Happy new year everybody!
Oh yes, that’s right, I finally ran out of ideas and had to write a listicle.
But really, I was inspired by listening to Michael Bossetta and Anamaria Dutceac Segesten discussing trends that emerged over 2021. It got me thinking about what might come next - so here are a few things I’ll be keeping an eye on in 2022.
If you have any other ideas/suggestions/observations on upcoming trends (or just feel like hurling a little abuse) you can leave a comment below - and if you like the post, why not share and subscribe?
1. Micro-influencers
When used correctly, influencer marketing is more than a way to spread your messages further. It’s about individuals using their authority, knowledge and relationship with an audience to help you achieve your goals - whether those goals are to advocate for a position, sell a product or whatever else.
Not all influencers were created equal however. They can be roughly divided into:
Mega-influencers - major celebrities, with more than 1 million followers.
Macro-influencers - normally rising or regional celebrities, with 100k to 1 million followers.
Micro-influencers - influential experts in their field or occupying a niche, with 10k to 100k followers.
Nano-influencers - rising experts, with 1k to 10k followers.
Engaging each category as a communicator has pros and cons. Size of following can be indicative of influence, but as influencers grow engagement tends to drop and people have less of a personal connection. This means that while endorsements from smaller influencers tend to have less reach, they have more significance and clout among their followers. This is just one balance to strike of many, including cost (smaller is cheaper), relationships (influence depends on authenticity, so a respectful, real and mutually beneficial relationship is key) and difficulty finding a match (niches are niche and hard to find - go figure).
This is already becoming established in private sector brand marketing. I suspect we will see other organisations looking for and cultivating relationships with influencers down the micro- end of the scale, where influence is cheaper and more meaningful but more time and effort intensive.
2. Users controlling engagement
It has been several years since Facebook announced it would reorient its focus towards promoting groups. As people become increasingly sceptical of sharing their whole lives publicly, this seems a natural step. It can be viewed alongside other developments, such as temporal content like Snapchat and Insta-stories - content that only lasts a limited period of time. Even WhatsApp recently added messages that disappear after a set time as an option.
While those changes primarily focus on control over the information you put out, you also see platforms giving control over incoming information too. Twitter has introduced a choice between chronological and algorithmically curated news feeds. Instagram is also moving that direction, but remaining more algorithm-oriented, introducing three options to organise your feed called home, favourites and following.
This year, Twitter gave users the option to limit replies to posts. They also introduced “Communities”, which allows anyone to follow discussions but only members to engage in those discussions.
The end goal of this, as I interpret it, is to give more space to meaningful and productive exchange, while combating brigading, cyberbullying and other negative phenomena. This year, I will be looking out for other ways platforms can experiment with closed spaces, engagement and other functions to build in this direction.
3. Personalised media development
For many years brands have been personalising recommendations for consumers - and to great effect. It is a standard approach on social media too - an algorithm delivers your content based on your search history, location and other information - and now one that news organisations are experimenting with. We see AI curated newsletters and even articles written by bots.
This has the possibility to be beneficial in a world of information overload, adapting to people’s unique news preferences and delivering them content they are most interested in. However, it raises other questions, potentially aggravating polarisation and creating echo chambers.
I will be interested to see how this discussion evolves - particularly as the technology improves and the creation of high quality, personalised content can be automated. Is the human aspect essential? Or will it become a niche of its own while most reporting is done by robots and simply checked by people?
4. Existing digital tools reaching full potential
A nice concept that I heard about in 2021 and has stuck with me was the concept that digital tools are finally being used properly - something I was introduced to in a lecture by Dominique Roch (among many other things, a former newsletter contributor).
She argued that the pandemic had accelerated the general acquisition of digital skills and that as more people “skilled up”, we would see tools used properly and to their full potential. Examples of this we are already seeing include fully online conferences as an industry norm, highly digitalised communication approaches, mass adoption of remote working - and, of course, the return of the QR code!
I will be looking out for other examples of tools finding their moment - and the opportunities that will come with that.
5. Data visualisation
One of the key developments of the pandemic has been a huge focus on data visualisation to communicate trends. Data journalism, not long ago considered a growing niche, was launched into the spotlight as people used numbers to tell stories. It has now moved deep into the mainstream and far beyond COVID as a topic.
This links into a broader trend (touched on in a previous newsletter) of the growing importance of data visualisation at large. WPP has predicted a world where humans interact with data every 18 seconds and by 2030, saying ‘I don’t understand data’ will be the equivalent of printing emails in 2010 - so how we present, explain and understand that data will be vital.
I look forward to seeing how this area develops - especially in the context of virtual and augmented reality.
That's a great list Tom. As you say, data visualisation is becoming an even more exciting area as it matures. I came across this useful scientific analysis of what works (and what doesn't!) via Nathan Yau / Flowing Data just recently: https://journals.sagepub.com/stoken/default+domain/10.1177%2F15291006211051956-FREE/full