The social media landscape can change in an instant. Video formats that were once trendy, apps your friends tell you to download, or memes that are dominating your feed can become stale overnight. This shelf life of trends on social media is one of its most unique qualities, but also one of its biggest downfalls. Keeping up to date with trends is difficult and requires at least some level of immersion to stay current. Here are five of the biggest changes that are happening in the social media landscape.

1. TikTok will become the most important social media platform for marketing:

Instagram has held the #1 spot for years as the almighty platform for paid promotions, influencer sponsored content, and overall social media marketing. But with TikTok surpassing 1 billion users in 2021 and outpacing Instagram in search results, brands of all shapes and sizes are likely to start investing (or increase their existing investment) in TikTok ads and influencer marketing through the platform.

TikTok’s quick format, easy ability to “duet” and “stitch” videos allows for content to be created, approved, and shared in record time. This also works in the favor of jumping in to trending audio and filters on the platform before they become stale. This platform moves at a million miles an hour, so brands will have to be fast to capitalize on it. While B2B tech brands continue to focus on LinkedIn and Twitter, it will be interesting to see if any try to meaningfully jump on the TikTok bandwagon.

2. LinkedIn will continue to grow as an influencer platform:

The joke of being a “LinkedInfluencer” is becoming a reality that many individuals (and brands) are taking advantage of. While the professional, well written, and PG business culture is ripe on LinkedIn, the addition of its creator mode allows users to livestream and create content to foster new communities within the platform. Brands are likely to capitalize on this and promote their executives and subject matter experts (SME’s) on LinkedIn to reach a more influencer-esque market, thus bringing attention back to the brand. B2B tech professionals are just starting to use this mode, but it will be interesting to see how it impacts thought-leadership campaigns driven by marketing.

3. Local targeting will become more prevalent:

For many years targeting was fairly broad, and reached users of all demographics with little control over who was actually seeing your ads. Today, alongside local SEO, local targeting is a way for businesses to gain more market share with social media marketing. Local targeting is made possible by companies like Facebook and Twitter which allows your brand to market its products or services to specific geographic areas based off of a user’s IP address.

The ability to dial in to specific demographics on a mass scale is something that hasn’t been achievable before and is bound to change the game when it comes to targeted marketing. B2B tech brands are maniacal when it comes to targeting, and this should provide another level of segmentation for qualifying leads.

4. Long form video will see less of a role:

Years ago, long form video ruled. IGTV, Facebook Watch and YouTube all rewarded their creators with higher algorithm placement and more ads on their videos if they reached over 10 minutes long.

In 2021 however, 60% of all videos posted to the internet were under 2 minutes long. Instagram Reels and TikTok have become extremely popular and pushed this trend forward across all mediums. The speed in which content is consumed will require brands to get creative and capture their viewer’s attention quickly. This is already happening in the B2B tech space with companies focusing more on sub 2-minute native videos.

5. Memes will grow in brand marketing:

Often times, we laugh at corporate attempts at meme culture. By the time a big organization edits and approves an ad with a popular meme, the meme is dead, and the ad isn’t as effective. However, brands have become much faster in the turnaround time of capitalizing on a popular trend. With the rise of outsourcing influencer content creation and how easy it is for anyone to produce content, more and more brands will utilize meme culture to connect with their audience.

So, are you up to date on the latest trends in social media? If you need help getting organized, or even getting started, let’s chat.