Top 10 Things Students Must Know Before Starting College
Introduction:
Excited about starting college but slightly nervous too?
Read this first.
Starting college is like entering a whole new world…
…and there’s so much to think about:
Will I make friends?
What Major should I pick?
How will I juggle everything?
What should I bring?
And, lot’s more.
That’s why we’ve created this list of the top 10 things you need to know before you
(or your child ) start college.
Let’s get started!
1. What to Take With You to College
(You can skip this if you are living off campus – but it’s still good to read.)
For most students, going to college is the first time they live away from home.
So, the question is:
What do you take with you when moving into a dorm?
Before deciding…
Get in touch with your colleagues and ask for their approved and prohibited items
checklist. Every college will have one and each college will have slightly different
guidelines.
Some colleges won’t even allow a power strip!
So…
Make sure you contact them before spending money on things like mini-fridges and
microwaves.
Another thing to consider is space.
Freshmen tend to underestimate how much space they need, and dorm storage
space is notoriously less than it seems at first.
(quick tip – find out the exact dorm room dimensions and measure any larger items
you want to take figure out how much will fit –good to know before showing up in
a U-Haul!)
A good rule of thumb is just only to take what’s necessary:
Comfortable clothing for class.
A formal outfit & shoes for special occasions and job hunting
Laptop & phone (obviously)
Bathroom supplies
Bedding (sheets, pillows, blanket)
School supplies i.e. pens, rulers, calculators, sticky notes, etc.
Eye mask, ear plugs, and pain medication (just trust me)
Of course, there’s more, but these are the essentials.
Many students wonder if you can bring your car to campus. This is something you
will need to check with your college. Some allow cars; others don’t.
Talking about transportation ….
2. Things to Do On And Off Campus
Think about what you would like to do with your spare time (and how you will get
there).
College campuses and their surrounding areas are packed with things to do.
Almost every college has plenty of clubs, events, and activities on offer for students.
So…
When you’re on the phone with the college and asking about what things you can
take with you, and make sure to find out about things to do on and off campus.
You will also want to get off campus now and then.
Do google maps search using the college’s address to find out what there is to do
out and about the college.
For example, you could search for:
Starbucks near [college name]
Restaurants near [college name]
Movie theaters near [college name]
Comic Conventions near [college name]
And so on…
These kinds of places know that students love their products and services.
So chances are they will be located around the college.
Then…
You need to know how to get there!
Once you know where you want to go, make sure that you come up with an idea of
how you can get there by bus, train, or bicycle (if you have one).
Knowing how much it costs to get where you want to go is also an important
element in making your weekly budget…
…which we will talk about later.
In the meanwhile:
3. What Classes do You Will Take
Maybe you have already chosen your Major, maybe you haven’t.
Either way:
If you look around the room on the first day of college, statistically up to half of
them haven’t chosen their major either.
Even then…
Two-thirds of all college students who have picked their major, change it at least
once before graduation.
(Plus most colleges don’t require a firm choice of major until the Sophomore year
anyway.)
Having said that:
You should look into which classes you will be attending in your first semester.
Because you will need to prepare beforehand.
You will need to buy books for example. However, don’t order them just yet, we’ll
give you a few tips about saving money on books later.
More importantly…
Did you know that you forget almost 82% of what you learn in a class within
28 days?
And…
After graduating from high school, students often have three or four months before
starting class again.
This is a great way for students to relax after the stress of their final year of
high school.
But:
The problem is that because of a natural memory drain, getting back into the flow
of studying again can be stressful and overwhelming.
That’s why we suggest to:
Take a few pre-college tutoring classes based on classes you will have during the
first and second semesters. That way you can hit the ground running with one less
thing to worry about when starting college.
Talking about memory…
4. How to Improve Your Memorization
College can be challenging.
There is so much to learn and topics you have never studied before.
And…
Like I said in the last section:
The average person loses 82% of what they learn within 3-4 weeks, while a typical
college semester is fifteen weeks long.
This means that by the end of the semester:
When it’s time for exams, you will only remember 18% of what you learned in the
first two-thirds of the semester!
Frustrating, right?
So, I’m going to share three memory tips that will help you retain much more of
your course content while having fun doing it:
Tip 1. Find Your Why
Think about why you want to study your subjects.
If you are just learning to pass an exam, chances are you will forget everything the
next day.
When you want to learn, you need to have a strong (emotional) motivation.
Just tapping into a desire to learn something will increase your memory retention
and learning abilities.
For example:
Those who want to be doctors are more likely to be actively interested in topics like
biology or chemistry and therefore find it easier to remember key facts and
information from those classes.
What is your end goal?
Find something you want to achieve and connect it with your academic success.
Once you find your own key motivation for studying, everything becomes easier to
learn and remember.
Tip 2. Learn Use Mnemonic Devices
Mnemonic devices are ageless proven tricks to help you remember almost anything
more easily.
And…
Many of the techniques have been around for thousands of years.
So what does a Mnemonic device look like? They are simply different methods to
help you remember specific chunks of information.
Here’s an example:
This mnemonic device helps you to memorize the first 10 elements and their
position.
“Henry Hester Likes Beer But Can Not Obtain Food Now”
Just by remembering this line, you can remember each of the first 10 elements and
their position in the list:
Henry – Hydrogen
Hester – Helium
Likes – Lithium
Beer – Beryllium
But – Boron
Can – Carbon
Not – Nitrogen
Obtain – Oxygen
Food – Fluorine
Now – Neon
See how each word represents an element in its position. This is a type of mnemonic
device. Our brains find it easier to remember a storyline or a structured sentence
rather than a list of random names of elements.
You can use Mnemonic devices to memorize nearly anything. The more you practice
the easier it gets, too.
And…
If you practice these tricks often, studying for any exam will become a breeze.
Lastly:
Tip 3. Use Regular review
The best way to move something from your short-term memory banks to your
long-term memory banks is to repeat it a few times.
So, schedule some time every week to review your class notes from the semester.
Don’t just review what you learned that week. Review what you learned 2,3,4 weeks
ago as well.
Another extra trick here is to practice recalling the information out of sequence.
This cements the info even further into your brain.
This brings us to:
5. How to Take Notes Like a Boss
Notetaking is one of the best ways to help you learn faster, as long as you read them
– see the previous chapter.
Here are some of our top notetaking tips to become a note-taking pro.
Be prepared. Look over the upcoming class outline and slides if available to get
an initial picture of the lesson to come.
Use your notetaking to summarize, not transcribe. Focus on recognizing key
concepts (often indicated in the class slides).
Practice your listening skills. Learn to Identify the most important snippets of
information and forget the rest. Create a few notes on the big picture, then pinpoint “subheadings” underneath with brief, key information under each.
If the lecturer is going too fast for you, take a photo of the slides or board notes
with your phone for later review. (Check first whether your faculty allows this)
Recognizing Key Topics
Wondering how to identify key information in a lecture? Here are a few things to
listen out for which suggest what your professor feels is key information:
Introductory comments outlining the class topic
Repeated phrases or information.
Auditory changes such as verbal emphasis or changes in speech pattern.
Verbal cues indicate something is important.
Final remarks in the form of a summary or review of the lecture’s main idea.
6. Time Management
Here’s a bit of adulating 101:
When you get to college; you can choose how to spend your time. There is, for the
most part, nobody looking over your shoulder or guiding you. This can be
exhilarating but also destructive.
(depending on how you use it)
Even though skipping optional classes and spending more time with Greek life
rather than studying is tempting…
…It may not help you to graduate on time and without too much stress.
Unless you use proper time management to balance everything.
I suggest creating a weekly schedule.
This allows you to keep track of your time and means you can get everything done
with time to spare (as long as you stick to it).
“How do you eat an elephant? – Bit by bit.”
Scheduling your time is the same.
When faced with mountainous assignments and class requirements, the best bet is
to get everything done in small increments.
Believe me:
A major assignment completed in chunks over eight weeks is much easier than
cramming the whole task in the last four days before the due date
(I know from experience).
So, the next question is:
What should you include in your schedule?
…Well, that depends largely on your lifestyle…
As a general guideline, you should schedule time for:
Sleep –8 hours every day. (Trust me, it’s the most essential item on your
schedule)
General Course Requirements
Assignments (even if they aren’t due for weeks – as explained above)
Weekly review that we discussed in the last section.
Extra-curricular activities, clubs & social events
Scheduled downtime for games, movies, and relaxation.
Time for paid work (if you have it.)
Domestic chores (which we’ll talk about next)
Another common fear when starting college is that you will have to pick between
having fun with new friends or doing well in class.
The truth is:
With good time management – like making a weekly schedule – combined with
With the right study habits (mnemonics, notetaking, and regular review) it’s
certainly possible to get top grades while still having the time of your life with
friends.
Next…
7. Domestic Skills
Time to do your laundry…I know, right?!
This might be the first time you’re going to spend away from home and the number
of weekly chores to just maintain your lifestyle can be overwhelming.
That’s why:
High school graduates should start flexing their domestic muscles before heading
off to college.
At least make sure you know how to:
Do laundry. i.e., don’t mix whites with reds (unless you love pink)
Cook a few different types of meals for yourself
Sew a button/mend a piece of clothing
Keep your space tidy and organized
Do food shopping yourself
Pay for bills online yourself
From my experience:
One of the “weirdest” experiences for many students is food shopping when they
realize they have no idea what to eat.
You can overcome this is to practice by planning a few meals each week and
practicing to get all the ingredients. This will also give you a better understanding
of the cost of food too.
Plus…
Make sure to create shopping lists with nutritional items. Contrary to most
students’ beliefs, popcorn does not count as a vegetable.
Of course, one benefit to learning how to create nutritious meals at home is that
it saves money, which is important for most students. This brings us to our next
topic:
8. Money Management
“It’s only five bucks” is a slippery slope into the money pit.
Little amounts add up quickly.
If I had a nickel for every time a student told me that they went through their entire
savings within a few semesters…
… you know how it goes.
My advice:
Make a budget, and stick to it.
Here’s how you can start, even before leaving home:
Start keeping track of what you use on a weekly or monthly basis.
First…
Just make a simple list:
Monthly spending:
Food: $400
Snacks: $90
Travel: $120
Netflix: $12
Other (shampoo, makeup, etc): $30
Next, think about how that list will change when you go to college:
Add:
Tuition
Dorm costs
Book costs
Food or travel costs.
List out anything else you think you will need to spend money on each month and
try to get as close to the real cost as possible by looking up the prices for
everything on your list.
That way:
You can add it all together and see how much you will need per week, month, or
year to survive as a student.
It’s often more than you expect.
You will still probably spend more money than your budget because of a little
unnoticed purchase (the $5 money pit).
To counter this…
Add 20% to your estimated weekly spending when making your budget to prepare
yourself for any unexpected expenses.
That way:
You will have a clear monthly budget.
—
Pro tip: Textbooks are often one of the most expensive college life costs. Some
books can cost as much as $300!
Instead of buying new:
Either buy second-hand or Kindle versions of the books. This will save you a lot of
money. The bonus about buying second-hand books is that you can often sell them
again to make your money back.
—
Once you have figured out your budget:
Compare it to your savings. Do you have enough in the bank to keep you going?
It’s better to know sooner rather than later whether you will need a part-time job
to stay afloat.
That’s why our next on the list is:
9. Job Hunting Skills
You’re not alone.
Over a quarter of all college students look for part-time jobs while studying.
It’s a great way to pay your way through college, and save a little cash for the
future, all while getting real-life professional experience.
If you do decide to get a part-time job, my advice:
Look early and look close.
Start looking for job opportunities around your college or university before
starting classes. Depending on the job, the interview process may take weeks and
just getting to an interview can take weeks too.
What do you need to go job hunting:
A brief resume. Don’t worry if you don’t have any “professional” experience.
In that case, focus on your academics and any unpaid activities that indicate you have the right abilities they are looking for.
To dress the part. Depending on the type of job you want, make sure to wear
formal attire for a job interview. Turning up in shorts and a t-shirt won’t work in most cases.
Persistence. Looking for a job can sometimes mean that you have to call
dozens of businesses before someone finally says yes. So, if you don’t get a job on the first go: don’t sweat it. That’s normal! Just get up and keep going till you get one.
However, what about if you don’t want to get a traditional job? There are lots of
things to do for extra cash around campus.
Here are a few:
Teach classmates a desired skill that you have (or could learn) like speed
reading, a musical instrument, memory skills, etc.
Tutor other students in classes you have already passed or are exceptionally
good at.
Freelance your skills and talents on sites like work or Fiverr.
Offer transcription services to other students
Provide hourly research services to classmates
Create a sandwich or lunch business, preparing great meals for others.
Be a fitness coach or yoga instructor (if that’s your passion) or…
Manage events for someone with expertise. For example, you could help a
yoga enthusiast by helping her find attendees in exchange for a percentage of their income.
Sell other products to students (you could find wholesale items on websites
like Alibaba.com)
Last but not least…
10. Socializing Skills
For many…
College is a time of starting fresh.
Most of our high school friends go off to learn different majors than we do. Many
of them may even attend colleges in different cities.
The good news?
Everyone else in your class is also in the same boat.
All of your classmates in college have also left their BFFs behind and are on the
market for making new friends.
That’s why students often comment that making friends in college is easier than
in high school!
But what if you feel like you’ve forgotten how to make new friends? Nonsense!
Making friends is a natural part of life. But, if you still feel nervous, here are a few
tips on how to quickly make friends in college.
Get involved with clubs & group activities. One of the fastest ways to meet
It’s a surefire way to meet some like-minded people quickly. people are to put themselves in situations that force them to interact with others based on mutual interests.
Give before expecting. Great friendships are based on value, kindness, and
thoughtfulness towards each other. Make yourself of value to others, wherever you are, you might be surprised how quickly you make friends.
Use this fresh start as an opportunity. Our closest friendships shape who we
become. Use this opportunity to pick the type of people you want to befriend.
Ask yourself: what qualities do I admire and wish to surround myself with? And,
before you know it, you’ll have plenty of great, uplifting, friendships.
Conclusion
Remember, this is an exciting time!
College is a great experience of learning and developing yourself in so many ways.
And now armed with this list, you can be one step ahead with preparation. Btw,
do you have anything you feel this list is missing?
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of the practices, beliefs, and objects
that are dominant or prevalent in a society at a given point in time. Popular culture also encompasses the activities and feelings produced as a result of interaction with these dominant objects. The primary driving force behind popular culture is a mass appeal, and it is produced by what cultural analyst Theodor Adorno refers to as the "culture industry".
Heavily influenced in modern times by mass media
, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of people in a given society. Therefore, popular culture has a way of influencing an individual's attitudes towards certain topics. However, there are various ways to define pop culture. Because of this, popular culture is something that can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways by different people across different contexts. It is generally viewed in contrast to other forms of culture such as folk cults, working-class culture, or
high culture, and also through different academic perspectives such as psychoanalysis, structuralism, postmodernism, and more. The common pop-culture categories are entertainment (such as film, music, television, and video games
), sports, news (as in people/places in the news), politics, fashion, technology, and slang.
In the past folk culture functioned analogously to the popular culture of the masses and of the nations.
The phrase "popular culture" was coined in the 19th century or earlier. Traditionally, popular culture was associated with poor education and with the lower classes, as opposed to the "official culture" and higher education of the upper classes. With the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Britain experienced social changes that resulted in increased literacy rates, and with the rise of capitalism and industrialization
, people began to spend more money on entertainment, such as (commercialized) pubs and sports. Reading also gained traction. Labeling penny dreadfuls the Victorian equivalent of video games, The Guardian in 2016 described penny fiction as "Britain's first taste of mass-produced popular culture for the young". Growing consumer culture and an increased capacity for travel via the newly invented railway (the first public railway, Stockton and Darlington Railway
, opened in north-east England in 1825) created both a market for cheap popular literature and the ability for its distribution on a large scale. The first penny serials were published in the 1830s to meet the growing demand.
The stress in the distinction from "official culture" became more pronounced towards the end of the 19th century, a usage that became established by the interbellum period.
From the end of
World War II, following major cultural and social changes brought by mass media innovations, the meaning of "popular culture" began to overlap with the connotations of "mass culture", "media culture", "image culture", "consumer culture", and "culture for mass consumption".
The abbreviated form "pop" for "popular", as in "
pop music", dates from the late 1950s. Although the terms "pop" and "popular" are in some cases used interchangeably, and their meaning partially overlaps, the term "pop" is narrower. Pop is specific to something containing qualities of mass appeal, while "popular" refers to what has gained popularity, regardless of its style.
According to author John Storey, there are various definitions of popular culture. The quantitative
definition of culture has the problem that much "high culture" (e.g., television dramatizations of Jane Austen) is also "popular." "Pop culture" is also defined as the culture that is "leftover" when we have decided what high culture is. However, many works straddle the boundaries, e.g., William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, and George Orwell.
A third definition equates pop culture with "mass culture" and ideas. This is seen as a commercial culture, mass-produced for mass consumption by mass media. From a Western European perspective, this may be compared to American culture
. Alternatively, "pop culture" can be defined as an "authentic" culture of the people, but this can be problematic as there are many ways of defining the "people." Storey argued that there is a political dimension to popular culture; neo-Gramscian hegemony theory "... sees popular culture as a site of struggle between the 'resistance' of subordinate groups in society and the forces of 'incorporation' operating in the interests of dominant groups in society." A postmodernist approach to popular culture would "no longer recognize the distinction between high and popular culture."
Jean Baudrillard argued that the vague conception of "Public Opinion" is a subjective and inaccurate illusion that is more complicit in populism rather than in factuality, for it attributes sovereignty to consumers that they do not really possess.
Storey claims that popular culture emerged from the urbanization of the Industrial Revolution. Studies of Shakespeare
(by Weimann, Barber, or Bristol, for example) locate much of the characteristic vitality of his drama in its participation in Renaissance popular culture, while contemporary practitioners like Dario Fo and John McGrath use popular culture in its Gramscian sense that includes ancient folk traditions (the commedia dell'arte for example).
Popular culture is constantly evolving and occurs uniquely in place and time. It forms currents and eddies and represents a complex of mutually interdependent perspectives and values that influence society and its institutions in various ways. For example, certain currents of pop culture may originate from, (or diverge into) a subculture, representing perspectives with which the mainstream
popular culture has only limited familiarity. Items of popular culture most typically appeal to a broad spectrum of the public. Important contemporary contributions to understanding what popular culture means have been given by the German researcher Ronald Daus, who studies the impact of extra-European cultures in North America, Asia, and especially in Latin America.
Levels
Within the realm of popular culture, there exists an organizational culture. From its beginning, popular culture has revolved around classes in society and the push-back between them. Within popular culture, two levels have emerged, high and low. High culture can be described as the art and works considered of superior value, historically, aesthetically, and socially. Low culture
is regarded by some as that of the lower classes, historically.
Folklore
Adaptations based on traditional folklore provide a source of popular culture. This early layer of cultural mainstream still persists today, in a form separate from mass-produced popular culture, propagating by word of mouth rather than via mass media, e.g. in the form of jokes or urban legends. With the widespread use of the Internet from the 1990s, the distinction between mass media and word-of-mouth has become blurred.
Although the folkloric element of popular culture engages heavily with the commercial element, communities amongst the public have their own tastes and they may not always embrace every cultural or subcultural item sold. Moreover, certain beliefs and opinions about the products of commercial culture may spread by word-of-mouth, and become modified in the process and in the same manner that folklore evolves.
Criticism
Popular culture in the West has been critiqued for its being a system of commercialism that privileges products selected and mass-marketed by the upper-class capitalist elite; such criticisms are most notable in many Marxist theorists such as Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, bell Hooks, Antonio Gramsci, Guy Debord, Fredric Jameson, Terry Eagleton, as well as certain postmodern philosophers such as Jean-François Lyotard, who has written about the commercialization of information under capitalism, and Jean Baudrillard, as well as others.
The Culture Industry
The most influential critiques of popular culture came from Marxist theorists of the Frankfurt School during the twentieth century. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer analyzed the dangers of the culture industry in their influential work the Dialectic of Enlightenment by drawing upon the works of
Kant, Marx, Nietzsche, and others. Capitalist popular culture, as Adorno argued, was not an authentic culture of the people but a system of homogenous and standardized products manufactured in the service of capitalist domination by the elite. The consumer demand for Hollywood films
, pop tunes, and consumable books is influenced by capitalist industries like Hollywood and the elite who decide which commodities are to be promoted in the media, including television and print journalism. Adorno wrote, "The industry bows to the vote it has itself rigged." It is the elite who commodify products by their narrow ideological values and criteria, and Adorno argues that the audience becomes accustomed to these formulaic conventions, making intellectual contemplation impossible. Adorno's work has had a considerable influence on culture studies, philosophy, and the New Left.
Writing in the New Yorker
in 2014, music criticAlex Ross, argued that Adorno's work has a renewed importance in the digital age: "The pop hegemony is all but complete, its superstars dominating the media and wielding the economic might of tycoons...Culture appears more monolithic than ever, with a few gigantic corporations—Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon—presiding over unprecedented monopolies." There are many scholarships on how Western entertainment industries strengthen transnational capitalism and reinforce Western cultural dominance. Hence, rather than being local culture, commercial entertainment is artificially reinforced by transnational media corporations.
Jack Zipes, a professor of German and literature, critiqued the mass commercialization and corporate hegemony behind the Harry Potter franchise. He argued that the commodities of the culture industry are "popular" because they are homogenous and obey standard conventions; the media then influences the tastes of children. In his analysis of Harry Potter's global brand, Zipes wrote, "It must conform to the standards of the exception set by the mass media and promoted by the culture industry in general. To be a phenomenon means that a person or commodity must conform to the hegemonic groups that determine what makes up a phenomenon".
Imperialism
According to John M. MacKenzie, many products of popular culture have been designed to promote imperialist
ideologies and glorify the British upper classes rather than present a democratic view of the world. Although many films do not contain such propaganda, there have been many films that promote racism and militarist imperialism.
Feminist critique
Bell Hooks
, an influential feminist, argues that commercial commodities and celebrities cannot be symbols of progressiveness when they collaborate with imperialist capitalism and promote ideals of beauty; hooks uses Beyoncé as an example of a commodity reinforced by capitalist corporations complicit in imperialism and patriarchy.
Propaganda
Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky critiqued the mass media in their 1988 work Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
. They argue that mass media is controlled by a powerful hegemonic elite who are motivated by their own interests that determine and manipulate what information is present in the mainstream. The mass media is therefore a system of propaganda.
In sum, a propaganda approach to media coverage suggests a systematic and highly political dichotomization in news coverage based on serviceability to important domestic power interests. This should be observable in dichotomized choices of story and in the volume and quality of coverage... such dichotomization in the mass media is massive and systematic: not only are choices for publicity and suppression comprehensible in terms of system advantage, but the modes of handling favored and inconvenient materials (placement, tone, context, fullness of treatment) differ in ways that serve political ends.
Consumerism
According to the postmodern sociologist Jean Baudrillard
, the individual is trained into the duty of seeking the relentless maximization of pleasure lest he or she become asocial. Therefore, "enjoyment" and "fun" become indistinguishable from the need to consume. Whereas the Frankfurt School believed consumers were passive, Baudrillard argued that consumers were trained to consume products in a form of active labor to achieve upward social mobility. Thus, consumers under capitalism are trained to purchase products such as pop albums and consumable fiction to signal their devotion to social trends, fashions, and subcultures. Although consumption may arise from an active choice, the choice is still the consequence of social conditioning that the individual is unconscious. Baudrillard says, "One is permanently governed by a code whose rules and meaning-constraints—like those of language—are, for the most part, beyond the grasp of individuals."
In Baudrillard's understanding, the products of capitalist popular culture can only give the illusion of rebellion, since they are still complicit in a system controlled by the powerful. Baudrillard stated in an interview, critiquing the content and production of The Matrix:
The Matrix
paints the picture of a monopolistic superpower, like we see today, and then collaborates in its refraction. Basically, its dissemination on a world scale is complicit with the film itself. On this point it is worth recalling Marshall McLuhan: the medium is the message. The message of The Matrix is its own diffusion by an uncontrollable and proliferating contamination.
Sources
Print culture
With the invention of the printing press in the sixteenth century, mass-produced, cheap books became widely available to the public. With this, the transmission of common knowledge and ideas is possible.
Radio Culture
In the 1890s, Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi created the radiotelegraph, allowing for the modern radio to be born. This led to the radio being able to influence a more "listened-to" culture, with individuals being able to feel like they have a more direct impact. This radio culture is vital, because it was imperative to advertising, and it introduced the commercial.
Films
Films and cinema are highly influential to popular culture, as films as an art form are what people seem to respond to the most. With moving pictures being first captured by Eadweard Muybridge in 1877, films have evolved into elements that can be cast into different digital formats, spreading to different cultures.
The impact of films and cinema is most evident when analyzing in the search of what the films aim to portray. Films are used to seek acceptance and understanding of many subjects because of the influence the films carry—an example of an early representation of this can be seen in Casablanca (1942): the film introduced war subjects to the public after the United States entered World War II, and it meant to increase pro-war sentiment for the allies. Films are a known massive influencer to popular culture yet not all films create a movement that contributes enough to be part of the popular culture that starts movements.
The content must resonate with most of the public so the knowledge in the material connects with the majority. Popular culture is a set of beliefs in trends and entails changing a person's set of ideologies and creating social transformation. The beliefs are still a trend that changes more rapidly in the modern age that carries a continuation of outpouring media and more specifically films. The trend does not last but it also carries a different effect based on individuals that can be grouped into generalized groups based on age and education. The creation of culture by films is seen in fandoms, religions, ideologies, and movements. The culture of the film is more evident through social media. Social media is an instant source of feedback and creates discussion on films. A repeating event that has been set in modern culture within the trend-setting phase is the creation of movements on social media platforms to defend a featured subject in a film.
Popular culture or mass culture is reached easily with films that are easily shared and reached worldwide.
Television programs
A television program is a segment of audiovisual content intended for broadcast (other than a commercial, trailer, or other content not serving as an attraction for viewership).
Television programs may be fictional (as in comedies and dramas), or non-fictional (as in documentary, light entertainment, news, and reality television). They may be topical (as in the case of a localnewscast and some made-for-television movies), or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional series). They can be primarily instructional or educational
, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy and game shows.
Music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional or "folk" music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of written music, although since the beginning of the
recording industry, it is also disseminated through recordings. Traditional music forms such as early blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller, local audiences.
Sports
Sports include all forms of competitivephysical activity or games which, through casual or organized participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants, and in some cases, entertainment for spectators.
Corporate branding
Corporate branding refers to the practice of promoting the brand name of a corporate entity, as opposed to specific products or services.
Personal branding
Personal branding includes the use of social media to promotion to brands and topics to further good repute among professionals in a given field, and produce an iconic relationship between a professional, a brand, and its audience that extends networks past the conventional lines established by the mainstream and to enhance personal visibility. Popular culture: is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of the practices
, beliefs, and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a society at a given point in time. As celebrities, online identities are extremely important to create a brand to line up sponsorships, jobs, and opportunities. As influencers, micro-celebrities, and users constantly need to find new ways to be unique or stay updated with trends, to maintain followers, views, and likes. For example, Ellen DeGeneres has created her own personal branding through her talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show. As she developed her brand we can see the branches she created to extend her fan bases such as Ellen clothing, socks, pet beds, and more.
Social media
Social media is interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation or sharing of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat are the most popular applications used daily by younger generations. Social media tends to be implemented into the daily routine of individuals in our current society. Social media is a vital part of our culture as it continues to impact the forms of communication used to connect with those in our communities, families, or friend groups. We often see that terms or slang are used online that are not used in face-to-face conversations, thus, adding to a persona users create through the screens of technology. For example, some individuals respond to situations with a hashtag or emojis.
The Kardashian Family Tree: Who's who in America's most famous family?
With so many baby arrivals, it is getting pretty hard to keep up with the Kardashians...
The Kardashian family holds some serious power. From their reality show, the multiple beauty, and fashion companies, to the endless stream of family drama hogging the headlines, this family is experts at stealing the spotlight.
And for good reason – they provide endless entertainment and some very aesthetically pleasing pics to look at. Though the iconic Keeping Up With The Kardashians ended in June 2021 after 20 drama and laughter-filled seasons, we, of course, now have the family's new reality show
The Kardashians, which has been renewed for season 2 on Disney+. But can you keep up with the Kardashian/Jenner clan?
From Kim Kardashian and her sister Kourtney physically fighting in one of KUWTK's most iconic episodes to Khloe Kardashian's relationship woes and the love triangle between her father’s baby Tristan Thompson and Kylie Jenner’s best friend Jordyn Woods, and of course, the most famous momager on the planet, Kris Jenner – we understand that it's pretty hard to keep up with the Kardashians.
READ MORE
Kourtney Kardashian reminded everyone her kids don’t have Instagram accounts
Can we practice a little media literacy, please?
BY
Former GLAMOUR UK cover star, Kylie Jenner, is officially the world's youngest ‘self-made’ billionaire thanks to her now an iconic brand, Kylie Cosmetics
, which includes those popular lip kits and skincare. Kendall Jenner, meanwhile, is one of the world's highest-paid models, Caitlyn Jenner is a former Olympic champion, and the family as a whole is now said to be worth billions thanks to their endeavors in beauty, fashion, and endorsement deals.
Aaaand if you thought that wasn't enough, the family seems to multiply by the day. Kim Kardashian now has four children, North West, Psalm West, Chicago West, and Saint West - two of whom were born via surrogate. Kourtney has three: Mason Dash Disick, Reign Aston Disick, and Penelope Scotland Disick, while Kylie has two children with Travis Scott – Stormi Webster and a son, formerly Wolf Webster, whose name the couple changed after feeling it didn't suit him. They haven't yet revealed his new name.
READ MORE
Why Khloé Kardashian is waiting to name her baby boy
The reality star recently welcomed her second child with ex Tristan Thompson.
BY
Rob Kardashian has one child, Dream Renée Kardashian, and Khloé has two children with ex-partner Tristan Thompson – daughter True and a son born by surrogate in August 2022. They haven't yet announced his name.
With the family evolving constantly, you will be excused if you still haven't learned which Kardashian-Jenner sister is, or frankly, why they're even famous. Well, believe us, you're not alone.
As we await another season of iconic Kardashian drama, we've broken down the most famous of family trees in our extensive who's who list because, honestly, someone has to! You can thank us later…
READ MORE
Kim Kardashian just debuted a blunt blonde bob and it's *so* short
Come thru, Kimi.
BY
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The Keeping Up with the Kardashians Klan
Who: Kris and Bruce Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian, Robert Kardashian Jr, Kendall Jenner, and Kylie Jenner.
Known for:Kris Jenner's life sounded like the plot of Cheaper by the Dozen when she remarried in 1991. She had four children from her previous marriage to American attorney Robert Kardashian (who unfortunately passed away in 2003 due to esophageal cancer), and so did Bruce Jenner, who had shot to fame as an Olympic athlete.
The couple welcomed together two more baby girls, Kendall and Kylie.
During the Noughties, the second oldest Kardashian sister, Kim, began appearing in gossip magazines; after making friends with Paris Hilton, and dating singer Ray J. In 2007, the Kardashian-Jenners scored their own reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which is still airing to this day. Bruce's children from his previous marriage, Brody, Brandon, and Burt, were not featured in most of the seasons.
Let's break down the members of the family individually, shall we?
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Kim Kardashian
Who: Founder of SKKN and Skims, and the star of the show
Known for: Being the queen of selfies, emojis, and frankly, all social media;
her internet-breaking bum, her fashion evolution, contouring skills, and the story of her rise to fame.
Kim Kardashian is the middle sister and probably the best known. Growing up, Kim Kardashian hung out with Paris Hilton (and Nicole Richie, of course), and consequently, her name made the tabloids. At just 19, in 2000, Kim got married to music producer Damon Thomas, and they divorced three years later.
Not long after, Kim started dating the American singer Ray J and the couple infamously made a sex tape
that was leaked on the internet.
@KIMKARDASHIAN / INSTAGRAM
Kim Kardashian's kids
Who: Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, North West, Saint West, Chicago West, Psalm West
Their story:
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West seemed meant to be, not only for their love of the limelight but also because a romance blossomed from a friendship. Fans of the rapper already knew he only had eyes for Kim, rapping on his 2012 album: "And I'll admit, I had fell in love with Kim; Around the same time she had fell in love with him; Well that's cool, baby girl, do ya thang; Lucky I ain't had Jay drop him from the team" - Jay Z owns the Brooklyn Nets, FYI - the basketball team for which Kris Humphries played at the time.
Kim and Kanye started dating in the spring of that year. One year later and the couple was expecting their first baby, North West
. North was born in 2013 before her parents got engaged, but of course, a proposal was already in the works. In October 2013, Kanye proposed to Kim Kardashian, closing San Francisco's AT&T park, surrounded by their family and friends - while the Jumbotron showed the words: "Please marry me".
In 2014, the Kardashian-Wests tied the knot in a very exclusive ceremony in Florence, Italy, after celebrating their engagement in Paris and months after they made the cover of American Vogue. In February 2016, after two years of happily married, the power couple welcomed their second child, baby Saint West.
The Kardashian-Wests welcomed their third child - via surrogate since Kim was told by doctors that she would put her life at risk if she got pregnant again. The baby girl was born on January 15, 2018, and is named Chicago West. They then had their fourth child via a surrogate, Psalm West, who was born on May 10, 2019. They’re now sadly going through a divorce, so we hope they can resolve their issues amicably.
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North West
Who: Kim and Kanye’s Eldest daughter
Known for: Her super sassy personality, and she carefully curated wardrobe.
North West is still in her early teens but her wardrobe gives many grown-ups major style envy. Well her parents are Kim Kardashian and Yeezy designer Kanye West. North is BFF with her older cousin Penelope, Kourtney's daughter.
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Saint West
Who: Otherwise known as Sainte. This is Kim’s and Kanye’s second born.
Known for: Just look at that face! The Kardashian-West's youngest is his dad's mini-me in the style stakes. Although Saint
is often featured in his mum's Instagram feed, he didn’t make frequent appearances on the family's show, just like his siblings.
@CHICAGOWST / INSTAGRAM
Chicago West
Who: Known as Chi, this is Kim and Kanye’s third born.
Known for: Her surprising name. Baby Chicago was named after her dad's hometown. She was born on January 15th of 2018.
Kim announced her arrival, via her website in a post titled: 'She's here. Not long after Kim shared a couple of photos of her baby girl on her Insta Stories and Snapchat - and she is super adorable.
@KIMKARDASHIAN / INSTAGRAM
Psalm West
Who: Kim and Kanye’s youngest baby
Known for: Being the youngest baby of the family. Kim and Kanye welcomed son Psalm 'Ye' West into the world on the 2nd of May 2019, and one month later they’d shared his first-ever solo shot.
The reality star and businesswoman shared the adorable image of her newborn son with her millions of Instagram followers with the caption 'Psalm Ye'.
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Kourtney Kardashian
Who: Eldest sister, founder of Posh
Known for Her quick-witted, sassy come-backs, loving all things organic, and her petite stature. Kourtney
is the oldest of the Kardashian sisters. Before stardom hit, she studied Theatre Arts at the University of Arizona, where she got her bachelor's degree. After graduating, she went on to star in Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive, and not long after, her family got their big break with Keeping Up with the Kardashians. She is also known for a heated catfight with sister Kim and for being dubbed by Kim K as the "least interesting to look at".
Kourtney's love life has centered around her on-off relationship with Scott Disick since her early 20s.
Since their split, Kourtney enjoyed a brief romance with Younes Bendjima, but they have since split up, and she is now married to the love of her life, Travis Barker.
Their story: Kourtney and her ex Scott welcomed Mason
, the first grandchild of the Kardashian clan, in 2009. Then they had a little girl, Penelope, in 2012, and two years later, a baby boy Reign. Kourtney and Scott never tied the knot and don't share a last name.
In December 2016, the couple called it quits on their relationship once again, but this time the breakup seemed to be for good. Kourtney and her now-husband Travis Barker have made it public that they are trying for their first child.
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Mason Dash Disick
Who: The eldest son of Kourtney and Scott, also known as Mase.
Known for: Being a boy of few words like his mum and having secret social media accounts/ jumping on live to spill family secrets.
Mason is the oldest of the Kardashian's third generation and we've seen him grow up on the TV. While his parents do have an on-off relationship and Mase lives with his mum, his dad Scott has a very present role in his life, the duo is known for hanging out together and traveling by themselves.
Mase is also really close to his aunts,
Khloé and Kim, or Koko and Kiki as he calls them.
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Penelope Scotland Disick
Who: Kourtney and Scott’s second child, also known as P.
Known for: Her cool girl wardrobe, rocking matching outfits (and tutus) with North, looking like the spitting image of her big brother.
Penelope
is frequently referred to as P by her family. Equally as stylish as her cousin North, she has a wardrobe full of leather jackets and ripped jeans. P and North take ballet classes together and with her baby brother, Reign. Cute!
@LETTHELORDBEWITHYOU / INSTAGRAM
Reign Aston Disick
Who: Kourtney and Scott’s youngest child
Known for:
His man-bun and luscious locks are a signature look.
Reign is Kourtney and Scott's youngest. Just like Saint West, we have yet to see him on the show. The little one is constantly spotted on his mum's hip wearing cool outfits and a man-bun (baby-bun?), he also goes to music classes with his big sister.
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Khloe Kardashian
Who: Good American co-founder and youngest Kardashian sister
Known for: Her dedication to the gym and her straight-talking approach, oh and those immaculate cookie jars in her kitchen.
Khloé is the youngest of the Kardashian sisters and weirdly has made more TV appearances than Kim. She's been in three spin-offs of the original family series and was the star of two shows from E!, Kocktails with Khloé and Revenge Body
. She also did a short stint as a host of the American version of The X Factor, next to Mario Lopez, and had her own radio show, The Mix Up With Khloé Kardashian Odom.
Khloé looks rather different from her sisters which have sparked rumors about her parentage. She was home-schooled as a child as she recalls being bullied on KUWTK.
Khloé became a fitness enthusiast a few years ago and showed off her body transformation in her book, 'Strong Looks, Better Naked'. The book was a best seller and inspired E!'s Revenge Body series.
Their story: Canadian basketball player Tristan Thompson and Khloe Kardashian have been dating since 2016 on and off, although they’re not married yet, there have been rumors of an engagement.
In April 2018, Khloe gave birth to their baby girl called True Thompson. After rumors of Tristan cheating on Khloe during her pregnancy, the couple finally came to blows when it was revealed he'd cheated on Khloe again, but this time with Kylie's BFF, Jordyn Woods.
The pair decided to give their relationship another go, however, in December 2021, it emerged that Tristan had fathered a child with a woman named Maralee Nichols. Khloe officially split from Tristan.
Despite not being in a relationship, Khloe and her ex Tristan recently welcomed their second child, a baby boy, together via surrogate. They have yet to share his name.
@TRUETHOMPSONK / INSTAGRAM
True Thompson
Who: Khloe and Tristan Thompson’s child.
Known for: True Thompson is the first daughter of Khloe Kardashian and Canadian basketball player, Tristan Thompson. She is best known for being cute AF and sprinkling said cuteness throughout mum Khloe's Instagram feed. She knows how to wear Haute headpieces and work a super cute Princess-esque dress, too.
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Kylie Jenner
Who: Youngest sibling of the Kardashian-Jenner family, first billionaire of the family, founder of Kylie Cosmetics
Known for: Her beauty empire, her lips, almost dethroning Kim as the queen of social media, and her daring outfits.
Kylie Jenner may be the youngest of the Kardashian-Jenners, but at 19 years old, the star has already built a beauty empire based on her signature look (plump pouts are now a big thing because of her). Her USP, the lip kit, which consists of a lip pencil and lip paint, consistently sells out in seconds. The same goes for everything she launches. Don't believe us? Ask Forbes. Kylie is the youngest celeb to make the Forbes 100.
Kylie has been in an on-off relationship with rapper Tyga, in her late teens. The couple then split up for good, and she was then spotted dating Travis Scott, and the parents have been seen going on and off ever since. It appears they’re on at the moment.
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Kylie Jenner's kids
Who: Kylie Jenner, Travis Scott, Stormi Webster
Their story
: Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott had been dating since April 2017. After two months of dating, the pair were seen getting matching tattoos, all before revealing they were expecting their first baby together. The matching butterfly tattoo holds a strong meaning for the couple. Travis' track 'The Butterfly Effect, was released in May that year, just after they started dating.
Back in October 2019, they called time on things, and reports of the time, like TMZ, said, the couple decided to put their relationship on hold after a long period of rows. Kylie and Travis recently reignited their relationship recent after three years of co-parenting on and off.
In March, they welcomed their second child, a baby boy. They named him Wolf but later revealed that they changed his name as it didn't feel right.
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Stormi Webster
Who: Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott’s child.
Known for: Being a mystery baby, her unique name, and her very own makeup collection before turning one year old.
After months of speculation about Kylie Jenner's pregnancy
, the new mum posted a video in homage to her newborn daughter to announce that indeed she was pregnant and she and Travis had just welcomed their first child - a baby girl name Stormi. Stormi has already made a few appearances on her mum's social media and people can help but point out how she and baby Kylie look alike.
Stormi had a Kylie Cosmetics makeup range dedicated to her, that like any other of Kylie's releases was a huge success and ended up selling out.
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Robert Kardashian Jr.
Who: Known as Rob / The brother we never see. The only Kardashian / Jenner son.
Known for: His sock business, being MIA for the most part of the series, and most recently getting together with his sister's ex-boyfriend's mother’s child (Yep, you've read that right).
Robert Kardashian Jr. is the youngest member of the Kardashian clan and has famously stayed out of the limelight - in comparison to his sisters. In fact, he was MIA for most of the family's show seasons due to his struggles with anxiety and depression. The star gained weight while beating his demons but has been on a path to a healthier lifestyle since.
Aside from being featured in 'Keeping up with The Kardashians', Rob was a finalist in 2011's 'Dancing With The Stars
and was a judge in the 2012 Miss USA pageant. He also runs his own socks company, Arthur George - the label's name is a combination of his middle name, Arthur, and his father's, George. Rob returned to telly next to his ex-fiancé, Blac Chyna, who is also his sister's ex-boyfriend's baby mama (do keep up).
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Rob Kardashian's kids
Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna
started dating in January 2016, and became Instagram-official with a post captioned 'The beginning'. In April that year, they got engaged, and in May, they welcomed a baby girl together, Dream Renée Kardashian.
Although there's been plenty of drama in between their engagement and pregnancy, the biggest fall-out of the couple came after their daughter's birth. Blac Chyna's Instagram account was hacked, and messages about Rob and his family, sent by the video-vixen, were made public.
In the texts, Chyna called Rob "lazy," "fat", and "insecure" and mentioned trademarking her newfound Kardashian last name after matrimony. Rob then posted
naked pictures of Blac on Instagram in a revenge porn scandal.
The couple engaged in an on-off relationship and officially broke up in February, calling off their engagement. The couple is still co-parenting their daughter, Dream. There seems to be some bad blood between Chyna and the entire Kardashian family, as she currently has a lawsuit against them.
Khloe confirmed on the Keeping Up reunion that Rob is currently dating but offered up no specifics.
@KHLOEKARDASHIAN / INSTAGRAM
Dream Kardashian
Who:
Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna’s baby, also known as Dreamy Dream and Baby Dream.
Known for: Her pinchable big cheeks, being always in the presence of her aunties, and unfortunately, the drama between her parents.
Baby Dream was one month old when her dad took to Snapchat to show, that Blac Chyna had left their house and taken Dream with her. Although her parents are not together anymore, Dream is raised by both of them and remains in dual custody of the exes.
The baby girl, is the youngest Kardashian on social media, with over 1 million followers on Instagram, and is constantly being featured in her dad's feed.
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Kendall Jenner
Who: The eldest Jenner sister, the supermodel.
Known for: Her top modeling career, her modelesque figure, her model-off-duty style
(did you get the hint that she is a model, yet?), and her skills in front of and behind the camera.
Kendall has taken her career in quite a different direction from her older and younger sisters, encouraged to pursue modeling by her mum. Kendall has now fronted the runways and campaigns of major haute couture labels, like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Prada, and Fendi. The model tops the list of new faces taking the fashion scene by storm, along with her best friends Gigi and Bella Hadid.
Kendall's modeling career has kept her away from Keeping up with The Kardashians
' cameras, as she is constantly traveling for work. Kendall keeps her social life more private than her sisters but loves using her Instagram to share one of her other passions - being behind the camera.
Romantically, Kendall has been linked to the likes of Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, A$AP Rocky, Anwar Hadid, Blake Griffin, and Ben Simmons but most recently she has gone official in a relationship with basketball player Devin Booker. She currently has no kids!
Working in an industry that morphs faster than a Power Ranger can be tough — the social media landscape is always changing. If you’re wondering what’s hot, what’s not, and how to fit social media trends into your strategy… you’re definitely not alone. But, don’t worry, we have answers.
We looked at the 5 key trends outlined in Hootsuite’s global Social Trends 2022 report, along with data from our survey of over 18,000 marketers to bring you this list of 9 social media trends that are dominating the industry in 2022 — and might even change the way you do your job.
9 Social Media Trends for 2022
1. TikTok will become the most important social network for marketing (??!)
2. You will start spending big ad dollars on smaller networks
3. Shoppers will want to expect to buy your products directly on social media
4. No one will want to talk to your brand on the phone
5. Long-form video is bust, except on YouTube
6. You will outsource (at least some of) your engagement tactics to a Creator
7. You need to learn paid advertising (even if you don’t do ads yet)
8. You won’t post anything without a social listening strategy
9. Your VP will ask you to develop a social audio strategy
Download the full Social Trends report to get an in-depth analysis of the data you need to prioritize and plan your social strategy in 2022.
1. TikTok will become the most important social network for marketing (??!)
Instagram has held the #1 spot in most social marketers’ hearts for the past few years. It was growing the fastest, had the highest returns on investment (depending on your industry), and (bonus) was pretty fun to hang out on. But that’s changing now.
TikTok surpassed the1 billion user mark in September 2021. That made it the 7th most popular social network in the world.
If you exclude messaging networks, TikTok is the 4th most popular social media network after Instagram.
Why is this a big deal? Well, in January 2021, it only had 689 million users. That’s a 45% increase in less than a year.
And this comes after its largest growth spurt of all: a global user base increase of 1,157% between 2018 and 2020.
To put this into perspective, Instagram’s monthly active usersgrew at a rate of 6% in 2020.
Even more interesting? Google Search Trends shows that TikTok completely dominates Instagram’s short-form video content.
Over the last year, search demand for TikTok has grown by 173%. But search demand for Instagram Reels has only grown by 22%. And it has decreased by 33% for Instagram Stories.
But despite TikTok’s rapid growth, most businesses are hesitant to invest in the network. Take the results from Hootsuite’s Social Media Trends report.
Only 35% of respondents said they planned on increasing their investment in TikTok in the next year. Most businesses continue to place big bets on reliable networks like Instagram and Facebook.
But that’s not the whole story. When asked which social platforms they considered most effective for reaching their business goals, 24% said TikTok. This is a 700% increase over 2020.
TikTok introduced several helpful business tools in 2020 and 2021, including business profiles, ads, and a creator marketplace. This could be why businesses are feeling more optimistic about it this year.
To-Do List:
If brands aren’t flocking to TikTok yet, they will be soon. We recommend being at the front of the wave rather than behind it.
Grab an account handle for your brand
Explore TikTok so you can start feeling fluent on the platform and find some ideas
Sketch out the basics of your TikTok marketing strategy
Use a social media management tool like Hootsuite to easily schedule your TikToks, moderate comments, and measure your success on the platform from one handy dashboard.
2. You will start spending big ad dollars on smaller networks
Of all the social media trends on this list, this one is perhaps the most surprising.
New research shows that consumers may be more receptive to advertising on smaller channels like TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest than the bigger social networks.
A study by Kantar, commissioned by TikTok, found that consumers ranked TikTok ads as more inspiring and enjoyable than ads on other platforms.
A Nielson study commissioned by Snapchat found that ads on Snapchat had more reach than TV ads and led to greater awareness and purchase intent.
A Pinterest Business study showed that ads on Pinterest had higher ROI and cheaper conversion rates than ads on other social networks.
Google Search Trends also show increasing search demand over the last two years for ads on these networks. TikTok is leading the charge.
This chart shows that rumors of good results are spreading. And curiosity about advertising on the smaller networks goes beyond self-funded studies.
Our hypothesis? The smaller networks aren’t as saturated with ads as Facebook and Instagram, so users may suffer less from ad fatigue.
Many social pros also had to diversify their ads strategy in early 2021 in response to the Apple iOS 14 update. This was when Apple announced an “opt into ads tracking” option for all Apple users, blocking Facebook’s ability to target a vast chunk of its audience.
Most importantly though, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat all encourage advertisers to make their ads “fit in” with organic content that is already being posted by regular users.
The result is ads that are more entertaining and less disruptive, increasing conversions and all-around good vibes for businesses.
French beauty brand MAKE UP FOREVER ran anin-feed TikTok ad as part of a larger brand awareness campaign. It features a creator testing and reviewing a new foundation as they would on their own channel.
The campaign generated more than 11 million impressions and 10 million video views for the brand across France.
To-Do List:
Take a closer look at your engagement across all platforms. Have you been underestimating Pinterest users? Neglecting the potential of your Snapchat audience?
Study the content people post on that network. See if you can improve your brand’s tone to fit in with the vibe there.
Experiment with creating ads on that network. Or test a new network, especially if you’ve discounted it as too much effort for organic content in the past.
3. Shoppers will want to expect to buy your products directly on social media
Before the pandemic, social commerce was a flashy opportunity for the most innovative businesses (mattress disruptors, eyeglass disruptors—basically you had to call yourself a disruptor before you’d let your customers shop on social).
But increased social media consumption combined with stay-at-home mandates created the perfect conditions for a social shopping explosion. Which is not going away.
eMarketer predicts social commerce will be an $80 billion industry by 2025. It’s riding the coattails of equally massive e-commerce growth (an increase of 18% in 2020 alone).
81% of shoppers were already using social media to discover new brands and research products before the pandemic. Many businesses have figured out that letting these users checkout in the same app just makes sense.
After all, navigating to a website is an extra step, which is an extra potential leak in your conversion funnel. Especially on mobile, where cart abandonment rates are high.
Most social networks have in-app shopping solutions now, including live video, and are working to provide new features to meet rising demand. But Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest are the most popular. And TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube aren’t far behind.
Instagram added a “Shop” tab to the Explore page in 2020
To-Do List
Social commerce likely won’t replace e-commerce soon. But, depending on your business, you shouldn’t be designing a retail experience without thinking about it.
If you sell products to people, set up a Facebook Shop and/or an Instagram Shop. Or, test out Product Pins on Pinterest.
There’s some design flexibility in these shops, so make the customer experience as visually seamless with your brand as you can.
Don’t worry about getting your whole inventory up. Focus on curating the items you think your Instagram followers will like best.
Experiment with shoppable posts, or even ads! This will allow customers to see your products in context—and then place an order in just a few taps.
4. No one will want to talk to your brand on the phone
Between lockdowns, halting global supply chains, and labor shortages, consumers have had more urgent questions for businesses than ever before. And they’ve discovered they can get answers to those questions more conveniently using social media.
In a Nielsen survey commissioned by Facebook, 64% of people said they would prefer to message rather than call a business. And according to Gartner, 60% of all customer service requests will be managed via digital channels by 2023.
Despite the rise in demand, many organizations aren’t ready to deliver effective customer support over social media yet.
Hootsuite’s 2022 Customer Care Survey shows that 71% of organizations have either not started investing in social customer care yet, or they don’t plan to invest at all.
But our more recent Social Media Trends survey data suggests that the tide may be turning. 59% of respondents agreed that social customer care has increased in value for their organization.
To-Do List
Start thinking about a social media customer service strategy.
Create network-specific response templates for frequently asked questions.
If you haven’t already, try using a chatbot
to improve your response time.
Merge your customer service conversations in one tool. (Naturally, we suggest Sparkcentral or Hootsuite Inbox.)
Train your social media marketing team in customer support best practices. Better yet, hire dedicated customer service agents for your social channels.
5. Long-form video is bust, except on YouTube
According to video hosting software company Vidyard, 60% of all videos published on the internet in 2020 were under 2 minutes long.
Source: Vidyard
This stat puts video length on social media platforms into perspective.
Two years ago, with the advent of IGTV and Facebook Watch (not to mention the supposed demise of Snapchat), there was a moment when we all thought the long-form video was the future.
YouTube, known for its long-form educational videos, was rewarding videos that passed the 10-minute mark. And Facebook wanted to compete in the same arena.
Businesses rushed to make “tv series” for their social platforms. Will Smith even narrated an IGTV show for National Geographic. It seemed like Facebook might not only be taking on YouTube but cable TV networks as well.
But then TikTok arrived in North America. In response, Instagram launched Reels in late 2020, and the rest is history.
Fast forward to fall 2021.
Instagram has deprecated IGTV. No one talks about Facebook Watch anymore. And even YouTube, the last bastion of long-form video on social media, has introduced a new format. You guessed it: YouTube Shorts.
The success of Reels and TikTok follows the success of Stories (another short-form video format), which saw rapid user uptake from 2018 to 2020.
Unfortunately, Facebook hasn’t updated the 500 million user count for Stories since the release of Reels in 2020, so we can’t really tell if it has grown. But attempts to copy the disappearing short-form video format on Twitter and LinkedIn failed in 2021. RIP Fleets and LinkedIn Stories.
This suggests that social media users won’t watch just any
short-form videos. They have to be entertaining and engaging too. Also, perhaps disappearing content isn’t as big a draw as it used to be.
Whatever the reason, Hootsuite’s 2022 Social Media Trends survey shows that businesses prefer short-form videos too.
Nearly 40% of respondents said that they use short-form videos to sell products/services.
To-Do List:
If your goal is to reach new followers, experiment with TikTok videos.
If your goal is to re-engage your existing Instagram audience, experiment with Reels.
If you have success with short-form videos on one platform, try it on others. And take note of the results. As always, you’ll want to translate videos for each channel. No TikTok watermarks on Reels, please!
6. You will outsource (at least some of) your engagement tactics to a Creator
The creator economy has been around for about a decade. But it boomed during the pandemic as people looked for ways to diversify their income (due to unemployment, a sudden influx of spare time, or both).
But we’re not just talking about millionaire YouTube stars. It’s now considered common for regular folks to monetize their hobbies, create a second income stream, or find freelance work through social media too.
Hence the rise of the term “Creator.”
“Creator” encompasses both professional influencer marketers and amateur content creators — basically anyone who writes, edits, designs, and films content to publish on social media with an entrepreneurial motivation.
As of 2021, 50 million people consider themselves to be creators on social networks. And businesses are set to spend $15 billion on influencer marketing by 2022.
In the U.S. alone, 72.5% of marketers are projected to make use of influencer marketing by 2022.
Source: eMarketer
Social networks are both driving and responding to this boom by adding many new native monetization tools, such as:
TikTok’s Creator Marketplace
Instagram’s Collabs
Instagram’s Branded Content Ads
Facebook’s Brand Collabs Manager
YouTube Brand Connect
Twitter’s paid, Super Follows
These tools are all geared to get content creators paid, so they can keep adding value for brands and users on their chosen platforms.
Plus, they help the networks hang on to their slice of that $15 billion pie. That is until one of the thousands of third-party “creator monetization” apps that have sprung up in the last few years finally cracks the code.
To-Do List: Whatever your niche (plant fanatics, goth Harry Potter fans, ASMR receptionists, etc.), there is a creator with an already established fan base waiting to partner with you. And they’ll do a better job of creating authentic, long-term customer relationships than any brand account could ever hope to!
Define your target audience (a.k.a. the people you want to reach) — and which platform they’re on.
Browse creator marketplaces to make a shortlist of people who have clout with that audience.
Get ready to pay fair rates. Even the most micro of creators know their worth and won’t be willing to work for free.
7. You need to learn paid advertising (even if you don’t do ads yet)
Honestly, this social media trend has been around for a few years. But it’s still worth mentioning, especially given what we found in Hootsuite’s 2022 Social Media Trends survey.
43% of respondents said “the decline of organic reach and the need to increase paid advertising budgets” was their biggest challenge on social media. This is second only to consistently coming up with ideas for content.
But that was for respondents overall. Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) listed the decline of organic reach as their #1 challenge.
This makes sense. The decline of organic reach has been well-documented for years, especially on Facebook and Instagram. And most SMBs have limited funds to put towards “pay-to-play” tactics.
The pandemic caused some ups and downs for social advertising. Businesses reduced their spending on ads. And the ones that continued to spend complained about low returns on over-saturated networks.
Plus, Apple allowed users to opt-out of Facebook tracking. This caused Facebook advertisers to reinvent how they did their ad targeting.
But the fact remains that the
average organic reach for a Facebook post is 5.2%.
That means only 5% of your followers may ever see your posts if you don’t put any paid budget behind them.
Sure, you can expand your social media strategy to other networks where it’s still possible to go viral without spending a dime. (*Ahem* TikTok.) But chances are you’re not going to leave the audiences you worked so hard to grow.
No matter what your budget, someone on your social marketing team is going to have to at least learn how to boost. And everyone is going to have to learn the basics of audience targeting.
To-Do List:
Keep using organic social media content to increase brand awareness, deliver customer service, and encourage audience engagement, charming people along the buying journey. Refer to the handy Venn diagram below for more information.
Experiment with promoting your top posts to reach new potential customers.
If you’re ready to level up your ads game, consider investing in a solution like Hootsuite Social Advertising. It allows you to publish ads to Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and track their performance in the same dashboard.
8. You won’t post anything without a social listening strategy
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses jumped on board the social listening train for the first time. They liked being able to respond in real-time to questions and conversations with their customers during a health crisis.
But as the pandemic progressed (and was buffeted by ongoing political upheaval, labor shortages, and increased resentment towards corporations), even more businesses learned that social listening could help them understand their customers’ changing preferences and avoid PR mishaps.
This trend is backed by data from Hootsuite’s 2022 Social Media Trends survey. Most respondents said that they either somewhat or strongly agree that social listening has increased in value for their organization over the past 12 months.
We also see that Google search demand for keywords like “social listening” and “social listening tools” is up 22% year-over-year. This means that more people are on the hunt to either find out what social listening is or buy a tool for their business.
To-Do List
Set up three search streams in your preferred social media management tool (if you don’t have one yet, try Hootsuite for free for 30 days
) for the following:
Your brand mentions, branded hashtags, products, and spokespeople
Your competitors’ brand mentions, branded hashtags, products, and spokespeople
Keywords and hashtags important to your industry as a whole
Watch our super-informative intro to the social listening video:
Make sure that the people who make decisions have access to what you learn. Whether you’re running a one-woman flower shop or have a team of two hundred marketers, social listening will surface issues and opportunities that can affect the whole business.
Try Streams in Hootsuite
9. Your VP will ask you to develop a social audio strategy
Clubhouse launched in April 2020 but grew steeply in popularity in early 2021.
Twitter launched its social audio platform, Spaces, quickly after. And Facebook is also reportedly trying to enter the ephemeral live audio format.
These events had many social marketing teams, including Hootsuite’s
, scrambling to decide whether it was worth investing in a social audio strategy. And as our 2022 Social Media Trends survey shows, the majority of businesses seem to think it is worth it.
When asked specifically how they were planning to invest, results were fairly mixed across the board. But the most popular option was “hosting/leading audio live streams as thought leaders.”
(Side note: props to everyone who’s been assigned the job of creating a company podcast. Blink twice if you want us to send help.)
Let’s break down the data even further.
Our survey found that it was most often VPs and mid- to large-size companies who planned to invest in social audio and thought leadership, as well as companies that were already very confident about proving social media’s return on investment (i.e., companies that use highly sophisticated social marketing tactics).
This makes sense. Thought leadership is seen as a great opportunity for social audio content because it enables one or two people to speak to a large crowd. For those who have the boldness and the budget, it’s a big opportunity to build trust in your brand and directly connect with potential customers.
That said, because of the skill and time involved, social audio is not a particularly cheap form of content marketing. This is one of the reasons we predict small businesses will be slower to adopt it. You’ve got to have the cash to make an investment upfront on a format that hasn’t proved ROI for anyone yet.
Lastly, Clubhouse has stated that ads won’t ever be a part of its business model.
This is either a pro or a con for businesses, depending on how you look at it. Either way, the lack of ads means integrating your brand into Clubhouse will take some imagination.
And the path to ROI will be a long and winding one, which may often include redirecting listeners to your other social media channels.
To-Do List:
You don’t have to choose one particular social audio platform over another. But you should start thinking about how your business can take advantage of social audio in general, now.
Once you’ve got an idea of the value you could bring to listeners, start thinking about specific platforms. For example, try using Spaces to engage your existing community on Twitter. Try Clubhouse to connect with new followers.
Tap the thought leaders (hopefully good, charismatic humans with plenty of improv experience) in your company to host a talk on behalf of your brand. And make sure you hire a pro moderator who can help minimize the risk of trolls and unwelcome questions.
If no one fits the thought leader bill in your company, consider partnering with an influencer who matches your brand values to host a talk on your behalf.
That’s it! These are the 9 social media trends we think you need to know to stay on top of your game in 2022. Which ones did you see coming? And which ones surprised you? Leave us a comment below to let us know.
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