It’s that time again! New social media platforms and trends emerge as 2021 closes in.

If your business is using social media, it’s imperative to keep tabs on the ongoing and forthcoming trends to weave them into your marketing. So, what can we expect to see in 2022 for social platforms?

Let’s take a deep dive into how social media will transform the marketing practices in the year ahead.

Bite-sized content

People are spending more time on social media in general, but they are spending less time engaging with others content. The human attention span has now dropped to just eight seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000. Social media platforms are adjusting to this by offering bite-sized content instead, such as reels or short-form videos.

Emerging shopping platforms

It’s no secret that online shopping became more prevalent during the pandemic, so naturally social media platforms adjusted to this and became an increasingly popular shopping outlet. The number of Australian consumers who made purchases through social media in 2020 was 5.3 million. It is expected to increase up to 6.4 million by the year 2024.

Building a community, not just customers

Gone are the days when social media was just about promoting products or services, it’s also about building a community. It’s about creating a relationship between a business and customers that offers a place to share, discuss and experience a brand. This marketing technique will also allow business owners to understand the consumer behavior that can the be used in future marketing.

Visualisation power on social media

It has been highly proven that people prefer visual content over text-based content. However, it can be hard to stand out when all social media channels are flooded with attractive visual content. To make your content more distinctive, you must first understand your target audiences wants. Then you can produce content that encourages them to stop scrolling to interact with your account.

Rapid increase with stories

Stories started on Snapchat, then Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Messenger too. Stories are a very effective way to engage with customers as people don’t want to miss out on something that has time constraints, offers a glimpse of behind-the-scenes action or backend information. Especially with the option of Swipe Up, stories can now successfully send people away from social media to their website.

It’s safe to say that social media is a rapidly growing phenomenon and has been for quite some time.

One that businesses cannot afford to overlook. These upcoming trends are an easy place to start for businesses to stay ahead of the game and reap the benefits over the long haul.

• This story was originally published on our sister site Inside Small Business.