Will TikTok Surpass Facebook in 2022?
TikTok vs. Meta, Twitter Blue, and Other Social Media Development to Watch in 2022
Tik Tok is predicted to be the biggest social media platform in 2022. This competitive pressure from Tik Tok may have been one of the reasons Facebook decided to flood the media recently with news of Meta. Meta is now the name of the Facebook parent company that also owns Instagram and WhatsApp. This high-profile name change is a clear signal that the company is not content with second place as it ramps up work on smart glasses, virtual reality, and augmented reality.
Twitter Blue
As Meta fights to grow past its app beginnings, other social media companies are also exploring ways to jump into what’s next. In November, Twitter started rolling out Twitter Blue, a paid upgrade that is beta-testing in Canada and Australia with exclusive features that include small updates (the ability to bookmark), useful features (the ability to undo tweets up to 30 seconds after sending), and reader mode, a feature that makes it less challenging to keep up with long threads on Twitter by turning them into easier-to-read text. While the features in Twitter Blue are not exactly earthshaking, it will be interesting to see if users are willing to pony up a few bucks a month to have a better experience. If Twitter Blue is even moderately successful, it’s a sure bet that other social media platforms will be quick to follow.
The Next gen of TrueView ads on YouTube
YouTube, owned by Google, is continuing to make video ads more appealing to both advertisers and users. They’re evolving TrueView ads and scaling product feeds to be available with more campaign types. With this update, advertisers can link product feeds with awareness and consideration video campaigns and make them shoppable.
Is Pinterest the New Mall?
Pinterest lost a bit of user growth momentum in 2021, but overall, Pinterest has benefitted from the COVID-inspired eCommerce boom. Pinterest has been a place to browse products and ideas during the lockdowns, making it an important tool for product discovery and buying. That’s probably why it’s developed expanded product tagging options and smart shopping features like Idea Pins that leverage video consumption trends.
Transparency, Transparency, Transparency
As any social media insider can tell you, every platform is taking privacy, security, and user transparency very seriously. That’s why Google has finally launched an “about this page” feature, well behind some other digital platforms. According to a September 22 announcement, Google users can now see an “About this ad page” button with most ad placements, which allows them to learn why they are seeing the ad and shows them other ads that the brand has posted within the last 30 days.
Transparency reports have been around for a few years, but most platforms are looking for ways to step up these online records, in part due to user concerns, but also to combat increasingly aggressive accusations from elected officials. Snapchat, Meta, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter all provide detailed online accounts of activity that include policy violations, actions taken against violators, number of accounts removed, accounts linked to state-backed information, and more. If you’re even a little concerned about the social responsibility or integrity of these types of businesses, transparency reports are a good place to start researching trends and behaviors.
What’s Next in 2022?
Cup O Content is always looking forward. We predict that in 2022, we’ll see big changes in algorithms designed to compensate for the loss of consumer data resulting from Apple’s data-blocking updates. That means that the way ads work (or don’t work) will continue to evolve in 2022.
We predict we’ll also see data integrated from new sources, including merging offline tracking with online tracking. This has been done in the past but was slowed down as a reaction to Facebook’s day in court. However, as devices hobble data tracking, social media will look for new ways to provide accurate consumer profiling to advertisers.
Meta’s shift from social to augmented reality may have been a wake-up call for other social media platforms. While 2000-2020 were two decades that revolved around social media apps housed on a smartphone, the next 20 years are probably going to focus on decentralizing data from the phone to other devices. We may look back at this 2022 and laugh at our obsession with those little rectangular devices.
If the big digital innovators like Facebook are focused on technologies beyond the smartphone, expect the Internet of Things to move forward quickly. Look for more things like ads and interfaces in public mirrors, bathroom fans with Bluetooth audio, grocery store aisles with video and audio, and entertainment venues with augmented reality that makes events seem almost magical. More advanced headsets at more reasonable prices will make true virtual shopping possible in stores that look better and carry more items than online versions (and no lines at checkout).
These kinds of innovations can be scary for businesses, but don’t sweat it. Cup O Content will be here to find the most effective ways to make digital marketing work for you.
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