The year changes and it's once again an excellent time to predict what the (social) world will look like next year! In this article, we present three trends for the coming year that we consider most important and worth keeping in mind.
TikTok is currently the fastest-growing social media channel in the world. Yet both in Finland and globally, many marketers are just taking their first steps on the platform while pioneers are moving forward at great speed in an increasingly strategic direction.
Although TikTok is particularly seen as an authentic channel for young people and Gen Z, the quality of content will gradually become increasingly important. Demographically, TikTok is also continuously reaching an older audience, for whom the platform is starting to offer plenty of content around countless niche topics – just as has happened over the years on YouTube or Instagram, for example.
So you shouldn't force your way onto TikTok by being silly and following the latest trends if the style doesn't fit naturally with your brand image. It's more important to take care of the basics and ensure that what you do is genuinely aligned with your brand strategy. Finding your own channel-native way of communicating and marketing on TikTok is ultimately a better and more secure option than following mainstream trends. We highlight luxury brand Gucci as a good example of the latter approach, which creates content on TikTok in a way characteristic of the brand, with top quality and yet with a twist suitable for the platform.
As TikTok grows its footprint as a social platform for the more specific interests of adult audiences, we encourage you to give the platform weight in your brand's marketing plan at the latest next year.
Social commerce is, as its name suggests, a way to sell and buy a company's products directly through various social media channels. Social media platforms are no longer just for advertising, but through interesting content and advertising, you can create a direct sales channel for your brand through social channels.
Social commerce is estimated to be a business worth over 360 billion dollars in China alone, and the phenomenon is increasingly reaching the rest of the world. In addition to Chinese social platforms and TikTok, both Instagram and YouTube have introduced various purchasing opportunities as part of their services.
A growing trend in the world of social commerce is live-shopping, or a modernized shopping TV that takes place on social channels. We predict that in 2022 live-shopping events will become more common internationally at a rapid pace among many types of brands. There are already various live-shopping solutions that can be integrated into brands' own social channels, such as Bambuser, and the number of different technologies built around social commerce will certainly continue to grow rapidly.
Check out an example of live-shopping on YouTube below!
Influencer marketing has long been seen as a single marketing activity among others, but as investments and competition increase, more and more brands are planning influencer marketing in a more comprehensive way rather than one-off execution. In the future, a single social media post here and there will no longer work, but influencer marketing must be seamlessly integrated as part of other marketing – or even become the core of everything you do.
Among brands, fierce competition is already being waged for major key influencers in certain product categories. Simply querying a few weeks in advance is no longer enough to book the influencer you want – all influencer work must have a long-term plan so that desired influencers can be secured for marketing plans in a timely manner.
So we encourage brands in the future (and already next year!) to plan their marketing activities over a longer time frame, even more strategically and seamlessly. The effort will certainly bear fruit.
Sources:
World Economic Forum
