US Social Media Trends for 2022 & Beyond| The Sprout Social IndexTM
Contents3Introduction4Talent rises to the top8Test, learn, evolve15Tried and true23Taking off30Conclusion31Methodologysproutsocial.com • @SproutSocial2
IntroductionRemember 2013? Facebook redesigned its news feed, Vine was introducing the world to the joys of short-form video and no one had heard of social distancing. It was also the year Sprout Social started this annual report on the top trends in social media.Things have obviously changed since then. The market for social media platforms is more powerful and diversified than ever. Consumers are more conscious with their screen time, especially as they find their footing in a post-pandemic world. Marketers have more channels to choose from, algorithms to untangle and audience preferences to rethink.This is Sprout Social’s ninth year of trend forecasting. If we’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that social moves quickly. Trends, platforms and use cases are constantly changing and it can be hard to keep up. This report is one of the ways we reflect and reorient ourselves to the new landscape every year.In this report, we surveyed over 1,000 US consumers and 500 US social marketers to understand how social media has transformed on both sides of the marketing equation. We’re using that data to break down shifts in consumer expectations, new challenges social faces as a strategic business function and how the bets marketers are taking for the future align with consumers’ desires. “ Consumers are more conscious with their screen time, especially as they find their footing in a post-pandemic world.”sproutsocial.com • @SproutSocial3
Rank 1Bandwidth/TalentProving ROISocial ExecutionResourcingSocial as a Business FunctionRank 2Rank 3Rank 4Rank 52019202020212022Social media teams’ biggest challengesTalent rises to the top (of marketers’ challenges)Social media teams have come a long way in the past few years. In 2019, teams were still trying to convince senior leadership that social media was business-critical and struggling to get access to tools, resources and budget. Now, the value of social across functions is clearer than ever.But the new responsibilities of social teams come with new challenges. Creating the outcomes businesses have come to expect from social calls for more talent. More than half of marketers (52%) say that finding experienced talent is their number one challenge this year. Brands need to be thoughtful about social team growth—both in identifying which social roles to hire and calibrating job descriptions to attract and foster qualified talent.#1 challenge:Finding talentsproutsocial.com • @SproutSocial4
Talent rises to the top 88%of marketers expect to hire another team member over the next two years.Team expansion takes priority for businesses of all sizesThere has never been a better time to be...
