It’s a classic irony that the only constant in social media is that it’s not constant.

No one could have foreseen the resurgence of QR codes or the meteoric rise of TikTok just a few short years ago. The app store tracker Apptopia predicted that by 2021, TikTok would overtake Facebook and Instagram as the most downloaded app on both iOS and Android devices.

If you want to be a successful marketer, it’s important to stay abreast of developments in your field so you can anticipate future trends instead of reacting to them.

That’s why we compiled this list of upcoming 2022 social media trends.

1. The popularity of TikTok keeps rising

While the app’s popularity may not explode like it did in 2020, it shows no signs of slowing down. In September of 2021, 1 billion people were using TikTok each month. The company has also put resources into improving its advertising platform, which should make it less difficult for established brands and businesses to establish a profile on the service.

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Notable TikTok numbers include:

• 69% of American adolescents use TikTok.
• Ninety percent of users sign in daily.
• An average of 89 minutes per day is spent by users on the popular app TikTok.

Furthermore, 47% of users have “bought something seen on TikTok,” and 67% “agree that TikTok inspired them to shop even when they weren’t looking to do so.”

Given its popularity and growth, TikTok is worth further investigation by companies, especially those targeting a younger demographic. Find out more about the benefits of using TikTok for your business and how the platform’s current trends can affect your social media marketing.

2. Companies are putting more money into social shopping.

Using a social media site to conduct business (whether buying or selling) is known as “social commerce.” Foresight into the future suggests that all the major social networks will continue to put resources into social commerce.

The Harris Poll commissioned this study on behalf of Sprout Social and found that 73 percent of businesses are already engaging in social commerce and 79 percent plan to do so within the next three years. In response to this pattern, Sprout built in support for Shopify and Facebook Shops. Because of this, you won’t even have to leave Sprout to tag items in your inventory.

3. Development of a fully developed creator economy.

These days, it’s all about the creators.

As of late, all four of the most popular social media platforms for creators—YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok—have established their own creator funds. There are more than 50 million people who identify as creators in the world, according to a recent report on the creator economy. Although creators are not restricted to social media platforms, those who do use them do help to grow the predicted $13.8 billion influencer industry.

Brands now have a wider variety of options as the creator economy develops. Smaller brands can increase their visibility by partnering with micro-influencers (those with fewer than 15,000 followers each) on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

4. Brands develop a social audio strategy

While audio has been around forever, its recent proliferation across social media is novel. Radio, podcasts, and music playlists are all part of an audio strategy. With an audio-only social media strategy, you can focus on fewer channels.

One of the most prominent companies in this field in 2021 was Clubhouse, a social audio platform. Clubhouse’s popularity declined despite the removal of the invite-only requirement and the launch of an Android version. However, the concept has already been adopted by other forms of social media.

By the middle of 2021, Facebook had launched a slew of new audio features, such as Rooms, podcasts, and Soundbites. These additions were made to give audio content makers more options for how to implement their ideas.

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5. Livestream shopping transforms ecommerce

Livestreaming one’s shopping experiences on various social media platforms is a rapidly expanding e-commerce trend. This trend has only accelerated as the ongoing pandemic has reduced the availability of traditional retail outlets.

Livestream shopping has exploded in popularity in China, where its gross merchandise value (GMV) is expected to reach 20.3% of the total GMV of online shopping by 2022, up from just 4.5% in 2017. Live commerce is predicted to generate $35 billion in revenue for the United States by 2024, tripling from its current level.

Consumers find livestream shopping appealing because it combines the convenience of online shopping with the intimate feel of a live broadcast. According to McKinsey, 35.6% of all livestreams were about clothing and fashion.