What to expect from social media in 2022

The number of social media users in the world is constantly growing. Around 3.7 billion people were registered on the platforms in 2021. Experts predict an increase in the number of users and the development of social networks. Let’s find out which direction they will take.

Online shopping

Social networks are slowly evolving into marketplaces for goods and services. Online shopping is becoming an integral part of life, and platforms are playing no small part in this. Younger audiences are making such purchases more often. Right now, such options are only available on some social media platforms. But given the growing popularity of this trend, we can expect more functionality on all similar platforms.

Short videos

Interest in watching short videos is growing. In social networks such content generates twice as much demand as the usual photo format. Experts predict an increase in short video content on all platforms. TitTok, Instagram and Youtube already offer similar functionality. At the same time, longer videos are not losing their relevance, and this trend is also continuing.

Virtual life

Along with the growth in the number of social media users, the time they spend on the platforms is also increasing. Nowadays, a person spends an average of 145 minutes per day there. The pandemic has played its part in shaping this trend, during which the use of social media as a whole has increased by almost a quarter.

Fast browsing

Whereas 20 years ago a person’s attention span was 12 seconds, now that figure has dropped by a third. Social media users who browse content from a desktop version focus on it for slightly longer than on mobile gadgets. Social networks are adapting to these trends – content is becoming shorter and ‘disappearing’ posts, which are available for a certain amount of time, are growing in popularity.

New reality

Experts predict an increase in augmented reality (AR) content. According to preliminary calculations by the end of the current year almost half of all users will use it in one form or another. At the same time, interest in virtual reality (VR) is not diminishing and will continue for the time being.

For specific users

The attention to user-generated content (UGC) on social platforms is growing. This trend shows high effectiveness in terms of marketing. Companies that use such content have an increase in repeat visitors (+20%) and time on site (+90%). Interestingly, such content costs less than other online advertising formats. At the same time, it is easier to use for business promotion.

Segmentation

The trend for companies to occupy specific niches in the marketplace began ten years ago, when they segmented a large advertising platform Craigslist. It was divided into several large firms, each with a specific focus. For example, Airbnb, a home-rental service, emerged from there. Now Reddit is following the same path, from which they segmented voice chat for gamer communication and created a separate service from that tool.