I’ve been around from the days of MySpace teaching us HTML. I’ve double-tapped more times than I’d like to admit, and I’ve been working in social for a third of my life.

My first gig was a weekend internship for a Nike event in Berlin. After that, I joined one of the very first social media marketing agencies in London; we were behind “social currency” launching a new Marc Jacobs perfume line with a pop-up tweet shop. It was the start of it all.

In more recent years, I headed up social for one of the largest work and travel programs in the world; Remote Year, and ran campaigns that generated millions of engagements with Instagram and Unsplash.

Today, I’m a freelance social media consultant for a few clients. I trend watch, strategize, and plan goal-orientated content. I’ve learned a lot. And, I’m still learning.

In this article, I’ll share a decade’s worth of professional social media knowledge and the learning and predictions to evolve from the world of swiping, tweeting, tapping, and trolling.

6 Social media predictions you heard here first

Right! Let’s get into the fun stuff. If these predictions materialize then you heard them here first. If they don’t, then it’ll be our little secret.

1. Tiktok will continue to grow

TikTok is now absolutely crushing it. It was the most downloaded app of 2021, and is the most popular social media platform for younger generations—trumping Instagram and Snapchat. It’s showing no sign of slowing down and more businesses are looking for unique ideas on how to grow on TikTok. It’s a go-to platform if you want to go viral, catch a new wave of users’ attention, or stretch your creative juices.

2. Social and email will sync closer with tools like Klaviyo

I have no doubt that social media and email will walk hand-in-hand in the future. We’re already seeing leading brands massively benefiting from both, however, the two strategies still tend to work in silos.

On many occasions, I’ve led emails with social media calls-to-action and done the same by leading social posts with email sign-up CTAs—the results are always positive.

This means we’ll start to see email marketing tools like Klaviyo integrate more with social media. Keep in mind, there are a lot of these tools out there. Check out some of the best klaviyo alternatives, and start building your email lists from your social following. In doing so, you’ll be able to better segment and target users with email, leading to more personal experiences and an increase in sales.

3. Memes will never get old

Maybe they’ll change name or form, but the essence of the meme will always be a win. No matter what brand I’ve worked for, from retail to SaaS, ecommerce to luxury goods, memes ring true with your audience if you do them well.

What’s that? You want an insider secret on Memes? Spelling mistakes and poor grammar actually add to their success. It pains me to say this as a writer, but I can’t argue with my experience.

4. Content creation templates will be big

So many platforms are putting creation in the hands of creators, and it’s resulting in a massive demand for easy, content creation templates. There’s a gap in the market for it at the moment, but I can’t imagine it will be there long.

We already use templates with ambassadors and influencers, but they tend to be for copy. I predict there will be content creation templates for video and other formats moving forward—making it that much easier for smaller brands to efficiently create more valuable content on the fly.

5. Hashtags will come, go, and come again

Hashtags have made the rounds. Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter, they’ve all relied—or rely on—hashtags. Similar to SEO, hashtags are your way to flag your keywords and topics to each social platform.

However, social media users use hashtags differently per platform.

On Twitter, hashtags are embraced in copy and help you find communities of people. People actively use them as a search method for content they’re looking for.

On LinkedIn, hashtags bring your topics in front of the right people with LinkedIn’s algorithm. They even help highlight your profile to those that are commonly interested in the topics you talk about.

On TikTok, hashtags don’t actually do so much at the moment, they feed the algorithm a little but only with a video or profile’s earliest steps.

On Instagram, too many hashtags are often frowned upon, and using them is often a waste of copy space—in my experience! Unless you’re submitting a post to a particular campaign or want to track it better in your analytics.

On Facebook, I’ve recently seen a rise in hashtags and their success again, they’re definitely something to consider for 2022 and beyond!

6. Long-form content will continue to rise

TikTok started with 30-seconds, they’re now trialing ten-minute videos. Ten minutes! That’s a short film. Had you told me this five years ago I would have choked on my ice latte and questioned what was in yours. However, I firmly believe this is a sure-fire sign that long-form content will be a strong format moving forward on all social channels.

Instagram captions are getting longer and more in-depth, and LinkedIn posts are now short essays; people are saying something on social.

There’s actually a new social media platform hitting the market right now that’s an answer to this. It’s a social blogging platform called Trove. Although the platform is currently in BETA, I’ve been invited to be a founding member and I think the very concept is a nod toward the future of long-form content. If you want to give it a go use TRVE10, and you can be an early adopter of the platform.

Here’s a sneak peek of the interface.

7 Social Media learnings to consider for your strategy

I’m not going to tell you social is now purpose-led, or you’re only as powerful as your communities. You’ve heard it all before. These are my actual learning from dealing with social media for brands on a daily basis.

1. People don’t like rhetorical questions

An easy starter. I’ve split test copy more times than I can count for one of my clients. One thing that’s a stand-out repeat offender for poor engagement? Rhetorical questions. Cut them from your social plans now and hop straight to the juicy stuff!

2. Your community are not your customers

So many brands mistake their customer base for their community. These people are not your community, they buy your products, and they (hopefully) use your product. This doesn’t mean they are connecting over it.

A community is a group of people with common interests or missions that actively engage with each other. Although social is a platform to engage with your followers it’s rarely a place your followers engage with each other.

Communities also need care. Find a platform or features you can connect people on, like Slack, Twitter Spaces, Facebook groups, or Discord, and foster your community there. They won’t connect in the comments section of an Instagram post.

Remote Year and TropicFeel both do a great job of fostering communities around missions.

 

3. Deeper level engagements mean more

Engagement metrics are fickle. Brands all too often turn to vanity metrics such as likes and comments as signs of positive engagement. If Instagram is hiding likes from feeds, there’s a reason for it. People are all too quick with the thumb, and today, a like or even an emoji-stringed comment doesn’t hold much weight.

Take a deep dive into your metrics and look for saves and shares, those are engagement metrics worth tracking.

4. Going viral is trial and error

There is no secret to going viral. Believe me. I’ve had posts that I thought had all of the ingredients for a viral success totally flop, and I’ve had filler content completely take off.

Don’t put so much thought into perfectly crafting that potential viral post. It’s not worth the time. Stay consistent, constantly mix things up, and one day it’ll happen.

via GIPHY

5. Trolls are not always your battle

Oh, the amount of DISASTERS that have flooded my inbox over the years because someone has decided to troll one of my brands’ posts. You don’t have to respond to every troll, they’re not starting a snowball effect, more often than not, people aren’t paying much attention.

There will also be occasions when your followers will fight your trolls for you. Give their comments a like, make sure you’re following them, and get on with your day.

6. Offline is for online

Most recently I’ve noticed this with Coachella. Offline is now for online. If any brand is doing it right, they’re crafting experiences that are aesthetically pleasing and feed-worthy.

If you’re thinking of hosting an event, or have a physical place of work for your employees, make sure their offline experience is good enough for their online news feeds.

7. Authenticity is best served in small doses

People love authenticity—humble posts. Posts that show a part of you or your brand that you don’t always show, those posts that get real vulnerable.

Customers will also respect you more for owning up to a mistake, than trying to sweep it under the digital rug.

However, serve authenticity in small doses, and be extremely cautious about how you serve it. People are quick to jump on the inauthentic bandwagon and will call your brand out for the slightest exploitation of any hashtag or cultural event that doesn’t align with your company’s mission.

Like, Celebrate, Support, and Love

That’s a wrap on a decade’s worth of social media learnings and predictions. I actually have a lot more in the tank, but the word count does not. I hope you’ve found this post useful and productive for your social strategizing. Let me know if you adopt anything from here today, and you can always find me on social!