What’s hot on Facebook? What’s
cool? Is it even called Facebook anymore? you wonder, gently stroking your chin in
deep, social media-savvy thought.
Facebook’s frequent updates, algorithm
changes and new features can be tough to keep up with. But
with 2.91 billion
users, each spending an average of 19.6 hours a
month reading, watching, liking, scrolling and commenting, it’s
stuff you need to know.
Here are the top Facebook trends you need to stay on top of when building
or refining your social media marketing strategy in 2022.
Top Facebook trends in 2022
1. The Metaverse is the
new kid on the block
2. Reels are a real
moneymaker
3. Groups are more
central and easier to manage
4. Consumers are turning
to Facebook for information about brands
5. Messenger is a go-to
tool for social commerce
6. More businesses (and
consumers) are using Facebook Shops
7. Live shopping is on
the rise
8. Pandemic-boosted
Facebook Live is staying strong
9. Facebook is buckling
down on “harmful content”
10. Facebook Marketplace
is a tool for buying local
10 of the most important Facebook trends in 2022
1. The Metaverse is
the new kid on the block
Picture this: it’s back-to-school time. Facebook shows up late to class,
rocking a different haircut and futuristic-looking shoes. They say they spent
the summer on a transformative retreat, and now they’re all about living life
in 3D. Oh, and they go by “Meta” now.
That’s Facebook’s transition to
Meta — if it were a terrible teen drama, of course. The name
change (which applies to the company, not the social network itself) is
representative of Mark Zuckerberg’s new focus on the metaverse. This new way of
connecting is a virtual 3-dimensional augmented reality world with new
opportunities for socializing, gaming, exercise, education, and more — Meta’s
CEO explains all
here.
Initial stats on the interest of Meta aren’t promising (Statista found
that 68% of adults
in the U.S were “not at all interested” in Facebook’s metaverse project in
November 2021) but hey, change is hard. Facebook has invested $10 billion
into Meta, so we’re keeping an eye on what’s coming next. So far,
it’s tough to tell whether this new kid is going to be cool or not.
2. Reels are a real moneymaker
Facebook Reels are available in 150 countries, and according to
the company, the new Facebook video format is “the fastest-growing
content format by far.”
Reels are everywhere: in Stories, on the Watch tab, at the top of the home
feed and suggested throughout the Facebook news feed. The attention-grabbing
clips aren’t just a spectacular way to lose an entire afternoon—they’re a way
for creators to make income on the platform.
Source: Facebook
Creators can monetize public Reels with overlay ads (as
long as they’re a part of Facebook’s in-stream ads
program). Overlay ads show up in front of Reels, so viewers can see
the entire Reel and the ad at the same time. The two kinds of Overlay ads
Facebook currently has are banner ads (which appear along the bottom ) and
sticker ads (which the creator can place in a stationary spot on the post—like,
you know, a sticker).
When more people view and engage with a monetized Reel, the creator makes
more money. According to
Facebook, the max you can make is $35,000 a month. Not too shabby.
Not sure how to manage your Facebook ad spend? These 2021 Facebook
ad cost benchmarks will help you understand what’s possible
within your budget.
3. Groups are more central and easier to manage
2022 has already brought along some great news for brands using Groups as
part of their Facebook marketing strategies. The company redesigned
the Groups tab back in 2019, giving quick access to Groups to all
users (and reminding you you really don’t need to be in “Office Birthday Gift
for Frank 2014” anymore—too much drama). Since then, the platform has put even
more emphasis on Groups as a way to connect.
In March 2022, Facebook
announced“new features to help Facebook Group admins keep their
Groups safe and healthy, reduce misinformation, and to make it easier for them
to manage and grow their Groups with relevant audiences.”
These features include
giving admins the ability to temporarily suspend people from Groups and to
automatically decline incoming posts.
Source: Facebook
In the same
announcement, Facebook shared that Group admins now have the power
to invite people to join Groups via email, and Groups now have QR codes
too—scanning one takes you to the Group’s About page. Facebook Groups are also
an awesome resource for building your business (more on that here).
4. Consumers are turning to Facebook for information about brands
Hootsuite’s
2022 trend report found that 53.2% of global internet users
ages 16-24 use social networks as their primary source of information when
researching brands. That means that most of the time, Gen Z isn’t turning to a
company’s website to learn more about who they are, what they offer or how much
it costs—instead, they scroll through their socials.
Why does that matter? Gen Z’s buying power is growing, and they’re predicted to
be the largest consumer base in the U.S by 2026. In order to tap
into that audience, brands will need to keep their socials active and updated.
For Facebook, that means creating a business page (here’s how to
do it) and optimizing it to
be informative and user-friendly.
Source: eMarketer
5. Messenger is a go-to tool
for social commerce
Not only are consumers turning to social media for brand information:
they’re also using it for quick communication. No more emailing info@verycoolpants.comwhen
you’re wondering about whether or not the working conditions in their factory
are also very cool. Instead, you can shoot them a direct message.
According to Facebook, consumers say that being able to
message a business makes them feel more confident about the brand.
Messaging is a timely and personal way to connect with a business, and aligns
that business more with the “social” world than the business world—you’re
communicating using the same platform you use for casual chats with friends,
instead of sending an email or going into a store.
Source: Facebook
And while Messenger is really convenient for customers, it can be a hassle
for businesses—if you can’t keep up with your DMs, it’s easy for messages to
get lost or ignored accidentally.
Tools like Hootsuite can help with that. Hootsuite’s
Inbox gathers all of your company’s comments and DMs in one
place (and it’s not just for Facebook–our inbox can
also be used for Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter. You won’t have to
search through your profile or use Facebook’s built-in inbox for answering customer
questions: Hootsuite rounds ‘em up for you.
Another useful platform to add to your messaging arsenal is Heyday.
Heyday’s conversational AI platform has a Facebook
Messenger integration, meaning you can use Heyday’s very smart,
automatic messaging system to communicate with consumers without having to
answer every DM individually. Think of it like a slow cooker: turn it on, let
it do the work and check back in to find… meatballs! (Or, you know, a sale.)
6. More businesses (and consumers) are using Facebook Shops
Since the
introduction of Facebook Shops in 2020 (towards the beginning
of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many physical stores around the world were
closed) big and small businesses have had an official method of selling on the
platform. By June 2021,
Facebook Shops had one million monthly global users and 250 million active
stores worldwide.
So, the social commerce side of Facebook continues to grow. Some brands
report that sales are 66%
higheron Facebook Shops than on their own sites. You can even use
Facebook to send and accept payment (hello, Facebook Pay)
for your business, and to send money to friends or charitable causes.
7. Live shopping is on the rise
Live shopping is
Facebook’s answer to consumers who want a more interactive experience—and to
businesses that want to show off their products in action. Facebook is
the second most
popular platform in the world for this type of content, and
companies are cashing in on the folks who like to experience content in real
time.
Source: Facebook
In addition to being more engaging than a run-of-the-mill ad, Live Shopping
gives companies some major authenticity points. Putting a face to your brand
makes you more likely
to capture the attention of scrollers, and humanizing your account
is always a good thing (it might be ironic, but the very virtual world of
social media always values content that comes across as very real).
It’s hard to get more transparent (or vulnerable!) than in live video
content, and this can help boost sales for your products.
8. Pandemic-boosted Facebook Live is staying strong
Facebook Live isn’t just for shopping, of course. Especially during the
COVID-19 pandemic, the platform’s live videos allowed folks to broadcast
news, events, and even concerts safely from home. And even with the
pandemic sitch improving and the return of in-person events, many folks
continue to turn to Facebook for live, virtual videos.
Source: eMarketer
As of November 2021, Facebook was second only to Youtube when it came to
live video streaming (obviously, the mighty and well-established Youtube has
quite the grip on video watchers everywhere).
9. Facebook is buckling down on “harmful content”
As fun and uplifting as social media can be, there’s always trolls, bots,
and that aunt you try not to talk to at family dinners. (Yikes—who knew a
Minion meme could be so inflammatory?)
The internet is famously difficult to regulate, but according to Facebook’s
2021 Community Standards Enforcement Report, the prevalence of harmful content
on Facebook decreased in some areas thanks to “improved and expanded proactive
detection technologies.”
In Q4 of 2021, the company took action on 4 million pieces of drug content
(up from 2.7 million in Q3), 1.5 million pieces of firearm-related content (up
from 1.1 million) and 1.2 billion pieces of spam content (up from 777 million).
Source: Facebook’s 2021 Community Standards Enforcement Report
Facebook also reported a
teeny-tiny decrease in hate speech between 2021 and the previous year (don’t
let this extreme-looking graph fool you—the scale is very small). This is in
part due to advances in
artificial intelligence—a reinforced integrity optimizer, improved
personalization and the Meta-AI Few Shot learner.
The company’s seemingly tough
policy on harmful posts is far from perfect, though. For example, Facebook
notes that its “smart” technology flagged a ton of content
centered around Breast Cancer Awareness Month in 2020. The 2021 report says
that Facebook is “working to improve the accuracy of enforcement on health
content, including content related to breast cancer and surgeries” and that
there was “significantly less overenforcement during last year’s [2021’s]
Breast Cancer Awareness Month.”
10. Facebook Marketplace is a
tool for buying local
As of January 2022, Facebook
marketplace ads could reach a potential 562.1 million
people—that’s a lot of online shoppers. And while Marketplace is
often used by individuals to sell used furniture or ill-fitting clothes bought
in a much-regretted online shopping spree, it’s also a great platform for U.S.
businesses selling new products (and
can be used for auto and real estate in
certain countries).
So what’s the difference
between Facebook Marketplace and Facebook
Shops? Really, it comes down to location—in general, consumers are
searching Marketplace for items available in a certain geographic area. Most
marketplace transactions involve the consumer picking up the item in-person,
which is not as common in the kind of e-commerce transactions made through
Facebook Shops.
In other words, if you’re
looking to shop local, Marketplace is a good place to start.
Overall, 2022 Facebook trends
are all about social commerce and social responsibility—making it easier for
brands to connect with consumers, for consumers to connect with brands, and for
all users to have a more robust and positive experience on the app. Advances in
AI technology are making the virtual world more and more like the real world.
So meta.
Manage your Facebook presence
alongside your other social media channels using Hootsuite. From a single
dashboard, you can schedule brand posts, share video, engage your audience, and
measure the impact of your efforts. Try it free today.
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