Social Media Platforms That You Definitely Need to Use in 2022

Social media, whether you love it or hate it, it’s most definitely here to stay and the social media landscape is changing.

So Much Social Media Choice, Where Do You Start?

There are just so many social media channels available, to create meaningful connections, create family trees (Ancestry.com for example), write blogs (blogger.com), post user generated content and do so much more. It’s a minefield that you might find difficult to navigate – you are certainly NOT alone.

Whether you’re already a social networking app guru or you’re just starting out, it’s really important to make sure you have some social network visibility. If not on a few social media networks, you should at least try one social network (and move on with more in time)

But – what are the most popular social networking sites? What great social media sites are there for brands and businesses? Maybe you’ve searched the largest search engine for the best social media site – heck, even the second largest search engine but you’re getting confused! We are here to help you find out which social media platforms you must use in 2022 along with messaging social network with more than a billion active users.

No doubt you are reading this article because you want to maximize your social media presence but with so many different social media channels to choose from, deciding which is right for you is a challenge in itself!

You need to know about all of the different social media sites and social networking sites that are available. Which are the social platforms to watch, which aren’t performing as well as they used to and the up-and-coming popular social media platforms too.

If you want to use social media for business (and every business, no matter what industry sector, should have presence on at least one social media channel), then you also need to know which network is the right fit.

This guide is designed to help you to decide what social media site is right for you and it’s about finding a popular social media platform that works for your business or brand. It will also give you plenty of information about the different social media platforms, along with which social media platforms you need to use in 2022 and help you to make an informed decision by the time you have finished reading.

Then, once you’ve mastered your first social networking platform, move onto another, and see if it’s a perfect fit for you or your business. Remember, some social media networks are better for brands and businesses, others are more suited to personal use.

Let’s dive in…

How Many Social Media Platforms Should You Use for Your Business?

First things first. How many top social media sites should you be using for your business or brand?

f you’re using social media for business, you might be wondering how many platforms you should be on. The answer to this question depends on a number of factors, including your goals and the size of your target audience. For example, if you’re trying to reach a large number of people, you’ll want to be active on multiple platforms. However, if you’re only interested in engaging with a smaller group of Instagram followers, you can get away with being less active on other platforms.

As we have already mentioned earlier on. Every business or brand MUST have social media presence. It doesn’t matter what sector you’re in, medical, government, fashion, beauty, fitness, education – and of course, many others. If you have a business, you need social media because you will use it to grow your audience, connect with new people and get your product or services right in front of the people who are looking for it.

But – How Many Social Media Platforms Do You Need?

While some businesses use just one or two social media platforms, you might need more. It depends on what you do, what industry is, what your reach is and how large your business is. It also depends on how much you want to grow in future.

You may be a sole trader (that relates to someone who does everything in your business). Or you might have a small team. Perhaps you are a medium sized business? The point is: What Is Your Strategy for social media?

If you are looking to grow your business you will need more than one platform, to extend your reach.

If you aren’t looking to grow your business, then we would recommend that you start with just one social media platform but choose wisely. We will help you make your choice in this piece.

If you’re a huge, corporate organization, then you need to be visible on pretty much every single social media platform. Think Coca Cola, MacDonald’s, Burger King, Nike etc. These brands are on every single social media platform.

Tailor Your Social Media Networking to Your Business’ Size

Tailor your social media networking to the size of business you are AND the size of business you want to be.

Getting Started With One Social Media Platform

Just starting out with social media. Great. Part of your social media digital marketing strategy is to get to grips with just one social media networking platform at a time. Don’t overburden yourself with dealing with more than one to begin with, it will get confusing and who needs confusion? It just makes everything take longer than necessary.

Do bear in mind that some social media platforms work better for some businesses but won’t perform as well as you. So, you might try a platform and find out that it’s just not a great fit. Don’t worry, it’s a good lesson to learn and it doesn’t mean it will never work for you. It’s just not working for you right now!

Don’t Dismiss A Social Media Platform If It Doesn’t Work For You Initially

With the above in mind, never just completely dismiss a social media platform if it doesn’t work for you initially. You must give it a chance and we would say a good four to six months. If it does not generate more likes, views, followers, or sales, then deactivate it for a while and revisit it at a later date.

Instead, use the time to focus on growing another social media platform.

Remember, there is no such word as failure! Everything is in experimental stage to begin with. As we said, it’s a lesson learnt.

Don’t Rush In – Get To Know Social Media Platform Trends

Now, before you launch yourself into choosing a social media platform for your business or brand, it’s really important to stay in touch with the new social media platform trends. Trends change all of the time. New social media platforms continue to appear and there will doubtless be another dozen popping up within twelve months of this article’s publish date!

The point here is: Stay In Touch With Social Media Platform Trends.

You don’t want to miss a social media platform that could work wonders for your business or brand!

Once you’ve found your niche, don’t be afraid to experiment with different content and see what gets the most likes for likes. With a little trial and error, you’ll be a social media pro in no time.

What Are the Biggest Trends in Social Media?

So far, we have covered off:

Why you need social media platforms for businesses and brands.
The number of social media platforms you need to use for your business.
Deciding on that number!
Getting to know different social media networking platforms before making a decision.
Trialling social media platforms and revisiting those that don’t work initially.

Next, we are going to discuss the biggest trends in social media. This will also help you to decide which social media platform to use for your business.

There’s no doubt that social media has changed the way we communicate and connect with each other. But what are the latest trends in social media? One of the biggest trends is the use of buy Instagram views to buy followers. This is a popular tactic among businesses and celebrities who want to quickly boost their online presence.

Video Content and Live Streaming

Without doubt, the biggest social media trend is live streaming and also audio streaming.

Both of these are extremely important social media trends for 2022. So, if you haven’t yet tried to stream something live or record a video for business or brand social media purposes, you ARE missing out on reaching a larger audience and engaging with your audience.

Things to Add to Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Add video and live streaming to your social media marketing strategy for 2022 and start playing around. The beauty of video is it’s fun. Live streaming is just the same as video except it’s live. It’s also recorded so it stays visible on your social media platform for a while.

Some social media platforms (Instagram for example) will keep your stream on-feed for 24 hours (you can extend the time using the HIGHLIGHTS feature on your Instagram profile page and keep your video on your page for as long as you want).

Live Audio Chat Rooms – One of the Biggest Social Media Trends for 2022!

There are lots of live streaming opportunities. As an example, one of the biggest trends to emerge is Live Audio Chat Rooms. They are extremely effective. According to HubSpot’s (www.hubspot.com) research, did you know that 65% of social media marketers use the Live Audio Chat Room method to market to their audience? Why not try it for yourself!

Live Video Streams

While Audio Chat Rooms are becoming more and more popular, live video streams still continue to be a huge trend.

Consider Instagram Lives. These are really clever video streams that allow you to Go Live to your followers. You create your content and invite your followers to join. You can also publicize when you’re going live, perhaps a few days before with a countdown for example? This grows interest.

Lives are great for streaming:

Interviews.
Behind the scenes.
How-to do or instruction videos.
Highlighting new ranges.
Highlighting specific products.
Holding discussions.

It’s not just Instagram either. The fastest-growing social media platform of all and largest social media site is TikTok (a video sharing platform and one of the biggest platforms in the world) and it’s the perfect place to Go Live and record whatever you want. Comedians, musicians, actors, singers, politicians and others are getting discovered on TikTok, just by showcasing a short, Live Reel – or a pre-recorded one too.

Have a go and try your first live! It’s a little like being on television, fame for 15 minutes (as Andy Warhol once promised us!).

Another Trend is Podcasts

We should also mention Podcasts. While these aren’t necessarily social media platforms, they are still a way to reach your audience and they’re pre-recorded, so they aren’t live. They are a trend though and something that’s growing for 2022 and it’s for social media users and other users too.

If you’ve got something to say on a topic relating to your business, your brand or you just want to express an opinion on a certain topic, a podcast is the way to do it.

Here are some podcast facts that are interesting and get you thinking about whether or not you should have your very own podcast.

Did you know that over 50% of Americans have listened to a podcast?
More than 40% of listeners discover new podcasts through directories so if you’re starting a podcast, get onto a directory such as Apple.
The most popular podcast directory is Apple (https://www.apple.com/uk/apple-podcasts/).
Most people tend to listen to a podcast at home.
However, a massive 95% of podcast listeners listen while doing other things, such as exercising, travelling to and from work, in the car etc.
In 2020, there were nearly 1 million active podcasts.
Comedy is the most popular genre of podcasts, followed by politics

The point is that AUDIO is becoming a massive trend.

So – to recap on this section.

The biggest trends for 2022 on social media are AUDIO and LIVE STREAMING, followed by VIDEO content. So if you aren’t using these trends, you need to add at least one to your social media strategy for 2022.

We recommend starting with one. Mastering it and then moving onto the next social media networking platform.

Right, we are ready to move onto the next section!

The Best Social Media Sites for 2022 – What NOT to Miss!

We’ve mentioned the biggest trends for social media platforms for 2022, but more importantly, what are the best social media platforms for 2022?

One of the most popular social media sites right now is Instagram. This platform has over 1 billion active monthly users and continues to grow. If you’re not on Instagram, you’re missing out! But how do you get started? And how do you get followers fast?

To help you to decide which social media platforms are right for you, we need to also help you to decide the best new social media platforms to use.

Don’t Deactivate What Works For You!

Before you rush off and deactivate your social media accounts that work well for you – DON’T! You still need to stay ahead of the game and to do that, you need to look at new social media channels too.

We Will Also Guide You On Growing Your Social Media Presence

We will also help you to grow your social media presence. This is obviously important when it comes to creating the best engagement and interaction with your followers.

Buy Likes on Instagram – A Well-Kept “Secret”

Now, before we move on, there are lots of other “secret” things you can do to grow your social media presence and we’ll let you into that secret. As well as exploring new social media platforms, you could also buy likes on Instagram from a reputable social media company. Check out the company first because there are plenty out there who are just selling bots, fakes and inactive Instagram accounts.

There are reputable Instagram marketing companies that use real accounts and can tailor these accounts to your business or industry, which gives you higher opportunity to engage with a new audience. Do your homework to find the right one that fits with your needs.

To get your social media posts appearing in news feeds regularly, another effective method is to buy views on Instagram too, from genuine accounts that appreciate superior quality content. Again, check out any company that you’re considering using for this purpose because there are plenty of fake companies out there that just deliver fake accounts. Remember, you need the real deal to grow your Instagram account properly and according to Instagram’s Terms of Use!

Learn more about how to buy Instagram followers by clicking on this link but for more information on choosing the right platforms for your business, read on.

Brilliant Social Media Platforms To Use in 2022

Twitch

Let’s talk Twitch!

This is a lesser-known social media platform that launched twelve years ago back in 2011. However – don’t just discard it because we’ve said that it’s lesser-known! It still has plenty of clout I the world of social media and we are going to tell you why.

Actually, there are 140 million monthly active Twitch users. That’s 30 million visitors every day. It’s a force to be reckoned with, for sure!

What Does Twitch Do?

The important thing here is that Twitch is about live streaming, and we all know what that means! Live streaming is a big trend as we’ve said, for 2022. Twitch gives you the ability to interact live with your audience. In real-time.

But It’s Also About Video Games

If your business is about video games, then you HAVE to use Twitch. That’s because most of its traffic comes from video-game devotees. It’s essentially for gamers and gamers just love Twitch – plus gaming is growing bigger and better.

If You’re Not Into Gaming

Yes, it’s for a social gaming community. If you’re not into video gaming, or your business has nothing whatsoever to do with video gaming, then you can move on and skip this bit! If you use events and festivals though, don’t discount Twitch, we’ll talk a little more on festivals and events on Twitch later on.

Twitch is for players of video games. They record themselves while they are playing their favorite game. For example, a Fortnite player (www.fortnite.com) can engage with an audience during their game play. It’s a real thing! Gamers love to watch other gamers. Why? Well, because they pick up tips, tricks, visit areas of a game they’ve never accessed before and it’s also a fun pastime.

There is even the opportunity to view exclusive content through paid subscriptions and that’s one of the ways that Twitch makes money.

There is also a live stream opportunity on Twitch. As well as viewing games, users can view other videos and live-streams on pretty much any topic – like group video chats on gaming! There are daily active users’ live shows highlighting festivals and other events.

The Twitch Audience Demographic

Twitch’s audience as you might well expect is relatively young. The demographic is age 16- to 34-year-olds and this segment makes up to 70% of their overall audience.

So What’s Twitch Good For?

Video gaming.
Gaining tips for video gaming.
Highlighting events and festivals.
Community building.
Connecting on a personal level.
Developing Q&A sessions.
Publishing behind-the-scenes content.

Influencers on Twitch (big video gamers mainly and they’re called Streamers) use the platform through subscriptions, advertising, and donations.

Do You Have a Young Brand?

If you have a young brand, it’s worth looking at this social media platform and there’s the opportunity of placing super adverts across the social media platform, using the carousel feature on the homepage and through its live broadcasting area.

If you’re marketing to young people, you need to buy like Instagram. That means using platforms like Snapchat, which has 190 million daily users, 85% of whom are under the age of 34. It also means using platforms like Instagram, which has 800 million monthly users, 80% of whom are under the age of 35. But it’s not just about using the same platforms as your target market.

Influencers on Twitch are known as Streamers. Big Streamers are often sponsored by video gaming brands because they get so many viewers but of course, you don’t have to be a Streamer to use Twitch. As a brand or business you can build your own branded account.

Five Useful Twitch Facts

82% of Twitch users are male.
Twitch has 125 million videos already on the social media platform.
Twitch has the biggest live streaming audience.
360 billion minutes of content is watched every day on Twitch.
League of Legends is the most popular game on Twitch.

Is Twitch for you? If so then why not get it here: https://www.twitch.tv/.

Discord

Now you know about Twitch, let’s talk Discord which is similar to Twitch.

This is a very young and growing social media networking platform that was launched seven years ago, back in 2015.

It has more than 100 million monthly active registered users and was originally focused on gaming, a little like Twitch. Gamers would stream their live games, share tips and tricks, and connect with other gamers or people interested in gaming. However, more recently Discord has morphed into a chat app and is used for messaging but through lots of different modes.

The platform received a huge amount of funding in 2020 and started to gradually move over from gaming into chat.

The platform works through communities that use video, audio, and text to communicate with each other. Now, here’s the technical bit. Each Discord user can either build their very own Discord server (a little like having a personal web space), or they can join an existing server and share videos and other content with other active users.

This may be the right social media networking platform for you or your brand or business if you want to discuss gaming, engage with people who are interested in gaming or if you want to learn more about a particular video game. However, the platform doesn’t allow any advertising at the moment although this of course, may change in the future and we are sure that it will, in time.

Five Useful Discord Facts

The Discord logo is called Clyde!
You can create your own emojis on Discord.
As of 2021, there are 390 million Discord users.
Discord is downloaded 800,000 times every day.
30% of Discord users are in the USA.

Want to try Discord? You can get it by clicking on this link here: www.discord.com.

TikTok

We have already mentioned TikTok in our trends section above, because TikTok is all about the video. Rather like a microblogging site – it’s a microvlogging publishing platform!

One of the newest social media platforms, it launched just five years ago in 2017 and is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms of all. We expect it to become the biggest social media networking platforms in the coming future so it is definitely worth getting to grips with as you may well find that it works best with your audience.

Every Business or Brand Should Look at TikTok

Currently, TikTok boasts over 1 billion monthly active users! It is HUGE! TikTok is one of the social media platforms that we recommend every business, regardless of sector to investigate as a top priority.

Remember Musical.ly?

Do you remember Musical.ly? Don’t worry if you don’t. This was a social media platform that emerged at the same time as TikTok, in 2017. Musical.ly showcased music videos where people could lip-sync and record their own version.

TikTok merged with Muiscal.ly in 2018 and what a difference it made! The two social media platforms created one of the most important social media platforms of all. In fact, this year (2022), TikTok is predicted to grow its users to 1.5 billion active monthly users (we’re not talking million active users – this is in the billions!). This will make it THE BIGGEST SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKING PLATFORM OF ALL.

But What is TikTok?

Yes, you’re thinking, that all sounds great, but I don’t know what TikTok’s all about! We’ll give you the lowdown and help you decide whether or not this popular social media networking platform is the right one for your business or brand.

TikTok is a brilliant video streaming social media network. It consists of short, engaging videos that play on a loop to its active users. Users can add special effects, music, AR filters and other exciting social networking features to make their videos really pop. It’s fun to use too.

The Hashtag!

The hashtag is important on TikTok (as it is on several social media marketing platforms). The hashtags (#) make the content highly searchable as each # is a trend. Users looking for videos about certain topics (fashion, music, celebrities, make-up, education etc.) simply place a searchable term in the search bar and that is captured by video creators using similar or the same hashtags.

The Discover Area

There is also a “Discover” area on the TikTok platform. This is where users can find the content they want to see.

The TikTok Demographic

Mainly, this social media platform is used by people under 30 years old but, if you have an older age group as your audience, which doesn’t mean you should discount this important social media network.

Why is that?

Simply because the social media platform is fast becoming popular with big brands who want to highlight their products or services, especially those in the fashion and entertainment businesses.

We have absolutely no doubt that almost every industry sector will be using TikTok in the near future as it’s an opportunity to get really creative with content and reach a younger audience.

Currently, the platform is just behind YouTube and Instagram but it’s very likely that it will be bigger than both of those extremely popular social media sites and networking platforms by the end of 2022.

We would definitely recommend looking at TikTok and understanding how to use it especially if you have a young demographic, but even if you don’t, the likelihood is that TikTok will grow and expand to reach other demographics.

5 Useful TikTok Facts

TikTok has 80 million monthly users in the USA alone.
60% of TikTok users are female so if girls are your audience, you should be using this platform for your business or brand.
That leaves 40% of users as male.
26% of users are between the ages of 26 to 44, so there’s untapped opportunity if your audience is this age group.
TikTok is available in 154 countries and in 75 different languages.

You need TikTok right? Get it by clicking on this link here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tiktok/id835599320.

Clubhouse

Clubhouse is a very innovative social media networking platform, standalone app and professional social networking site that is primarily aimed at businesses, so it is excellent for you if you are in the B2B (business to business) area. The business calls itself a “Social Audio App,” a unique social networking platform that builds a professional network.

The professional social media networking platform was launched just two years ago in April 2020 and now boasts 10 million active weekly users.

But how is it different to the other, huge B2B social media networking platform LinkedIn?

Professional Networking Clubhouse Uses Audio

It is extremely different. It was designed as a platform to use audio to engage with its audience. Remember audio? We talked about it earlier on in this piece. Audio is one of the biggest social media trends of 2022 and must be used if you want to grow your business.

It’s different to a podcast though so let’s not get confused. Clubhouse is a super way to share business (or other) information with an audience and allows your followers and enables users to talk to you in real time.

It’s Not JUST for Business – There’s Opportunity With Clubhouse

The platform is used to highlight lots of different topics and while it was originally business-related, it is also used to enable registered users to talk about other things, for example, relationships. In fact, it’s growing so quickly that even comedians use it to perform live to an audience and grow their fan base. We believe that there is lots of opportunity for Clubhouse to grow and it is definitely one to watch.

To start with, what set Clubhouse apart was that the social media networking platform was invitation only. However, now, anyone can join in the daily conversations, and you can create your own Clubhouse channel to talk about whatever you want. As we’re talking about businesses and brands, if you’ve got something to say about your business, try Clubhouse.

Monetizing Clubhouse

For brands and businesses, this social media platform is still evolving and it’s in experimental phase at the moment. There are opportunities to monetize Clubhouse but for now, it’s a clever idea to have some presence on the platform and play around with how to use it.

How You Could Use Clubhouse For Your Business

You could use it for a Q&A session, a focus group, or to discuss an article you’ve published. Alternatively, join in with other conversations to inspire you to create your own.

Five Useful Clubhouse Facts

Clubhouse is valued at $1 billion.
The social media networking platform has raised more than $10 million.
180 venture capitalists and organizations have invested in the new platform, such is the belief that this will be bigger than most other platforms.
The social media platform is considered a Unicorn start-up.
It is number 16 on the App store.

Why don’t you try out Clubhouse? You can download it by clicking here: https://www.clubhouse.com/.

Twitter Spaces

You’ve heard of Twitter and if you haven’t, where have you been living for the past 12 years!

Twitter is one of the biggest and well-known social media networking platforms and we are sure you know all about it, but have you heard of its new social media area? Twitter Spaces was launched in 2020 (and shares the same parent company as Twitter) and was aimed to compete with Clubhouse because of its audio feature. See, we told you audio was important!

Twitter Spaces – Caveats

Twitter Spaces allows its users to use voice chat, instead of Tweeting using words and characters. There is a caveat though. If you want to use Twitter Spaces, you need an iOS device but we’re sure this will change in the future as Twitter Spaces grows and evolves.

There’s another caveat too. You must be selected by Twitter to use Twitter Spaces, so it is very select. If you’ve been lucky enough to be pinpointed by Twitter to use it, we would say get ahead and get to grips with the audio social media networking platform early because it is bound to be big.

Currently, Twitter Spaces is in discovery phase. There are lots of challenges that Twitter needs to navigate before it fully launches. For example, the new social media networking platform is hard to monitor according to Twitter’s user guidelines. Twitter is working hard to focus itself on making social media platforms safe spaces for all of its users. We are sure that the social media company will get over this hurdle.

What You Can Use Twitter Spaces For

Keep an eye on Twitter Spaces because we believe that it will become an invaluable arena for hosting live discussions, how-tos and instruction guides, Q&A sessions, holding focus groups and training sessions.

We can’t tell you how many people are using Twitter Spaces at the moment as it’s unknown.

Five Useful Twitter Spaces Facts

The number of speakers on a Twitter Space is limited to ten but there is no limit to the number of listeners.
You must have a Twitter account to create a Twitter Spaces account.
You need at least 600 followers on Twitter to use Twitter Spaces.
Twitter expects its audience for Twitter Spaces to grow to 300 million by 2023.
Like Instagram Live, you can invite people to join a Twitter Space.

Interested in Twitter Spaces? You can’t just download it, but you can download Twitter here and grow your Twitter account in order to access it: www.twitter.com.

Caffeine

We’re not talking about coffee or Coke, we’re talking about another new, exciting social media marketing platform, Caffeine.

Caffeine was launched six years ago in 2016 but wasn’t officially unveiled until 2018. It is an important social media networking platform to get to grips with as it is all about live streams and video – as you now know, big trends for 2022 in the world of social media!

Content creators make their own live streams for their audience and viewers can respond to the live streams using emojis or regular commentary.

There’s more too. As well as filming live stream videos, users can also stream their own computer or television during video game play, so it harnesses that gaming opportunity that Twitch and Discord use.

What About the Demographic?

Surprisingly, Caffeine has a slightly older demographic than Twitch and Discord, yet the ethos is similar. It is a Gen-Z based social media marketing app, but we think it might also include an older audience in the future.

Using Caffeine to Monetize

There’s lots of opportunity on Caffeine to monetize too and that is because the social media networking platform recently launched a special monetizing feature to reward the network’s biggest users with the most viewers.

The social media platform has also raised a huge amount of investment so it will grow over the next few years. It’s already been used to broadcast events such as the 2019 X Games in Aspen and Drake used the app to film his birthday party!

What You Can Use Caffeine For

For marketers, Caffeine could be used to stream news, entertainment, Q&As, behind the scenes content, instruction, and how-to videos, focus groups, events and more.

We also believe that this new social media networking platform will be good for building awareness of a product or service so do get yourself familiar with Caffeine and explore how you could use it for your business and brand.

Four Useful Caffeine Facts

Caffeine has raised over $146 million to grow the social media networking platform.
Caffeine receives over 1 million monthly web visitors (the amount of monthly users is currently unknown).
21st Century Fox is one of Caffeine’s biggest investors.
Currently, most of Caffeine’s users are gamers.

Ready to inject some Caffeine into your life? Find out what all the hype is about by clicking here and downloading one of the newest social media networking apps for live-streams and chat: https://www.caffeine.tv/.

Instagram Reels

Another social media networking platform that everyone’s heard of (and if you haven’t, have you been living in a cave?!).

The popular Instagram social media networking platform just keeps on getting bigger and bigger. Currently, it boasts more than 1 billion monthly active users and keeps harnessing more and more technology to stay ahead of the game.

One of its latest features is Instagram Reels and Instagram is the parent company (sometimes referred to as Insta Reels). This Instagram feature launched just two years ago in 2020.

How Many People Use Instagram Reels?

The popular Instagram platform just keeps on growing! With over 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram Reels was launched in 2020. We would love to tell you how many people use Instagram Reels, but the number is kept a secret to date, we’re sure that we’ll find out more in the future.

So why was Instagram Reels launched? As we said, Instagram stays ahead of the game and Insta Reels was launched in retaliation to TikTok, the video streaming app. There was a key reason here, Instagram needed to stay relevant and visible to a younger, different audience and TikTok has the younger audience.

However, Insta Reels is different to TikTok because it competes by allowing its users to create their video content and add special effects, such as sounds PLUS music.

How Can You Use Instagram Reels?

Instagram is a brilliant social media marketing platform for any business, regardless of sector. Instagram Reels are used to showcase products, services, film behind-the-scenes, host Q&A sessions, interviews, live launches and even events.

There’s just so much that you can do with an Instagram Reel so we would suggest that you get to grips with this platform no matter what industry you are in.

If you want to reach a GenZ audience then you absolutely should use Insta Reels, and even more so if you want to reach Millennials too – as you get both demographics on the platform.

Five Useful Instagram Reels Facts:

Instagram Reels launched in 50 countries.
Nike averages nearly 5 million views per reel – and lots of other big brands have tremendous success with the new Instagram feature.
Most GenZ TikTok users (younger generation) believe that Insta Reels is pretty much the same as the TikTok platform.
When Instagram, Reels launched in India (in July 2020), the app downloads increased by nearly 12% in India!
Instagram Reels receives more viewers than regular Instagram videos – up by 22%!

Getting Instagram Reels

If you want to download Instagram Reels and get started (and we recommend that you do), you will need to have the Instagram platform first. You can download that by clicking on this link: www.instagram.com or accessing it through your app store.

WeChat

Here’s another important instant messaging platform and social media network that’s growing in popularity. It’s also a popular mobile messaging app in China (the most popular mobile messaging apps), with good presence in the USA too, accessible through mobile devices.

Launched eleven years ago in 2021, WeChat is one of the world’s most popular social media site and marketing apps, but it focusses on instant messaging (a little like text messages). It is similar to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, however there’s more to it and there are differences. In China, it’s used as the other social media site to WhatsApp and is the most popular messaging app in the country.

How is WeChat Different to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger?

It is different to WhatsApp because it supports video and uses voice and text as well as voice calls and voice and video calls. It offers free calling too. It also has other useful features such as local translation. So if you have a business with presence in other countries and you need to use other languages, it could be for you.

What Can You Use It For In Business?

Lots of businesses use WhatsApp for Customer Services channels. You might want to sign up to WeChat as a route for customer services because you can talk to your customers directly and because of the translation feature, you can also talk to other people in other countries where you can’t use their tongue. However, as with any translation tool, it also has its limitations!

It is one of the most popular social media apps in the world, most especially in China. If you have representation in China, we would strongly recommend using WeChat as one of your social media marketing platforms.

WeChat also supports picture messaging and video calling. You can share your location, play games and post stories – these are called “Moments”.

How Do You Sign Up for WeChat?

To sign up, you’ll need to scan a QR code on your phone. You can download the WeChat social media platform by clicking here: https://www.wechat.com/.

Five Useful WeChat Facts:

WeChat has more than 1.2 billion monthly active users.
It is most popular in China, where they don’t have WhatsApp.
78% of Chinese people aged 16 to 64 use WeChat.
23% of users in the US are WeChat users and they are aged age 18 to 24.
45 billion messages are sent daily using WeChat.

More Useful Information on Social Media Marketing Trends for 2022

We’ve covered the key trends to use for social media marketing in 2022, particularly harnessing audio and live video streaming.

We’ve also covered the latest, greatest social media networking platforms that are growing in popularity and are worth discovering for your business or brand.

So, how do you decide which social media platform is right for you?

The Social Media Platforms That You Are Already Using

As we’ve mentioned earlier in this piece, as a marketer, you should always focus on the social media platforms that you’re already using, especially if they’re delivering for you. Don’t just think they will run on their own. They won’t, they still need you there monitoring them, coming up with fresh, engaging content and interacting with your users.

Scheduling Content To Make Life Easier!

You can use social media management tools to help you with scheduling content so you can move onto trying out a different social media networking platform. As an example, if you want to schedule your posts, why not try out www.hootsuite.com? It’s a great tool that you can use across all of your social media platforms and another bonus is that you keep everything in one place.

If you use Instagram and you have a business account, you could use Instagram Creator Studio https://business.facebook.com/creatorstudio/home?mode=instagram. This is an area where you can keep all of your information in one place. For example, you can keep your Insta scheduling, your old posts, your content library (images and videos) all in one place and work up your scheduling calendar.

There’s more too.

You can use the Instagram Creator Studio to monetize your content and to research important insights into your posts and how they perform.

Facebook has a similar feature, called the Facebook Creator Studio which you can access here: https://business.facebook.com/creatorstudio/home and it works in pretty much the same way as the Instagram Creator Studio in that you keep everything in one area and schedule your posts. You can also explore monetizing your content and see all of your insight information.

Scheduling tools are there to make your life easier. Once you’ve got to grips with them, you can start to research other potentially suitable social media marketing network platforms for your business or brand.

Don’t Rush Into Lots of Different Platforms

However tempting it might be to set up multiple social media marketing networks, don’t rush it. Social media continues to evolve so using the above information, perhaps choose just one or two new avenues to explore.

Dedicate time for each social media marketing network you want to explore before you set up an account. You must understand each platform before you use it. If you don’t understand it, you won’t know how to get the best out of it.

Balance Your Time Between All of Your Social Media Platforms

We would also strongly suggest that you carefully balance your time between your trusted, existing social media platform accounts and developing a presence on a new social media platform.

Use Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Every business needs a social media marketing strategy, no matter how big or small you are. It doesn’t need to be huge, it’s essentially a document that covers what you want to achieve on social media over a given period (for example, 3 months, 6 months, or a year).

Within your social media marketing strategy, obviously focus on your current, successful social media marketing platforms and what works well for you as well as how you’re going to grow them.

Factor in one new social media marketing network, even if it’s just to get to understand it and then trial it. Your trial period should be for a minimum of 3 months to 6 months to see if it works for you.

Create a social media marketing strategy for your new platform, homing in on the areas that have already worked for you on your other social media platforms. Obviously, you’ll have to refine your strategy, so it matches the new social media platform, but this is just fine-tuning.

Mastered a New Social Media Platform?

That’s great and it is a real achievement, especially when you see your followers suddenly shoot up and you get engagement with your business or brand. Don’t stop there.

When you’ve mastered a new social media platform, schedule an hour a month to investigate other emerging platforms to help you decide if they’ll work for your business or brand.

If a social media platform isn’t going to work for you – discard it and focus on the next. You can always revisit it at a later date (and we would encourage you to do so) but it’s good to have a sound knowledge base of each new platform because you may well use it further down the road.

Things To Think About When Choosing a New Social Media Marketing Platform

Here are a few questions to consider when choosing a new platform:

What are the platform’s user numbers?
How newsworthy is the platform? How often are you hearing about it?
Can your current social media platforms do similar things to the new platform – and if so, do you need it?
What is the new platform’s social demographic, and does it match with your audience?
Will your audience understand the new social media platform?
What type of content could you post on the platform?
How much do you understand about the new platform?
Do you know anyone who could help you with a teaching session?
How relevant is it to your business?
Have you researched your competition’s use of your proposed new platform?

Final Words on Social Media Marketing Trends

Our final words to you are to always do your research, dedicate enough time to learning a new social media platform BUT never lose focus on the social media networking platform that works well for you. Those are your bread and butter after all. Revisit what worked well on them and if it’s relevant, try your biggest social media campaigns out on your new social media platform.

If you do need help, every single one of the above social media networks offers personal and professional support, but notoriously, it’s hard to get hold of as there are long queues. It’s best to reach out to a social media marketing expert if you do need extra guidance.

Finally, do stay ahead by keeping abreast of social media marketing trends because as we said right at the beginning of this piece and other social media sites will keep on appearing! Stay head of the game.