2021 Social Media Trends for Nonprofits in 2022: Part 1
In this series, we will share what 2021 social media trends we’re keeping, which ones we’re leaving behind, and what we can expect to see on social media in 2022.
With 4.5 billion people on social media, a daily increase of active users, and changed online behavior sparked by the ongoing pandemic, new social trends are emerging in this ever-changing digital landscape. 2021 was full of new features across the most popular social platforms, including a heavy shift toward Instagram eCommerce, the cross-generational rise of TikTok, and the piqued interest in the audio social space. In part one of our Social Trends series, we will dive into the social media trends of the past year that are worth keeping in your social media strategy.
Trends we’re keeping from 2021
Influencer Marketing
Brands are looking towards community building and have finally hit the mark in 2021 with ample investment revealing the power and success behind influencer marketing. eMarketer reported that in the U.S. alone, 72.5% of marketers are projected to make use of influencer marketing by 2022. The implementation of this approach will allow brands and businesses to connect with new audiences, earn their trust, and gain valuable cultural capital.
Top social platforms have taken to start investing in options to support the future of influencer and creator content on their platforms that will we can easily predict will carry into the 2022 growth strategies of these sites.
- Twitter’s $uper Follows
- TikTok’s Creator Marketplace
- Facebook’s Brand Collabs Manager
- Instagram’s Collabs
- Instagram’s Branded Content Ads
- YouTube Brand Connect
The influence of these accounts may soon even be worth more than that ad spend you budgeted. We can’t deny the value of content and community that creators and influencers bring to these apps Influencers have a built-in audience reach paired with earned trust from their followers. A “Facebook for Business” survey of Instagram revealed that 42% of those surveyed said that branded content helps them discover new products or services.
It’s the perfect recipe but be prepared to pay fair rates. With social platforms placing more value on these accounts with community influence- even micro and niche creators know their worth and won’t be willing to work for free or for at-cost “product” trade anymore.
Short Form Video Content
2021 can be summed with a surge in short-form video content. This trend can clearly be expected to cross over become a staple of the 2022 social media “wardrobe”. Short-form video content won’t be going anywhere any time soon. Twitter is expected to make video content a bigger focus next year. Likely they will be integrating the tools of their failed “Fleets” feature to improve a new watch option while integrating the full-screen presentation.
Short-form is the sweet spot of 2022—between TikTok’s 3-minute mark and the 60 second limit of Reels, we’re marking it the year of bite-size videos.
Ready to read part 2 in this series? Click here.