media 'troll' himself, it's a shock that Musk didn't see this as an issue.  Just for fun, users can purchase a blue badge under a reputable name for just $8, then disrupt an entire market based off of one tweet.
    
    
• Loads of Company Layoffs and Purposely Harsh Working Condition
  
  
• Instability of Twitter's Financials
• • $12.5B in loans were taken out to make this purchase happen, meaning that Twitter will have to come up with an additional $1B/year to service this debt.

Even after Twitter adopted a poison pill strategy earlier in the year to lead Musk away from making the purchase, it ended up happening regardless.  Since then, Twitter is still pushing out updates and making strives to try to secure their space in the market.  It seems like they haven't given up just yet and it'll be interesting to see where they land in 2023.

Bigger Focus on Marketing with Video

Video has been skyrocketing in value in 2022 and is showing no signs of slowing down as the preferred method for marketers to get their message across.  

A ton of the credit for the growth in interest are the various improvements that the social platforms have made to their short and long form video solutions.  Some top ones are:

• YouTube Releasing Channel Handles
  
  
• Multiple Platforms Staying On Top of Current Trends By Adding BeReal-like Offerings
  
  
• YouTube Shorts Creators Added to the Partner Program
  
  
• Instagram Videos Auto-Generating Captions

As platforms develop and new features are added, groups like Gen Z have been looking for more immersive shopping experiences.  This results in the platform updates not only benefiting the platform users, but also marketers and advertisers who are looking for innovative ways to reach these specific audiences.

The Search for Recession-Proof Social Media Marketing Tactics

With a recession looming, marketers and decision-makers across the industry searched for the most effective tactics while being in a budget-conscious mindset.  In a previous blog post, we went over why influencer marketing stood out as one of the leading recession-proof tactics.

Here are a few key points from that article that highlight the reasoning behind this mindset:

• Social platforms are constantly making advancements in their Influencer Content tools, allowing for Influencers to flourish and create loads of content 
  
  
• Consumers are loyal to the influencers that they follow, uncovering a hidden earned media opportunity of brand loyalty that isn’t generated through brand-generated content 
  • gen.video’s 2022 Quarterly Social Commerce Report showcases that 20% of consumers would buy the exact brand of product that an influencer recommends without searching for a cheaper alternative. 
    
    
• Influencers know how to connect with audiences and get views through creativity and keeping up with trends, allowing for an increased chance of virality on branded content 

What do you think of our list?  Did we miss something that you would put above these in significance?

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