So What Exactly Are These Trends?

1. The majority of online content today is video content

The urban masses around the world already have access to high-speed internet connectivity, and this has made video content dominant. In a 2018 study, renowned IT and networking solutions company Cisco predicted that 82% of the entirety of online content in 2022 would be video-based.

The company's predictions have come true, and the fact is that video content is only going to get bigger in the times ahead. So, if your business' content strategy doesn't include video content, it's about time you included it.

2. Short-form videos are more effective than long-form videos

Since TikTok came to the fore, the popularity of short-form videos has exploded - so much so that other platforms took a leaf out of TikTok's book and created their own in-app short-form video creation tools. For instance, Instagram came out with Reels. Even YouTube, the king of long-form video content, had to acknowledge the power of short-form video content, which resulted in the launch of YouTube Shorts

According to a Hootsuite survey, businesses these days prefer short-form video content over long-form content as well. Quite simply, if you hope to achieve any success with long-form video nowadays, YouTube is your only saving grace.

3. Increased influencer marketing budgets

Before the rise of social media and the relevance of influencers, businesses had to rope in big-name celebrities to promote their product and/or services. While this strategy worked for many businesses, it came at a high cost. However, once influencers began to gain traction, businesses realised that marketing through influencers would not only be cost-effective but also result in greater reach.

The growth of the influencer marketing industry has been staggering over the last few years. From 2020 to 2021, the market soared from $9.7 billion to $13.8 billion, and by the end of 2022, Influencer Marketing Hub research predicts the number to soar to $16.4 billion. Additionally, 68% of Influencer Marketing Hub marketers plan on increasing their influencer marketing budgets in 2022.

4. Greater leveraging of micro-influencers by brands

Macro and mega influencers have more than 150,000 and 500,000 followers respectively across their social media profiles. While leveraging them can help brands to reach a lot of people in one go, the fact is that they are expensive. For every post, these influencers may charge between $1,000 - $2,000.

In 2022, many businesses, particularly small and medium businesses will turn to micro-influencers, who typically have between 1,000 - 10,000 followers. The reason? Micro-influencers are much more affordable, as they generally don't take more than $100 for a post, according to HypeAuditor data.

5. More paid advertising to reach target audiences

All major social media platforms these days have their native advertising tools, which allow businesses to create ads and target users based on various metrics. These tools have been extremely successful, and have resulted in success not just for many businesses using the tools, but also for the respective platforms.

However, the success of the likes of Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, and Twitter Ads has led to a problem - organic reach has declined. There was once a time that businesses could afford to ignore paid advertising options on social media platforms, but not anymore. According to a Hootsuite report, 2022 will see annual social media advertising spending go beyond a whopping $134 billion, a 17% increase from 2021.