For generating competitive advantage in 2022 it’s time to make some changes and adjust your social media strategy to the upcoming trends. We already browsed through several articles, reports and statistics of FinancesOnline, Hootsuite, Hubspot, Forbes, Social Media Today, What’s Trending, Exploding Topics and Talkwalker and chose the most talked about trends, which are fitting for SMEs. You should test and try them out, but outsource those that don’t make sense for your brand.

1. Short-form videos
2. Social customer care
3. Augmented reality (AR) → User-generated content (UGC)
4. Social selling
5. Driving content by using stats & facts
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1. Short form videos

According to Hubspot 85% of companies rank short-form videos as the most effective type of social media content in 2021. This shows that short and “snackable” video content wins and will most probably still be winning in 2022.

So, make sure to keep your content bite-sized. Short video clips, image-based infographics etc. let you promote new products or services in a way that fits your audience’s attention span in a fast-paced world. But attention: Make sure that the short videos are entertaining, engaging and informative.
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2. Social customer care

Forget the conversation with customers on the phone. Thanks to the pandemic, lockdowns, labor shortages etc. consumers have had more urgent questions for businesses than ever before. And it’s well-known that through social media they can get answers to those questions more conveniently. In a Nielsen survey commissioned by Facebook, 64% of people said they would prefer to message rather than call a business. So, you should concentrate on customer care on your social platforms and make sure to answer every question in messages, comments etc.
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3. Augmented reality in social media

An example is the collaboration of Snapchat and Gucci Shoes. Maybe we should be prepared that AR will rise in social media platforms in 2022. SMEs could easily create campaigns in which they show off their products, whatever they sell, from automotive profiles through shutters to kitchen etc. via augmented reality through the cameras of potential customers. Herewith you could easily kill two birds with one stone by creating besides also user generated content, when users try out your products through AR and then post it on social media.
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4. Social selling

Social Selling creates direct shopping experiences, so users don’t even have to leave their sites to purchase products. Herewith you can reach users whenever and wherever and the easier and faster it is, the higher the chance of a purchase.  

The Instagram shop is getting more and more popular. Why not let customers purchase your products directly from Instagram, if they want to? Social Selling is usually most common for apparel and accessory companies, but if you’re not one of those, you could still try it out and test if it would be working for your brand as well.
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5. Driving content by using stats & facts

‍According to Forbes the science-based approach can create unique opportunities since the space of entertainment and opinion social media content is very crowded and you can stand out from your competitors better by using facts and stats. Try to wrap public data into short and snackable content, with a functional design to get the attention as fast as possible and let the information be understandable directly. As the attention span of users seems to get shorter and shorter your content has to be catching and fastly understandable in order to let users stop and deal with your posts.
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6. Bottom line: Your social media strategy in 2022
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The landscape of social media marketing continues to evolve at ever greater speeds. Old approaches like video content or the use of stats and facts gain more and more importance while new approaches like AR and social selling are ripe with potential for future content marketing applications. These are just some of the biggest trends for SMEs that will dominate social media marketing in the coming year and beyond. Being aware of these trends and adapting in time, will allow your brand to stay ahead of competitors and thrive online. And as with most big trends, the speed and efficiency of adaption will be key to its success. Luckily, speed and efficiency can be cheated by using the right tools for the right tasks. For each trend, be it social selling or social customer care, a multitude of tools are available to help you and your brand to make the most of that trend's benefits.