Social Media Trends for 2022 and Beyond

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Sprout Social, The Sprout Social Index™

Social is finally recognized as a major business function, but hiring your A-team remains a top challenge. Your audience can choose from hundreds of platforms, but you need to know where to meet them. How do you harness that potential and seize today's (and tomorrow's) greatest opportunities?

In our ninth year of reporting on social media trends, we surveyed marketers and consumers across the US, UK and Ireland to understand how they're navigating this transformation—and to predict what's on the horizon.

9 Years of trend forecasting

2K+ Consumers surveyed

1K+ Marketers surveyed

Get More US Data

It serves no brand to stand still in the middle of an ever-changing landscape like social media. Marketers, get ready to leave your comfort zone.

Consumers aren't so sure about the metaverse, NFTs or the VR social media revolution. But that means there's an opportunity for brands to lead the way and show their audiences what's possible.

67% of marketers anticipate investing at least a quarter of their budgets into a metaverse/AR/VR social strategy

39% of consumers anticipate VR/AR/XR will play a role in how they engage with brands

24% of consumers anticipate the metaverse will play a role in how they engage with brands

Creators are key players in the future of brand marketing, and authentic content beats follower count. 81% of consumers will unfollow creators if they post sponsored content more than a few times a week.

Their experience with the product

Their authenticity (i.e., they seem like a real user of the product)

Their use of high-quality content (e.g., visually appealing posts)

Follower count

Their demographics in relation to me/our audience (e.g., similar age, sex, gender)

Business may measure success by the numbers, but consumers see your actions first. Beloved brands build trust by living up to their community's standards.

71% of consumers say it's important for brands to raise awareness and take a stand on social issues. Similarly, 48% of marketers say for brands to be culturally relevant on social, they speak out on social issues and embrace brand activism.

34% strongly agree

37% agree

22% neutral

4% disagree

3% strongly disagree

Marketers hold themselves to a high standard for customer service response times on social: More than half report their average is under two hours. Contrast that with just over one-third of consumers who expect such a speedy response. Nice work!

US Consumer

US Marketer

Less than 1 hour

1-2 hours

2-12 hours

12-24 hours

24-48 hours

48 hours

Never contacted a brand on social

See the complete reports to explore more data and transform your approach to social.

Your brand is constantly competing for consumers' attention—online and off. It's marketers' responsibility to follow your audience and deliver what they want, where they are, when it's relevant.

How often should you post on social media? Consumers say 1-2x per day—though each platform's algorithm is different, so more frequent posting might not be a bad idea.

74% of consumers think the publishing sweet spot is for brands to post 1-2x per day.

Consumers consider short-form video content to be 2.5x more engaging than long-form. 66% of consumers report short-form video to be the most engaging type of social media content in 2022, up from 50% in 2020.

66% Short-form video

61% Images

37% Live video

32% GIFs/memes

32% Text-based posts

26% User-generated

24% Long-form video

13% Audio

11% URL/links to other content

Consumers

Marketers

Facebook

YouTube

Instagram

TikTok

Snapchat

You can't ignore TikTok's rise to become one of the most popular social media platforms. But more than half of consumers are turning their attention to YouTube–and marketers will need to catch up.

The numbers tell a story of human nature driving innovation and change in social today. People are rethinking what it means to engage with brands. In turn, marketers need to rethink how they will lead through the next evolution of social. Not by doing what's always worked, but by charting your own path.

Social media no longer lives in a silo. It's more dynamic and collaborative than ever before.

Get the complete reports to explore the data and decide on your brand's next move.

The data referenced was collected as part of Sprout Social's 2022 Index project. Participants ages 18-75 were recruited by Lucid between February 22 and March 01, 2022 via online survey. Selected US consumers (N = 1,236) and UK & Ireland consumers (N = 1,312) were those who use at least one social media platform and follow at least one brand on social media. Selected US marketers (N = 506) and UK & Ireland marketers (N = 505) were those who hold a full-time job in marketing and were involved (i.e., performed the job themselves or managed someone who does) in managing their brand's social media strategy.

Relationships between variables collected were analyzed using parametric statistics for statistical significance. All data visualized on this page reflects US respondents only.

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