• by Steve McClellan , Staff Writer @mp_mcclellan, December 15, 2021

While social media has endured a lot of negative criticism over the past couple of years over privacy concerns, misinformation and other issues, it will only grow in importance as a brand marketing tool in 2022 and beyond, according to a new trend report from digital marketing consultant The Brains.

“Enhanced social media strategies will likely be one of the biggest digital marketing trends in 2022 and beyond,” the report states. “All platforms are regularly being updated to provide the best user experience, and with new marketing technology on the horizon, it’s vital that digital marketers stay ahead of the curve when it comes to social media.”

According to the report, most users expect brands to have a presence on social messaging apps. “Think of them as human chatbots. It’s an easy way for people to communicate with your brand and ask questions. Providing support through social messaging apps not only makes your customers more loyal, but also adds an element of personality to your brand.”  

Story sharing has also rapidly become a key part of social commerce, per the report, which notes that “Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms have all adopted this feature that allows users to share videos, images or ‘creations’, only available to view for 24 hours.”

For brands, “this can be a great opportunity to post great quantities of content, share news on promotions and can even be a space for customer data collection.”

Social media will continue to be one of “the most important ways in which brands can use conversational marketing, post sharing and messaging to generally improve customer experience.”

The report cites another source, Smart Insights, which found that as of October of this year, 57.6% of the world’s population uses social media, and  400 million new users began using the channel in the last year alone.