Click here for the current social media trend article 2023

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Our in-depth looks at social media trends, including analysis, strategies and recommendations for action, are always by far the most popular articles on our blog. And although there has never been a lack of growth, excitement and innovation in social media since the launch of LinkedIn and Myspace in 2003, 2021 has been an exceptional year. By the way: Congratulations on your social media anniversary 🥳. In the last Social media trend article 2021 we reported that after many years of consistently strong growth, 2020 even saw a new growth record. One of the main reasons for this was and is the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the number of social media users increased by a further ≈10% to 4.55 billion. This means that 90% of all internet users and more than every second person on the planet are social media users.

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Facebook alone has 2.9 billion monthly active users (MAUs). YouTube has 2.3 billion MAUs. Instagram and TikTok each have around 1 billion MAUs, closely followed by LinkedIn with 800 million users. In addition to these social media platform giants, the platforms Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest have established themselves with around ≈500 million MAUs. With Discord and Reddit, new interesting players are gaining attention on the German market. For the purposes of this article, we do not include messengers, audio platforms or other specialist providers, which are also integrating more and more "social" elements, among the social media platforms. You can find all the figures, data, facts and trends on social media channels in the chapter Social media platforms 2022.

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For companies, the increased number of users and platforms means even greater opportunities to reach their target group on the one hand and even greater challenges to stand out from the crowd with good content on the other. Especially in view of the creators and influencers who have been able to make a much better name for themselves than companies and brands in recent years. You can learn how marketers can make the best possible use of the content evolution in social media in Social Media Trend #1 - Social Content Evolution and in the strategic recommendations for action Social Media Marketing 2022.

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Ideally, really good content should be played out cost-effectively and in line with the target group. Of course, the trends in social advertising are once again an important topic this year, which we will discuss in Social Media Trend #3 - Social Advertising & Social Commerce (including guest article by Florian Litterst Founder & CEO Adsventure) take a closer look. You can find out what we can learn from influencers/creators in the area of social media and how collaboration works in the Social Media Trend #2 - (Corporate) Influencers and Creators (including guest article by Adil Sbai, Founder & CEO weCreate)

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Alongside such positive developments, public criticism of social media platforms is on the rise. On the one hand, the toxic effects on individuals are being discussed, such as the accusations made by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen that Instagram has a negative impact on young people's self-image. On the other hand, negative effects on the macro level are discussed, for example in the context of the radicalization of corona deniers or the manipulation of voter groups. We describe how individuals and entrepreneurs can protect and position themselves in this environment in Social Media Trend #5 - Digital Detox & Social Media Mindfulness and in Social Media Trend #6 - Corporate Social Responsibility: Taking a stand.

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Given the increasing criticism of social media, it is not surprising that Mark Zuckerberg, who as a public figure is usually alone in the crossfire of critics, wants to bring new topics into focus. The vision of a metaverse, a virtual parallel world, is seen by many as the next logical step in the evolution of the internet. Mark Zuckerberg has pursued this approach most consistently to date and renamed the Facebook group "Meta" in 2021. In addition to the metaverse as a distraction from public criticism of Facebook, this move is also understandable for other reasons. Since the coronavirus pandemic, more and more people have become accustomed to maintaining social contacts and events digitally. In addition, the metaverse would finally make Mark Zuckerberg independent of the limitations of smartphones and thus ultimately also of Google (Android smartphone operating system) and Apple (iOS smartphone operating system). We discuss what this step could mean for marketers in Social Media Trend #4 - Metaverse - Entry into a parallel reality?

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And what happened to social audio? Do you still remember Clubhouse? No app has sparked a hype and then disappeared again so quickly. At the peak of Clubhouse, hardcore fans spent more than eight hours a day on the app. Politicians and celebrities were talking their heads off and thousands of "LinkedIn professionals" changed their bio to "Clubhouse moderator and expert" in no time at all 😉. So whether we can still talk about Clubhouse and social audio in 2022 will be discussed in Social Media Trend #7 - Social Audio (guest article by Nicolaj Gruzdov and Peter Mestel, social audio experts).

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The quintessence as strategic recommendation for action for marketers and further expert opinions can be found at the end of the article.

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Strategic influencing factors in social media 2022

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Social Media Trend #1 - Social Content Evolution

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To understand the future, it is worth taking a look at the past. The social media age began in 2003 with the Myspace and LinkedIn platforms. Back then, a social media profile still consisted of a short description of the person with rather pixelated profile pictures. Users could join groups in which there were posts in text form. There were not many more functions available.

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The next stage in Facebook's evolution was the newsfeed. This initially consisted mainly of text, links and occasionally pictures of our Facebook friends or company pages. Instagram, the social media platform that was initially based purely on images and popularized the 1:1 format through the feed, was a change from this. Only after a certain amount of time was there an upgrade to video content.

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Snapchat finally gave all platforms another boost with the story format. Even though this has since been discontinued on LinkedIn and Twitter, it can still be found on many other platforms. On Instagram in particular, the story format acts like a second feed and is consumed by most users on a daily basis. The story format established the vertical format on social media and visuals and videos took up more space on the (smartphone) screen as a result.

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In the meantime, Vine was a social media platform based purely on videos. Videos with a maximum length of seven seconds could be published here. The platform existed from 2013 until the end of 2016. In addition, another platform was created that is only focused on videos: Musical.ly was launched in 2014, acquired in 2017 and is now world-famous under the name TikTok. Here, too, the vertical video format is part of the success. Initially limited to 15 seconds, it is now possible to post videos of up to 3 minutes in length. The vertical short video format was so successful that Instagram (Reels) and YouTube (Shorts) also adopted it and integrated it prominently into their apps.

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If we look at the evolution so far, we can see that the vertical format is becoming increasingly important. Short to medium-length videos are also becoming increasingly important for the platforms. This makes it increasingly difficult to create high-quality content. Companies are cooperating with content creators who produce this content and offer their reach as a platform for companies. As a result of this trend shift, even social media platforms are competing for creators and setting up funding pools worth millions for them.

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Companies that want to consistently publish outstanding content for their channels should invest more time in appealing video content in vertical format in future.

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Social Media Trend #2 - (Corporate) Influencers and Creators (Including guest article by Adil Sbai, Founder & CEO weCreate)

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2021 was a strong year for personal brands in social media: Influencers, Creators, Brand Ambassadors, Corporate Influencers, Social CEOs; You name it! The number of buzzwords is a good indicator of the hype that has now reached an all-time high in the field of social personal branding. Personal brands benefit from people's eroding trust in brands and companies. They are more tangible. They understand the logic of social media platforms and know how to produce content and react to trends and algorithm changes on social media platforms faster than the marketing departments of almost all corporations.

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The rapid rise of TikTok has further fueled this trend. New stars have emerged here in a very short space of time. While the Kardashians, Christiano Ronaldos and Dieter Bohlens of this world still have the accounts with the most followers on Instagram, unknown new players such as Khabane Lame, Julesboringlife and Younes Zarou(source) are the ones on TikTok.

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These creators have understood how to use the growth of TikTok to their advantage and are now starting to transfer their communities to other platforms. Companies can learn a lot from this. It is becoming increasingly important to fully engage with a channel, to understand its characteristics in depth and to react quickly to new trends. Other successful practices of influencers/creators: they have a very high content output and pay meticulous attention to producing continuously (consistency and frequency is king). Community interactions are also an essential component: many influencers/creators reply to almost every message personally. Without this behavior, growth is hardly possible.

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For an insight into the success factors of creators' work, here is a guest article by Adil Sbaifounder & CEO of our cooperation partner weCreatewhose team supports brands such as BMW, Kaufland, Mercedes-Benz and The Walt Disney Company on TikTok.

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"Creator economy, NFTs, metaverse: All important and disruptive in the long term, but probably all a little overhyped. The 9:16 format (i.e. vertical video), on the other hand, is here to stay - the development of leading social media platforms does not allow any other conclusion. Even large technology companies are gradually adapting to the new format, as Samsung recently demonstrated. The coronavirus pandemic, including the millions of people who spent more time at home and in front of their smartphones, acted as a catalyst in this context - the number of TikTok users increased rapidly. In response to the meteoric rise of its Chinese competitor, Instagram quickly changed its business model to a video platform and countered with reels, while YouTube successfully expanded its universe to include shorts. Since then, all three platforms have enabled a level of virality that has not been seen for a long time. The strong performance of shorts in particular is quite surprising: reels are now outperforming, and even in comparison with TikTok, YouTube can show greater organic reach in some cases, as the example of Wagner Pizza shows. Brands and agencies should and will therefore think less and less in terms of platforms than in the "9:16" format.

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Nevertheless, my prediction is that TikTok will remain the top dog within GenZ in 2022 because it shapes the zeitgeist and trends more than any other platform. And yet TikTok remains the symptom of a structural development: the "9:16" format will dominate GenZ in 2022. Brands and agencies therefore need to think bigger and not just focus on TikTok, but keep an eye on the entire format. Content recycling is the magic word here, because instead of scoring on one platform, content can now be recycled twice. This offers an overall reach that even large brands, which have tended to give TikTok the cold shoulder up to now, will not be able to resist in the long term. Or to put it another way: Anyone who doesn't create good 9:16 content in 2022 will lose market share in GenZ in the long term."

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Corporate influencers and B2B influencer marketing

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The trend towards the personal brand, the individual as creator, will expand even further into the B2B sector in 2022. The number of corporate influencer programs has been on the rise for several years now. At Social DNA, we were able to support more projects than ever before in 2021. With corporate influencer programs, we not only achieve a very high reach within the specific target groups with a high level of credibility, but also strengthen the connection between employees and companies by developing their social media potential and providing them with better information about the company. We therefore expect a further increase in these programs in 2022. The increasing use of influencer marketing practices in B2B is also interesting. More and more people have been promoting B2B products on LinkedIn in 2021, such as this post by Frank Thelen, who now has almost half a million followers as a B2B influencer on LinkedIn. We predict a strong increase in B2B influencer engagement in 2022.

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Social Media Trend #3 - Social Advertising & Social Commerce (Including guest article by Florian Litterst Founder & CEO Adsventure)

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Many advertisers had a tough time in 2021. Apple's iOS 14 update caused quite a stir in the world of social advertising. In one fell swoop, the data of almost all iPhone users could only be used to a very limited extent for advertising campaigns. This led to restrictions in the areas of targeting, retargeting, tracking and reporting, especially for Facebook Ads.

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Despite some technical adjustments in the ad managers, marketers will probably have to come to terms with some of these restrictions in the long term. For example, one social media trend that emerged in 2021 was to rely more on the optimization capability of the Ad Manager algorithm and to pursue a very open targeting approach. One of the most common phrases at the AllFacebook Conference 2021 in relation to targeting was "Go Broad or Go Home". Another goal of Meta is to move the buying process for products directly into its own apps. The more purchase signals and purchases take place directly on Facebook and Instagram, the more data can be utilized. It can therefore be assumed that we will see further developments in the area of social commerce in 2022, be it Facebook and Instagram stores or live shopping experiences.

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In addition to Facebook, other social media ad managers have also developed. With TikTok Ads, marketers can currently access very favorable CPMs and the TikTok Ad Manager is developing very dynamically. If not already planned, advertisers should test other ad managers besides Facebook/Instagram in 2022. We were also able to implement some strong campaigns with Pinterest in 2021, which were competitively cheaper than on Facebook/Instagram.

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In times when user tracking is more difficult, LinkedIn is sitting on a veritable treasure trove of data: the well-maintained and fully completed profile data of its users. In contrast to all other major social media platforms, LinkedIn can largely rely on the information provided by users. Who wants to be accused by their old or new employer of having cheated on their online CV? In B2B marketing, but also in the B2C segment with higher product or service prices, LinkedIn 2022 is therefore an absolute must-have in the advertising mix despite its high prices.

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What else is important in social advertising in 2022 is now explained to you in a short guest article by our good agency friend Florian Litterstfounder & CEO of Adsventure, performance marketing agency and one of the best blogs on social advertising in Germany:

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"AR, VR, the metaverse and a few other exciting glimpses into the future have all been part of 2021. But regardless of the platform (whether in Stories or in the metaverse), 2021 has shown us that fundamentals in particular are crucial and will continue to make the difference in the future (yes, even in the metaverse). The data loss caused by the iOS update was just the beginning. Gone are the days of micro(re-)targeting. If you want to be successful on social media (or in the metaverse?) in 2022, you have to be able to combine marketing fundamentals with the special features of content diversity on social media. Short-form video, whether on TikTok or Reels, will continue to establish itself as a content format in 2022. Creative short videos with quick cuts and creative transitions have incredible potential for advertisers, provided they are sensibly combined with the marketing fundamentals. There is a lot of "untapped potential" and "underpriced awareness" here. Advertisers who have this format on their radar in 2022 will have a clear advantage over their competitors."

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Social media trend #4 - Metaverse - entering a parallel reality?

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The term metaverse or meta-universe has been on everyone's lips since Mark Zuckerberg renamed his company Facebook Meta at the end of October 2021. This is a clear sign that he is not only pursuing the vision of a metaverse, i.e. a virtual parallel world, but wants to implement it with all his might. In addition to Facebook, Microsoft, Epic Games, Alibaba and other players are also working on the metaverse.

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The idea is not new, as we are already familiar with the idea of a virtual world from Hollywood films such as "Ready Player One" or games such as Second Life. But the Metaverse is intended to be much more than a gaming platform. It is intended to be a virtual extension of real life in the world.

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How exactly can you imagine this? The metaverse is intended to be a shared, virtual space that exists continuously without boundaries and is therefore platform-independent. It mirrors the real world digitally and overcomes the boundaries set by the physical world. The long-term goal is for the metaverse and the real world to merge so that there is no longer a separation between analog reality and its artificial, digital extension.

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What will be possible? (Theoretically) Everything! Thanks to the latest technologies such as VR, AR and AI in combination with blockchain technology, people will not only be able to look at things using an avatar in the so-called "embodied internet", but also experience (and buy 😉) them up close. They can play sports, meet up with friends, hold meetings, celebrate parties or develop ideas together - regardless of their location.

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This world will have its own order and rules, including those relating to security and privacy - at least that is the plan. And it will have its own economy, offering companies and therefore marketers a whole new option for addressing customers. There is a lot of potential here: virtual goods can be purchased in the metaverse using cryptocurrency or real money - for example clothing for the avatar, furnishings for the private space and so on.

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Companies and their marketers must therefore think ahead to 3D marketing, adapt to the new circumstances and consider how they can participate with their products in the virtual space. The more people spend their everyday lives in the metaverse, the more interesting it will be for companies and brands to have a presence there. Because if a brand manages to build trust, it will work in both worlds - real and virtual. There will also be demand (from other companies) for certain products in the metaverse.

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The topic of metaverse will become a permanent theme over the next few years and will play an increasingly important role in marketing visions. However, it remains to be seen how quickly and how big the vision will be implemented.

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Social media trend #5 - digital detox & social media mindfulness

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Ever since the Netflix film "Social Dilemma" from 2020, the possible negative effects of social media, especially in terms of mental health, have been a recurring theme. Some recent studies even suggest that intensive use can promote the development of depression.

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The result: more and more users are longing for a "digital detox". The desire to spend less time on social media is particularly strong in the under-40 age group, where internet use is particularly high (30%). desire to spend less time on social media is particularly high (30 percent).

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It is becoming increasingly important for companies to be aware of the potential negative effects and at the same time define value-creating and mindful tactics for using social media. Only those who share content with real added value and focus on the needs and wishes of the target group will continue to be seen.

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Some companies even go so far as to withdraw completely from the social media world, including the cosmetics brand Lush. The company is concerned about the damage social media can do to young people. "I'm not prepared to expose my customers to this harm. So let's get rid of it," emphasizes Managing Director Mark Constantine. However, it is therefore all the more important that a company produces value-adding content and asks itself the question in advance: What content do I publish as a company and how do I address sensitive topics, for example? What does mindfulness mean for companies?

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The awareness of a mindful approach to social media applies not only to private individuals, but also to companies. The value creation aspect within social networks plays a decisive role in the production of content for a mindful approach to social media and also has its place in community management. Here, it is important to strike the right note at the right time in order to be on an equal footing with your own target group. In addition, social media users like it when not only public figures but also companies show their "imperfect" side on Facebook, Instagram & Co. This can range from personal stories about failures to their own weaknesses. Companies that present themselves authentically to the outside world and can laugh about their "quirks" are one step ahead of the rest.

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Social media trend #6 - Corporate social responsibility: Taking a stand

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In the Social media trends article 2019 we talked about the importance of building digital trust with a view to criticizing Facebook, but also large companies and brands. In the Social Media Trends article 2020 was again about the topic of "Ethical marketing: purpose, transparency or greenwashing?". And we will not tire of emphasizing this social megatrend in Social Media Trends 2022 either.

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Companies as a whole have a major impact on society. Especially when it comes to socially relevant issues such as climate and sustainability, racism and diversity, and inclusion. In practice, these include measures such as reducing CO2 emissions, limiting waste and production waste and the sustainable use of production materials, as well as promoting diversity and maintaining the (mental) health of employees.

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Every year it becomes more important as a company to pay attention to what is most important to your audience and act accordingly. The social media community has become much stricter. For companies, this means that they should have a clear opinion on relevant topics and be careful not to act superficially. This is because companies are regularly held accountable by users for their stance or otherwise penalized.

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In 2022, it will be important to incorporate social issues such as inclusion and sustainability into your own communication strategy and content marketing mix. Instead of just talking about them and cleverly adopting popular opinions, companies should represent these values internally and externally and implement them in a comprehensible way.

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The following applies in particular to influencer marketing, which is becoming increasingly relevant: the influencers/creators selected for cooperation should always appear authentic and consistent and represent similar values to your own company. However, taking a stand within the company's own ranks, namely among corporate influencers, will also become significantly more important in the coming years. The trend is that for many brands competing for the attention of users, the winners will be those who stand out from the crowd early on and establish a close connection to the values of their target group.

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Social Media Trend #7 - Social Audio (Including guest article by Nicolaj Gruzdov and Peter Mestel, social audio experts)

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Nicolaj and Peter have introduced us and many others at the AllFacebook.de Marketing Conference in October 2022 with their presentation "HEAR ME SPEAK! Audio Rooms as a Social Media Channel" that we asked them for a guest article on the topic:

"It's 2022 and someone is still talking about "social audio"? Clubhouse has been dead for a long time - but audio is now a driver of many social media platforms.

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Twitter Spaces is most similar to Clubhouse, but uses the platform's established network and enriches it with a live feature with real added value. This means that "live audio" is also completely democratized - every user can simply start their audio feed with their smartphone and talk and discuss with others in real time. This type of communication can now also be found in niche tools such as Discord (Discord Stages) or the professional collaboration tool Slack (Slack Huddles) - LinkedIn Live Audio Events will follow this year.

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Starting such audio rooms is supposedly easy - simply switch on your smartphone and start talking. However, content formatting, similar to that used for podcast productions or radio broadcasts, ensures better content quality. This professionalism should also be reflected in the technical setup - a proper microphone and an audio interface that improves the voice quality offer real added value for the audience and also enable the content to be recorded for later production - e.g. as a podcast or in another audio format.

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TikTok and Instagram Reels - brands with lousy sound!

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In the high-reach Instagram Reels format, music has now taken over the function of hashtags and ensures the community building of a wide variety of creators based on currently trending songs - a function that has apparently been completely adapted by TikTok.

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This causes problems for brands: music as a native platform feature can only be used to a very limited extent by most brands for licensing reasons - so only creators benefit from the reach of the sounds for the time being.

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Brands have to make an effort to at least catch up in terms of quality: While the production of moving images in portrait format is now standard, the topic of "media buying" aka music licensing is still in its infancy. As a result, most brands bribe with boring "free music" or publish their elaborately produced content completely without sound. A lot will happen here this year - brands with media production in classic moving image media such as TV are (still) at an advantage here.

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Sound On becomes the standard

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The growing use of TikTok and Instagram Reels means that the number of users consuming content "sound-on" is increasing. This phenomenon is reflected in all digital communication - who doesn't love 10-minute WhatsApp voice messages in the kindergarten parents' group... For many users, however, this format is a central element of daily communication with family and friends.

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Messenger communication is also becoming increasingly important for brands and the audio feature can offer real added value here. It is often easier for users to briefly "speak" a problem or query than to formulate it in writing. On the other hand, community management needs to be empowered to work with this and, if necessary, to respond appropriately."

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Social media platforms 2022

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Social DNA channel matrix

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The Social DNA channel matrix is inspired by the BCG matrixa tool for strategic analysis, evaluation and planning of business units, such as business units, products or services. We classify the most important social media platforms according to user numbers and growth into four categories: Specialists (comparatively few users and low growth), Rising Stars (comparatively few users but high growth), Elephants (many users but low growth) and Heroes (many users and high growth). We will be happy to let you request the version adapted for the German market on request.

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Social media user numbers, growth and facts

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Facebook

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• Users worldwide: 2.9 billion Monthly Active Users (MAUs)(source).
• Users Germany: 23,000,000 - 27,100,000 reachable FB users in the Ad Manager at the time of publication.
• User growth: 6% in daily active users(source).
• The Family of Apps (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp) has 3.58 billion MAUs.
• Facebook is still very relevant globally. In Germany, Facebook should generally be used in combination with another platform such as TikTok, Instagram or LinkedIn in order to reach younger target groups or to achieve a higher quality of leads through an additional targeting approach.

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Fun Facts:

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• The "Facebook" group has changed its name to "Meta". The social media platform Facebook retains its name.
• The "Like" button on Facebook was originally supposed to be called the "Awesome" button.
• Facebook is blue because founder Mark Zuckerberg suffers from red-green vision impairment(source).

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YouTube

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• Users worldwide: 2.3 billion MAUs(source).
• Users in Germany: 49 million unique visitors*(source).
• User growth in the last year: around 15 %(see social media trend article 2021).
• YouTube continues to move towards social: In 2021, YouTube, like Instagram with "Reels", introduced a format inspired by TikTok called YouTube Shorts. TikTok is one of YouTube's major new competitors.
• Like Facebook, however, YouTube 2022 is also an essential channel for social advertising and also for the distribution of (video) content.

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Fun Facts:

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• The daily playback time of YouTube videos is over 1 billion hours(source).
• YouTube was founded in 2005 by three former PayPal employees.
• On April 23, 2005, a video was uploaded to YouTube for the first time, showing one of the founders in a zoo.
• The platform has the ability to reach an audience in 80 different languages(source).

*Unfortunately, the number of monthly active users is not given for Germany.

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Instagram

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• Users worldwide: 1.1 billion MAUs - last official figure from 2018(source).
• Users in Germany: 25,600,000 - 30,200,000 reachable Insta users in the Ad Manager at the time of publication - and thus more than Facebook + FB Messenger + FB Audience Network.
• User growth: Instagram does not publish growth figures, but appears to have grown by 17%, at least in Western Europe, which is significantly more than expected(source).
• Instagram will continue to focus on social commerce in 2022 and try to gain ground on Snapchat and TikTok in the area of AR/VR experiences.
• Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) regularly shares short videos about upcoming Instagram updates on his Twitter channel.

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Funfacts:

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• The first "Selfie from Space" landed on Instagram on April 7, 2014. It was taken and posted by American astronaut Steven Swanson on the ISS space station(source).
• And pizza is the most Instagrammed food after sushi and steak(source).

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TikTok

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• Users worldwide: 1 billion MAUs(source).
• Users in Germany: 15 million (according to the advertising manager), maximum reach of 17 million.
• User growth in the last year: approx. 45 %(source).
• If the figure of 1 billion is correct, TikTok would have reached this number of users the fastest in the history of social media (2 years). WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram have taken significantly longer than 5 years.
• Many of the songs we hear in the charts originally became popular via TikTok. The US rapper Lil Nas X attributes his number 1 success "Old Town Road" to its distribution via TikTok.
• TikTok is a Chinese app from the Beijing-based company ByteDance. ByteDance is currently considered the most valuable start-up in the world. TikTok is called "douyin" in China and works independently of the Western clone(source).

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LinkedIn

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• Users worldwide: 800 million(source).
• DACH users: 17 million(source).
• User growth in the last year: 19 %(source).
• Microsoft has closed its career network LinkedIn in China in 2021. The company cites the "challenging operating environment" and the strict guidelines in the country as the reasons for this(source).
• Every minute, four people are hired via LinkedIn and around 77 applications are submitted every second(source).
• LinkedIn users are considered to have an above-average education and income.

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Pinterest

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• Users worldwide: 454 million MAUs(source).
• Users in Germany: 15 million MAUs(source).
• User growth in the last year: 1 %(source).
• Pinterest is a visual search engine that allows users to search for ideas and pin them to their pinboards.
• 85% of active users have discovered a brand or product via Pinterest and state that Pinterest is their first port of call for a new DIY project(source).

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Snapchat

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• Users worldwide: 293 million Daily Active Users (DAUs)*(source).
• Users in Germany: 13 million DAUs(source).
• User growth in the last year: 23%(source).
• In 2013, Facebook wanted to acquire Snapchat for USD 3 billion, but founder and CEO Evan Spiegel turned it down. Snap Inc. currently has a market capitalization of USD 70 billion.
• Founder Evan Spiegel had the idea for the app one evening with his friends Bobby Murphy and Frank Brown. Brown sent a picture and regretted it shortly after, so why not an app that makes photos and videos disappear after a certain amount of time?(Source).
• The app's logo is a little ghost called Ghostface Chillah. Named after the rapper "Ghostface Killah" from the hip-hop crew Wu Tang Clan.

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*Only Daily Active Users are shown, not Monthly Active Users (MAUs). The number of MAUs is roughly estimated to be approx. 50 % higher.

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Twitter

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• Users worldwide: 206 million DAUs*(source).
• Users in Germany: 12 million DAUs*(source).
• User growth in the last year: 11%(source).
• At the end of 2021, co-founder Jack Dorsey announced his resignation as CEO of Twitter with immediate effect, to be succeeded by the company's former CTO, Parag Agrawal
• Twitter integrated a Social Audio Clubhouse-like function into its app at the beginning of the year.

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Fun Facts:

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• Twitter was actually developed for internal employee communication for the podcasting company Odeo - supposedly within just two weeks.
• Jack Dorsey posted the first tweet on March 21, 2006, which marked the birth of the platform. "Just setting up my twttr", he wrote at the time - in German: "Richte gerade mein twttr ein". This tweet is currently being auctioned off as a non-fungible token (NTF), a type of cryptocurrency. The highest bid is currently 2.5 million US dollars(source).

*Only Daily Active Users are shown, not Monthly Active Users (MAUs). The number of MAUs is roughly estimated to be approx. 50 % higher.

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Reddit

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• Users worldwide: 430 million MAUs(source).
• Users in Germany: approx. 13 million MAUs(source).
• User growth: Reddit reportedly grew by 30 % in 2019. More recent data is not available(source).
• Reddit does not consist of one large community, but of many small ones: These are called subreddits. Users' posts can be upvoted or downvoted. The discussion under the posts then mainly takes place in the comments.
• The Reddit thread Wallstreetbets caused a global stir in early 2021 for its role in the rise of GameStop stock. Reddit users got together and gave the big investors a run for their money on their stock short bets.
• Reddit plans to go public in 2022.

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Discord

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• Users worldwide: 150 million MAUs(source).
• Users in Germany: 3.5 million MAUs(source).
• User growth: Discord itself estimates that it will grow by 75% to 250 million MAUs in 2021(source).
• Discord is a hybrid of MS Teams + Facebook Groups + Clubhouse on Steroids and can therefore be used for corporate communication, private groups and exclusive entertainment.
• In addition to the gamer community, Discord is also very popular in the metaverse/Web 3.0 community.
• There are points of criticism in the area of "data protection". The servers are located in California. Discord has access to all user messages and can process information from them into marketable data at its own discretion.

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Twitch

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• Users worldwide: 140 million unique visitors per month*(source).
• Users in Germany: approx. 4 million unique users*(source).
• User growth in the last year: approx. 20 %(source).
• Twitch is a live streaming video portal that is primarily used to broadcast video games and is now increasingly being used for music, sport and other events.
• Around 81.5% of Twitch users are male and more than 50% are between 18-34 years old(source).
• In 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch for 970 million dollars. Twitch now has an estimated turnover of USD 2.3 billion(source).

*Unfortunately there is no data on MAUs or DAUs, only unique visitors per month.

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Xing

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• Users worldwide (DACH): 20 million users*(source).
• Users in Germany: 17 million users*(source).
• User growth in the last year: around 10%(see social media trend article 2021).
• Xing is a social network for professional networking and was founded in 2003 under the name Open BC.
• LinkedIn has the same target group and positioning as XING. Due to its global orientation, Microsoft's greater resources and the associated "winner takes it all effect", Xing is becoming less and less relevant compared to LinkedIn.

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*Xing does not indicate MAUs or DAUs, only the number of users without information on their activity.

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Strategic recommendations for action for social media marketing 2022

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1. Work on your ability to produce short vertical video content. Either by bringing in influencers/creators, agencies, or by building up your own resources and corporate influencers.
2. Increase the frequency of your content output: If there's one thing we can learn from the success of influencers/creators, it's that frequency and consistency are crucial to successful community building.
3. Social personal brands are more effective than ever: build external relationships with influencers and creators and train your top performers to become internal corporate influencers.
4. Community management is experiencing a renaissance: marketers are celebrated for their funny comments under viral posts. Influencers reply to every little message from their hundreds of thousands of fans. So in 2022, it's finally time for all company profiles: Get active and interact with your community.
5. Social advertising will remain the driver for business relevance for many years to come. Every company should stay up to date here, continue to expand and also think about alternatives to Facebook/Instagram. Experiment with social commerce and live formats.
6. Take a stand and stand up for socially relevant issues. Be authentic, honest and transparent. The social media community has an eye on you and will discover contradictions sooner or later. You can also take a provocative stance. It won't hurt your reach (but it might hurt your karma 😉).
7. As always, it is better to play fewer platforms excellently than several mediocre ones.

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More social media expert voices

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As we do every year, we asked our network on our channels for their opinions on social media trends. The result is more than 20 more valuable assessments (and some nonsense 😉) on the social media trends for 2022 from some of the best-known social media experts in Germany:

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• >>Facebook Social Media 2022 Trend Survey
• >>LinkedIn Social Media 2022 Trend Survey