Top 10 B2B Social Media Trends to Watch in 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world close to a standstill leaving people with no option but to connect with each other in a virtual world. The world, its people, its brands, and all there is turned to social media simply because man is social and cannot live without interaction. Truth is, social media use post-2020 exploded in a way that has never been experienced before. Today’s world has seen more people spending their time on social media which has compelled businesses to start incorporating social media in their marketing strategies. At the same time, social media courses have grown in importance, and social media certification is a valuable asset for marketers.
While email marketing was once the rage, it’s now time for social media to shine. New social media features and trends are coming up fast with the creation of personalized engaging content taking center stage. Platforms that were deemed smaller like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Slideshare, and Tiktok matter the most today. Simple status updates can no longer garner the level of engagement that converts, thus B2B businesses are keen on growing authentic virtual communities through other techniques.
Let’s take a look at 10 B2B social media trends that are shaping digital marketing in 2022.
- ‘Smaller’ platforms have gained traction
The big wheels of social media like Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram have become overloaded with content. Competition remains stiff at the top so businesses have to put in twice as much effort to stand out. Amidst the content overload, businesses still have to find ways of distributing authentic content that their target audience can relate to. Owing to this, there is a shift and the once considered smaller platforms like Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, and LinkedIn are delivering way better ROI. Together with this, in 2022, the tides have shifted towards visual content which is performing remarkably well and delivering more conversions compared to plain text.
This is not to say that the bigger sites are not effective. Not at all! Competition is just stiffer on the other side it might take time to see your return on investment. Plus the newer platforms are more accommodative to visual content.
- TikTok is a goldmine!
Placing emphasis on visual content, TikTok emerged to be people’s favorite social media platform. TikTok gained much popularity during and after the pandemic and is a force to watch out for in 2022.
As of January 2022, TikTok had clocked 1 billion active users across the globe and the numbers are rising. In 2019, TikTok use saw a 180% increase among 15-25-year-olds. TikTok is a social platform on which short-form videos are shared for entertainment, education, awareness, and other purposes. At least 60% of TikTok users are Gen Z. TikTok has today incorporated many innovative features like ads, business profiles, and more allowing brands to make the most out of video marketing to attract views and engagements from their followers. TikTok lets brands take a less formal approach in their engagement with their audience which helps to build authentic relationships as we shall see.
- Short-form video content for increased conversion rates
The growth of TikTok, the rise of YouTube and Instagram reels is indication consumers need more than just plain text content to interact better with a brand. Videos help consumers to understand a brand or a brand’s products way better. 62% of consumers watch product review videos to help them make purchase decisions which lead to increased conversion rates on sales and websites. Instagram reels yield more engagement compared to other content formats while in Twitter, video tweets attract 10x more engagement.
According to a survey by HubSpot, 30% of marketers plan to invest more in short-form videos as part of their 2022 marketing strategy.
- Visual content and microcontent
While videos are the highest rewarding forms of content, other forms of visual content such as stories, slideshare, carousel posts, infographics, picture posts, and others. Microcontent is another worthy option that businesses will explore further in 2022. Microcontent answers a question or solves a specific problem in a short time or with brief meaningful content. Many times, microcontent is used to encourage the target audience to consume long-form content perhaps by clicking on a link that leads to a website.
- Social commerce explosion
Social commerce is a type of e-commerce that takes place entirely on social media right from the product discovery stage, research, check-out, to post-purchase support. Social commerce is projected to grow to a worth of $604.5 billion in seven years up from $89.4 billion in 2020.
With up to 71% of small businesses looking to convert sales on social media, each social site has tools and functions that support social commerce. For instance, Instagram checkout feature for U.S users that allows consumers to directly purchase from the platform and Pinterest features a shop tab that users can use to search and shop for products. In 2022, social media sites are evolving to become virtual shopping malls where buyers can search, discover, and directly purchase products and enjoy an improved shopping experience.
- Emphasis on building genuine relationships
According to the 2022 B2B Buyer report by Sana, 84% of buyers prefer suppliers with whom they have built a relationship regardless of the terms of business. The current crop of consumers values nurtured relationships with the brands they do business with more than the content distributed to them. Therefore in 2022, focus shifts away from merely developing great content to building relationships strong enough to turn potential customers into loyal customers and loyal customers into brand ambassadors. This takes time, consistency, and deliberate effort to understand the customer needs at different stages of the customer journey and customize personalized solutions to meet their needs.
- Leveraging influencer marketing
The influence that influencer marketing has on digital marketing cannot be underestimated in this era. Influencers have built a loyal following on their social media profiles whose purchasing power they can influence easily towards a certain direction. This makes them powerful brand promoters. Influencer marketing is a relatively new trend that has picked up quite fast and is gaining more ground in 2022.
The current trend is the increasing number and popularity of influencers at different levels. Compared to paid ads, B2B businesses may focus more on influencer marketing in 2022 as this sales channel converts more and delivers a better ROI. Beyond driving sales, they are great for creating awareness, building loyal followings.
- Integrating customer support with social media
Social media platforms are social spaces where people connect. For businesses, it means much more than connection. It is a retail space and in the recent a place where they connect with their customers and address their queries. Social media presents a more direct platform to handle customer queries promptly. For instance, Facebook has an automatic messaging feature that people can use to do a live chat or leave a message.
In 2022, this channel will experience consideration in line with Gartner’s projection of 60% of service requests being channeled through social media platforms by 2023.
- No filters, the real deal
As they interact with brands on various social media platforms people are preferring real-time content more and more as filtered and edited content becomes less desirable. The need for authenticity and more natural interactions are shaping the content being delivered through social media channels in 2022.
- Social listening as a source of business insight
In a data-driven world, the value of insights for informed decision-making cannot be overemphasized. Social media is a valuable resource for information and insights that have a significant influence on B2B social strategies and marketing campaigns. A notable trend in 2022 is the emergence of social listening tools that can be employed to tap information from posts, conversations, trends, and others from social media platforms.
Wrapping up
The beauty of social media for marketing and brand visibility is that marketing initiatives are becoming more diverse, targeted, cost-effective, and yielding much better results. A content marketing study by the Content Marketing Institute found that at least 83% of B2B marketers have integrated social media into their marketing strategies. With social media, it is much easier to first run trials at different approaches to discover what works and this will cost a fraction of the cost incurred traditionally. The bottom line is that users are drawn more to genuine, relevant, and engaging content.
