As we jump straight into a New Year at Truffle Social, we’re keen to spark conversations about trends that we see taking shape in the next 12 months ahead.
So what do these look like?
Our team has been putting their heads together based on the outcomes from 2021, and this is what we’ve found…
We expect social audio to make mainstream waves in 2022
We’ve seen audio become a widely adopted content format through the introduction of Facebook Audio, Linkedin Audio, Twitter Spaces and Instagram Reels.
Not only this, but TikTok has launched a new ‘Evolution of Sound’ insight series. This explores the importance of sound in clips and why brands need to consider this within their overall marketing effort.
According to a study last year, brand identification and recall increased by over 8x when distinct brand sounds were used in ads over other elements like slogans and logos.
Social selling continues to up its game
Last year, the hashtag #tiktokmademebuyit had more than 5 billion views.
Why? Because ‘As seen on TV’ has now become ‘As seen on social’ and we have seen a clear shift in 2021 from things being sold ‘through social’ to being sold ‘by social’.
Examples of this?
There’s Amazon’s Instagram Famous section, where the site spotlights UGC content featuring products sold on the e-commerce website - among many others doing the same.
The rise of TikTok and challenger content makes social a breeding ground for product trends and 2022 will be all about marketers tapping into this two-way street.
Social platforms will embrace exclusive content subscriptions.
We’ve already seen this with Twitter launching its ‘super follows’ & Twitter Tips, along with Instagram introducing Subscriptions for exclusive 'your eyes only' content - who knew that social would eventually offer VIP treatment?!
Well, don't worry - when this comes, you can sit with us.
So who’s next?
These kind of features allow creators to monetise their content with or without brand partnerships in place.
This will offer marketers another option for conversions alongside paid ads.
Social Shopping will continue to lean into a more LIVE format.
This is a big one!
So far we’ve seen TikTok, Facebook & Instagram introduce live shopping features along with YouTube set to launch live video shopping this year!
Reports suggests livestream shopping could account for 20% of ecommerce revenue by 2026.
We expect this live experience format to feature heavily in digital fashion spaces, virtual real estate and so on.
We’re also very excited to see how this might move into B2B!
