Over the past two years, we have seen the importance of social media like no other. Both on a personal level, but also what role it can play for companies. You have probably already used social media, or perhaps you are considering using social media for your company. What can we expect from social media and what will be the trends for 2022? We're already making a prediction!

YouTube will play a prominent role

It is expected that YouTube will play an increasingly prominent role for companies to reach their target group. We can find reasons for this if we look at Facebook, for example. When we think of social media for companies, we mainly think of Facebook and, depending on the industry, perhaps Instagram. Many companies have a Facebook page, but we also often see that they are not properly maintained and that they do not regularly post messages at fixed times. We admit it honestly, we are guilty of this too!

The main reason why people are convinced that other platforms will become more important is because reaching people organically via Facebook is very difficult. Did you know that the average reach of an organic Facebook post is... 5,2% is? And that the interaction with these messages is 0,25%? It is therefore not surprising that companies are looking for alternatives to reach their target group.

When we look at the type of content, we see that visual content such as banners, fun images and videos do very well. Just look at the rise of TikTok, for example. Regardless of what you think of the platform, there's no denying that it's popular. Currently, the platform has over 1 trillion monthly active users.

With the rise of TikTok, it is not surprising that we look at platforms where video is central. Currently, YouTube has about 2 trillion monthly active users. We can trace the importance of video back to Facebook and even Instagram. In 2014, Facebook launched a 'video first' campaign and in 2021 Instagram decided to focus more on videos.

The use of personas will change

Every company has a persona. A persona is a 'fictional' person based on a company's target group data. Future plans are made based on a persona. What should they focus on when advertising? How do they use the service or service that is provided. In short, a persona is a personalization of the target group.

To create a persona, some information is needed. The most commonly used data are demographic and geographic. These personas are often expanded with data about relationship status and hobbies. However, the expectation is that we will move away from the traditional personas and further expand on them aimed at specific tasks. The personas will become more extensive. We actually see this when we look at people who create content but also UX/UI designers. Think of images or an interface that the user often uses. What color scheme they prefer, but also things like what kind of ads they respond to most.

It's all going to depend on the person creating the persona. Someone who creates content is more likely to look at how the target group consumes content while a marketer looks at the user's personality, advertising preferences and goals.

Organic becomes less important.

The expectation is that organic will play a less important role. One option that will most likely be turned to are paid options. People want quick results and paying for this is increasingly becoming a must instead of being optional. To look back on the first expectation. The chance that companies will switch to channels where there is more interaction such as Instagram, YouTube and TikTok is quite high. Influencers will also play an important role in this. The content that will be delivered will be more personal and of higher quality. Consumers will no longer be satisfied with just advertising.