• by Todd Wasserman , Staff Writer, November 28, 2022

Depending on your source, social media has been around for about 25 years or closer to 50. But in 2022, social media is a necessity for certain marketers and a consideration for most others. Here’s a look at the current thinking on social media:

Social media is overhyped as a sales tool. Forrester Research’s Retail Topic Insights Survey 2022 showed that 62% of online adults never complete purchases inside social media networks.

But it works for younger consumers. The Forrester data showed that 61% of U.S. online adults under 25 have completed a purchase within a social network, compared with 29% of 45-54 year-olds.

Social media advertising is slowing. The effort comes after a decade-long expansion of social media advertising. U.S. advertisers are on track to spend $65.3 billion on social media networks, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%. That’s about 10 times slower than in 2021, according to estimates from eMarketer. Magna also cut its estimates for social media growth worldwide.

Twitter’s implosion is causing chaos. Many brands have left Twitter since Elon Musk took it over.

Yet the social media advertising market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.4% through 2028. Million Insights cited a few reasons for the growth, including the growth in augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning.