Social media marketers are always on the lookout for directories and social media platforms we can use to push your brand or service. Social media platforms are always emerging. Whether they take off and retain popularity is another thing entirely.
In fact, you can go to the app store or a search engine and, after a quick search, you will find hundreds and hundreds of social media platforms and messaging services to choose from. Our goal today is to highlight social media platforms that will grow and achieve true general public popularity in 2022.
Before we dive into said social media platforms, it will be helpful to highlight some key analytics from social media data in 2021, as it can help inform our declarations below. In 2021, we saw the social focus shift towards audio-based social networking and live-streamed content. In fact, in 2021, live streaming (32%) was the second-highest trend social media marketers invested in and TikTok was the fastest-growing social platform.
With these key 2021 findings in mind, let’s have a gander at what 2022 has in store for social media platforms.
Twitch
Keeping our eye on the live streaming trend and understanding its growing popularity only means one thing – Twitch will go from strength to strength in 2022. For the uninitiated, Twitch, owned by Amazon, is a live-streaming platform that allows creators to interact with subscribers and commentators in real time.
It is primarily a platform for video game streaming but is also home to football-related content, cooking, music and podcasts. Twitch pulls in a staggering 30 million average daily visitors but the numbers can get even higher when the site’s biggest personalities are live.
Since acquiring Twitch, Amazon has been building and adding to the platform’s infrastructure to increase audience engagement and revenue generation. Features such as subscriber-only chat options, ad support and affiliate links have truly unlocked the potential of Twitch as a live-streaming platform.
Amazon is evidently trying to diversify the platform so that it isn’t shackled by a public perception of being exclusively for gamers. This should encourage other brands and companies to build their own branded presence on the website and take advantage of live streaming in 2022!
Peanut
Peanut is a social media platform exclusively for women. Set up in 2017 to help women connect with other mothers and expectant mothers to establish a strong community, Peanut has over 10 million connections in the UK, the US and Canada.
It is a specialised and useful social media platform, especially if your brand or service is looking at mothers and expectant mothers as the bulk of their customer base. At the end of 2021, Peanut announced that they would be adding menopausal resources to the social media platform to further support women in their later stages of life. Peanut also features an audio-style community interaction portal called Peanut Pods.
If you share Peanut’s target audience then the marketing potential for your brand is abundant and clear for all to see. Peanut, however, is a deeply personal social media platform. If your brand dives in, make sure you manage your tone and content.
Discord
Discord, yet another social media platform that started off as a gaming-focused one, has evolved into a truly expansive community hub and messaging service. This network is essentially a collection of thousands of user-created servers that allow video, audio and text messaging.
Upon its launch, Discord was used by gamers to stream games and connect with other gamers around the world. After raising $100 million in funding in 2020, Discord pivoted to becoming a virtual space for anyone to hang out and talk in their specialised communities.
It is a terrific platform for building niche dedicated communities that will then help build your customer base for you. Using Discord, you can get like-minded users to share tips, news and insights into your particular sector and service. It is, perhaps, the quintessential application for generating brand loyalty and trust.
TikTok
TikTok was the most-downloaded social media application of 2021 and that isn’t changing anytime soon. In 2022, TikTok is expected to hit 1.5 billion downloads. If you’ve been living under a rock, TikTok is a platform that allows you to film short videos with simple effects such as lip-syncing, loops, AR filters, text and music overlays.
Towards the end of 2021, TikTok truly migrated from a platform of the people to a platform brimming with brand potentiality. More and more companies started opening TikTok accounts towards the final third of 2021 and in 2022, it’s going to explode!
In terms of marketing investment, TikTok offers a high return on investment as many of the features and capabilities are built in and available without extra investment. In fact, it is only behind Instagram and YouTube for efficiency of investment return.
Triller
We would be remiss mentioning TikTok, without mentioning Triller. A very similar social media platform, Triller is a network with more than 23 million users. It is an AI-driven music video app that lets its users create professional-level videos in seconds and offers very similar features to TikTok.
It is so difficult to know what will take off at any given time. Even TikTok was around for a while before it merged with Music.ly and became the social media platform we know today. Triller could be the next TikTok – make sure you aren’t a step behind if it ends up being the next big thing!
Twitter Spaces
Twitter Spaces is a brand-new feature that has been added in its’ beta version to its parent application Twitter. In Twitter Spaces, users can host audio-only discussions, training sessions, Q&As and AMAs. It is a voice chat alternative to the platform’s constrictive character-limited posting feature.
Twitter Spaces are getting extremely popular as large influencers use the beta addition to keep active with their followers, discuss events and news relevant to their interests and even announce events/products for the first time.
Twitter Spaces is an important social media platform to keep an eye on in 2022 as it will provide marketers with a new supercharged way to take advantage of the Twitter platform.
Caffeine.tv
Caffeine, created by ex-Apple designers, is an alternative live streaming platform to Twitch. Much like Amazon’s platform, Caffeine.tv allows viewers to interact with streamers using emojis and comments. It also features a monetisation program to reward their content creators.
Caffeine is also working to improve their public profile with high-value collaborations including live streaming the X Games, the Ultimate Rap League and even enlisting Drake’s birthday party stream for the application. All this was possible due to the millions being invested into this budding social media platform. Will it bang in 2022? It certainly seems so!
Houseparty
Due to the countless lockdowns of 2021, and the threat of more to come due to COVID variants, Houseparty is a safe bet for 2022’s most popular social media platforms. In fact, between 2020 and 2021, Houseparty grew from 1 million users to 50 million users.
Houseparty is a group video messaging app that allows eight users to video chat. You can then spice up the video chats with video filters, stickers and effects on the fly. Whilst the application can be used to push ads, an interesting idea for marketers using Houseparty is to set up small influencer sessions with dedicated customers as an offer-showcase or even a subscriber-award.
What will good social media marketers do in 2022?
Being curious about social media and new networks is part and parcel of being a good and successful marketer. The last few years have been periods of rapid change in every aspect of life – social media is no different.
And remember, whilst we’ve come to an educated look at what social media platforms are set to boom in popularity in 2022, there could be hundreds of new ones being formed and created right this moment. You have to keep your finger on the pulse of social media and endeavour to be an early adopter in every respect!
