What online safety, social media and brand marketing trends should community managers and brand marketers look out for in 2022? We asked the StrawberrySocial team for their predictions to help you plan for the coming year.


Online Safety in 2022

“We can only hope that all social media platforms employ better online safety measures and much strong terms of service, so that decisions on reported content are made fairly and promptly.

Their decisions on such content need to be crystal clear for the end user to clearly understand. I predict a major overhaul of some of the more widely used platforms for their reporting methods and online safety measures.” Jo – Community Manager & Moderator

“Hoping that all forums are able to tighten up security and make online safety their number one priority.” Kola – Moderator

“Facebook has made noises about ‘better moderation tools’ for 2022. I’m not sure whether to say ‘it’s about time’ or worry about what further hoops that will mean we need to jump through. Twitter will need to up it’s game around online hate as their channel has become increasingly toxic.”

Rebecca Fitzgerald, Founder & CEO

“Brands and communities will need to start taking a more aggressive stance with platforms and demanding their cooperation. In the interim, they’ll need to put together their own policies and action plans for every possible contingency, because I expect the platforms will continue to drag their feet.” Thomas – Social Media Manager


Social Media in 2022

“Moderation is fast becoming the ‘in’ thing as more and more social media channels open up with hosts covering all sorts of subjects.” Kola – Moderator

“I’m still hoping that the actual term ‘social media’ will morph into sub-sections that clearly describe all that the term involves. Saying we’re a social media company automatically means people think we’re a digital marketing agency. ‘Moderation’ is still not completely understood and appears to go under the term ‘community management’ but there are different aspects within that term too.” Rebecca Fitzgerald, Founder & CEO

“I think we’ll see an even greater focus on short video and visual content and accounts will need to think even more creatively to stand out from the crowd. I also expect there will be a greater focus on social commerce with transactions happening natively on more platforms.” Rachel – Social Media Manager

“People will start to move away from Meta owned platforms.” Andy – Moderator


Brand Marketing in 2022

“I think there will be more socially conscious brands emerging in response to the increasing importance of sustainability among consumers and an economy that is slowly recovering from the ravages of Covid-19.” Kola – Moderator

“We’ll see a lot more from brands around ‘green’ initiatives. There are a lot of changes that organisations have to make legally as the green agenda develops and I think this will reflect in the marketing they push out there.” Rebecca Fitzgerald, Founder & CEO

“The best campaigns in 2022 will be the ones that make great use of user generated content, especially if the idea starts with the public and brands jump into viral moments in creative and authentic ways.” Thomas – Social Media Manager


What do you think will happen in 2022? Feel free to share your predictions with us in the comments.

 

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