Which Social Media Platforms are Leading Marketing Trends in 2022?

• Apr 15, 2022
• Architechs for the Web
• General Info

As businesses develop their social media marketing plans for 2022, who will come out on top? We’ll give you a hint - It’s a battle between the channel with the largest number of active users, the 2020 - 2021 favorite, and the channel with the most growth potential. Which would you choose?

The Power of Social Media Platforms
With a powerful intuitive design and entertaining reward system that is finely tuned to how humans are wired, social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have cracked the code of how to attract and hold the interest of people of all ages across the globe. We’ll take a look at the primary audience for each platform a little later, but it’s safe to say they all offer something unique, some might say addictive, and undeniably contagious. In fact, if you could check your own time spent on social media over the course of this past week and compare it with the same week two years ago, chances are you’ll immediately see why marketers are turning up the volume on social media campaigns for every digital growth and sales strategy.

Facebook
Let’s take a closer look at the reigning champ of social media platforms in terms of the number of active users. You guessed it, we’re talking about the king of making digital connections with new people, discovering products, catching up on the latest news in group chats, and keeping up with friends and family - Facebook. Boasting 2.93 billion active users, no other social media platform has come close to taking the title of the largest social media network or search engine.

The main issue for posting marketing content on Facebook is this channel is so saturated with promotional posts from businesses it can be challenging to say the least to grow your reach and, in doing so, the number of followers or engagement actions. To get the most out of your campaign, be sure to take advantage of the extensive array of posting styles and formats Facebook offers. By consistently mixing up your content and the presentation of that content, your chances of being seen by more people beyond your friends’ list is far greater than relying solely on traditional picture posts. Examples include creating Reels and Stories, group posts or shares, photo carousels, and exciting announcement posts.

Instagram
It may not be 2.93 billion active users, but an estimated 1.2 billion users by 2023 makes Instagram a permanent member of the top social media giants club. Plus, where a lot of Facebook users have accounts specifically to follow groups such as their child’s school parent-teacher association (PTA) or their homeowners’ association, Instagram fans are all about watching interesting Reels and viewing friends’ posts thereby earning their “active users” title with each scroll.

So, what does this mean to marketers? While Facebook technically has the largest number of users who are on the social media platform for a variety of purposes, Instagram may be holding each user’s interest longer, which in turn could mean the promotional or informative Reels, pics, and ads could be seen by a more engaged audience. Higher the engagement translates into a better return on investment (ROI).

TikTok
If you look forward to your daily dose of TikTok, you are part of the 45% jump in the number of users this social media platform has seen since January of 2021. Want to know another reason marketing professionals love this video-sharing platform? In September 2021, TikTok reported 1 billion monthly active users worldwide rivaling Instagram’s projected growth for 2023!

Best of all, with the introduction of business profiles, paid ad campaign options, and a creative marketplace, TikTok has opened more options for marketing strategies. Such campaigns could include contests or bloopers collected while making informative product videos.

The main goal with this platform is to get the word out about your brand while building engagement and reaching as many people as possible. With such strategies, this smaller platform with fewer algorithm restrictions in place may be the key to unlocking a more loyal customer base as well as expanding your business footprint at a faster pace. All it takes to get started is a splash of creative content topped with a light dose of video editing.

Which Do You Trust to Grow Your Brand the Most?
After comparing these three social media platforms, you have probably picked your favorite to spearhead your digital marketing plan. However, it is important to remember each has its own unique set of reasons for being so popular and, as a result, the users may differ in terms of age or level of interest in your promotional content. Therefore, an annual marketing plan with an SEO firm like Architechs for the Web can help you determine which platform or combination of strategies is going to provide the most ROI for your time, talent, and marketing budget.