Social media marketing trends to watch in 2022

Despite the ongoing pandemic, brands are more committed than ever to social media as a marketing channel this year, according to the 2022 Social Media Marketing Trends Survey recently released by enterprise social analytics firm ListenFirst.

More than half (55 percent) of respondents said their brand’s social media spend increased during the pandemic, with 50.5 percent of those surveyed adding their brand’s social media spend will increase further in 2022.

However, measuring the impact of their social media spend remains a challenge for many brands

Only 14 percent of survey respondents said they can always tie their social media efforts to ROI, while only 31.5 percent responded “Yes” to knowing how well their brand is performing on social media relative to competitors. Meanwhile, 52 percent of respondents either wanted more influencer analytics or were unclear if they had enough.

“The survey results confirm what we’ve known in the marketplace, that even while brands are investing more in social media, they just don’t have enough data that speaks to performance,” explained David DiGiacomo, chief executive office at ListenFirst, in a news release. “To get a more actionable picture of what’s working, companies need a social analytics solution that goes beyond vanity metrics such as Likes and Followers and offers meaningful competitive and industry benchmarks, as well as robust influencer and partner analytics.”

Other key findings of the survey include:

• Instagram is the social media platform most important to brands, picked by 40 percent of marketers and analytics professionals
• LinkedIn is the social media platform that’s most trusted, picked by 39.5 percent of respondents
• Facebook is the least trusted social media platform, picked by 44.5 percent of respondents
• 66 percent of those surveyed expect social media video to be an increased focus for their brand in 2022

Download the full report here.

ListenFirst’s 2022 Social Media Marketing Trends Survey questioned 200 brand marketing and analytics professionals on the future of social media marketing, between December 28-29, 2021.