Five social marketing strategies for 2022

Searching for products and brands on social media has been popular for many years, but now it has finally reached a watershed moment. More Generation Z users now choose social media rather than traditional search engines when searching for products. As of 2021, approximately 70% of consumers will choose Instagram to discover new products, and approximately 50% of TikTok users surveyed said they would place an order after seeing a brand promotion on the platform.

Social commerce provides users with an immersive, community-centric and smooth shopping experience and has become the mainstream of current development. What are the latest development trends in 2022? How can advertisers capture the Generation Z user group with the greatest consumption potential? How to shorten the interval between users’ shopping intention and shopping behavior as quickly as possible? Looking ahead to the latest trends in global social marketing in 2022, helping you seize the opportunity and win at every step

Key points

1. The reputation of influencers is in doubt, and affiliate marketing enters a new era

2. Peer endorsement + mainstream voice Social dialogue drives stronger purchase intention

3. Livestreaming Marketing: A Guide for Generation Z to Stay Home

4. AR shopping: a two-way choice in the post-epidemic era

5. Metaverse: Virtual but not distant mainstream future

Search engines are no longer the first choice for users to search for products. Currently, more Generation Z users will choose social media rather than traditional search engines when searching for products.

Relevant research shows that in-app shopping will stimulate 75% of users aged 21-34 to place orders. It is estimated that by 2026, the global social commerce market size will reach US$2.9 trillion.

Currently, social commerce is still defined as an extension of e-commerce, although the entire shopping process from product discovery to ordering takes place on social media platforms.

In the next few years, social commerce will enable more small brands to connect and interact with users and further trigger purchases. Large retailers are also joining this ranks. For example, Walmart has launched live shopping events, and TikTok users can buy products recommended by influencers without jumping to the platform.

Facebook and Instagram are leading the social shopping experience, but TikTok is gradually gaining ground with its advertising and local characteristics. As of mid-2021, about 50% of TikTok users said they had placed an order after seeing a product promotion on the platform.

Snapchat is a leader in augmented reality innovation, which has greatly expanded the functional attributes of social commerce. Snap claims that its product experience lenses stimulate more user purchase intent, 45% higher than other forms of marketing.

Social commerce provides consumers with an immersive, seamless, community-centric shopping experience. In 2022, there are five key trends to watch:

Trend #1: The reputation of influencers is questionable

Affiliate marketing enters a new era The marketing landscape of influencers is constantly changing, and relevant research shows that many consumers are cautious about the information they convey.

Faced with this change, major platforms have also adopted other models to respond, which to some extent have many similarities with affiliate marketing. These models are a reward, not a bribe, for influencers who have gained the trust of their fans.

For example, Instagram has launched a native affiliate tool, which allows influencers to earn commissions when their fans purchase corresponding products through the content they post. Fans will even know which push notifications are commissionable, so they will know when to place an order to support the corresponding influencer.

In the next stage of influencer cooperation, brands will naturally leverage their fans and the fans' support for influencers by purchasing recommended products to promote product sales. In this process, influencers will obtain corresponding benefits through effect evaluation.

Trend #2: Peer endorsement + mainstream voice

Social conversation drives purchase intent

Talent programs have long been at the core of smart marketing strategies. The social platform demonstrated to Generation Z the power of community endorsement, and the topic #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt received sustained and widespread attention, garnering nearly 3 billion views.

The hashtag’s success story also shows the power of peer reviews in the TikTok era, with peer endorsements becoming social guarantees of whether a product is worth buying. Not only can some influential people in a dominant position endorse products, but ordinary users are also gradually starting to endorse daily necessities.

TikTok's content-based algorithm is perfectly aligned with users' interests, and the content pushed is not limited to content related to influencers that users follow, which to some extent ensures the democracy of brand endorsements on the platform.

Brands that understand the power of the majority voice will enhance users' purchasing intention through community activities while giving every ordinary user the opportunity to speak out.

Trend #3: Livestream Marketing

The Z generation’s guide to staying at home

Middle-aged consumers may be accustomed to TV shopping, but this is a completely different experience for younger audiences, or they think this method is very tacky. But in 2022, the digital version of TV shopping – live shopping – has allowed millennials and Generation Z to better appreciate the joy of shopping at home, catering to the unique preferences of this group with the greatest consumer potential.

The reason why TV shopping still has a viable market is that it combines entertainment, convenience and sophisticated sales techniques. At the same time, brands and retailers can also establish connections with users in this unique way.

The online, digital version of TV shopping shares much in common with its roots. In the more developed Chinese market, retailers generate $60 billion in live shopping sales each year.

China's success in this area is due to the advanced industry ecosystem jointly developed by social platforms and technologies, and retailers in other countries are also paying close attention to this. But even without that, consumers in other markets have shown a desire to participate.

In recent years, about 50% of Saudi consumers surveyed said that the proportion of their purchases of luxury goods, auto parts, sports equipment and travel goods through live shopping has increased in the past few years.

For small retailers, there is still a lot of room for maneuver until technical support is in place. British fashion brand Roman Originals overcame technical shortcomings in its Facebook Live show by sending product links directly to the comments section.

Although the problem of real-time inventory updates has not yet been overcome, Instagram has also added some convenient e-commerce functions to live broadcasts, such as product tracking or on-platform inspection.

Of course, the most important factor is not the mechanism, but the opportunities that only live streaming can bring, and these opportunities are difficult to replicate on other e-commerce platforms.

More social elements may be added in the future, such as interacting with trusted influencers or interacting with the community. But for now we can draw on the proven techniques and skills of TV shopping, such as limited edition products or products dedicated to live broadcasts.

Although the platform's technical system has not yet reached its ideal state, brand owners should not miss out on development opportunities.

Trend #4: AR Shopping

A two-way choice in the post-epidemic era

AR shopping has existed for a long time on platforms such as Snapchat, and the epidemic in recent years has greatly promoted the development of AR shopping. About 61% of users plan to postpone offline physical shopping, and retailers are also open and welcoming to the immersive shopping experience created by AR.

Some brands offer consumers the opportunity to try before they buy, such as Estée Lauder’s shoppable try-on lens feature on Snapchat, which was first launched with the MAC brand in 2021.

Snapchat has also launched a tool called Screenshop, which allows users to get purchase suggestions by simply scanning physical products or uploading pictures of their favorite products.

In addition to merchandise, retailers have also launched AR spaces. Snapchat has launched different virtual spaces called Connected Lenses for users. American Eagle used AR space to create a virtual store where users can change models' clothes, check locations, and purchase products in the space.

Augmented reality products and retail spaces are closely tied to another rising trend: group shopping, the process of sharing upcoming new products (clothing or beauty) with friends and getting feedback.

In 2020, specialized services such as Squadded Shopping Party and Verishop emerged, and by 2022, with the emergence of Apple Shareplay, these are more likely to become the mainstream of future marketing.

In the post-epidemic era, online shopping remains popular, and brand owners will continue to use the home convenience of AR and VR to enhance users' willingness to buy.

Trend #5 - Metaverse

A virtual but not distant mainstream future

Both Facebook and Microsoft have made it clear that the Metaverse will become a strategic focus in the future. In addition, virtual identities driven by NFTs and web 3.0 are also becoming popular. Although most consumers may not shop in the Metaverse during Christmas in 2022, many international brands have already begun to lay out in the Metaverse, such as Gucci Garden on Roblox and Balenciaga on Fortnite.

Fashion brands have taken the lead in adopting the latest social commerce technologies, and other categories are also gradually testing the waters of the Metaverse. For example, Stella Artois sponsors Zed Run, an online competitive platform focused on selling NFTs of horse races.

Many brands currently use Instagram to create digital storefronts, and the natural extension is the rise of the Metaverse immersive flagship store. Decentraland is a virtual space where users can buy and sell assets, including virtual land.

Boson Protocol recently paid $709,000 for a piece of land on which it plans to build a virtual shopping mall.

Of course, many of the gaps between the real world and virtual shopping have been bridged, and in 2022 we will find that the experience in the virtual world will be more convenient, smoother and more interesting.

Social commerce is crucial in creating a seamless shopping experience and connecting brands with users. Platforms, whether emerging or existing, will find ways to provide users with a seamless shopping experience. Live streaming, communities, AR, and the metaverse are all means to achieve this rather than the end.

Forward-thinking brands will quickly find effective strategies to shorten the gap between users’ shopping intention and shopping behavior as quickly as possible, and we believe that every small step will push technology forward by a big step.