There’s no denying it, social media trends took over the world and our love of scrolling and swiping proved that it is here to stay! From content remixing to the rise of the use of popular audio across social platforms, these trends took over everyone’s content creation in 2022 and the Zambian landscape is no exception. 2022 was a great year for consumers, they had a variety of options as their favourite businesses leveraged on fun social media trends which in return increased their buying power.

Because social media is constantly changing, we witnessed the rebranding of Facebook to Meta in 2021. In 2022 we witnessed even more how Meta continued to rebrand in order to make the platform user friendly such as the addition of Meta reels, improvement of the marketplace and so on.

If you are wondering what social media trends took over the Zambian scene, here are five popular trends which you probably might have been a part of.

1 . TikTok Became Huge

Everyday, you discover something new on your TikTok ‘for you page’. From lip-syncing battles, A day in my life, fashion takeover’s, viral dance challenges, and cooking hacks, TikTok trends took over the internet and the Zambian community rallied behind it. Clearly mapping out the community with the hashtag #ZambianTikTok or #ZedTikTok, there is no denying that TikTok videos took over everyone’s lives in 2022.

2022 was also a major year for brands as they got to jump onto TikTok trends. This worked well increasing their brand visibility and reach.

Revisit our blog post on TikTok Creatives you should be following.

2 . Increase In Video Content

There is no need of creating strategies that exclude video content when social platforms are all favouring video content on their platforms. Video content is taking over and consumers are on the peak to consume video content. The Zambian community saw a revolution in how creatives jumped on popular Instagram, TikTok, Meta and Snapchat trends to create aesthetically pleasing videos for their audience. The fastest way to blow up in this era is to share video content on your socials.

From Instagram stories, and boomerangs, to promotional videos, every brand and business in Zambia leveraged on video content to gain favour from the algorithm. Every week, we see a new Instagram reel trend come and go. Some of this year’s popular video trends/trend audios included:

• Cuff It Challenge

Beyoncé’s smash hit had everyone moving to the popular dance moves.

• Trend: Wild Thoughts.

DJ Khaled’s track, “Wild Thoughts” is the perfect audio to share your OOTDs, the ingredients in a cooking video, or your latest shopping finds.

• Trend: Picnic.

From pumpkin dessert recipes to rainy study sessions, share your fall moments using this trending sound.

• Trend: Photos To The Beat.

This trend revisits a classic Reel format: timing photos to the beat of the audio.

• Trend: Pink + White.

With Frank Ocean’s soulful voice as the backing track, it’s time to share cozy moments — whether it’s your latest soup recipe or a morning routine.

The above trends and more not mentioned carried 2022. One thing about video content is the need to see real faces and the video content trend is filling that hole moving forward.

3 . Twitter Transformed Into A Trustworthy News Portal & Business Support System.

The rise of #ZedTwitter came with so many benefits;

• Businesses earning their reach with a return on their investments.
• Creators such as foodbloggers, fashion influencers, photographers etc getting their work across Zambian boaders with support/retweets from the Zambian community.
• Brand advertisments.
• A source of information especially during key events such as politics, music award shows etc.

Twitter trends all together became a ‘trend’ transforming the Zambian scene in how they operate on socials.

4 . Memes

Post Covid times has seen the world open up and memes taking over, we spend much of our lives on the internet these days, watching certain in-jokes and niche posts become the backbone to the latest meme craze. The Zambian social media community is known for making memes out of the most trending topics. 2022 allowed so many people to use memes as a way to communicate and entertain, or simply relate to a subject. These memes have been shared numerously across socials and memes have become ‘the norm’ to ease things up with humour.

5 . Rise Of Creators/Micro Influencers

The rise of social media creators in Zambia has been a fun thing to witness. Creators and the rise of ‘micro influencers’ has exposed talented individuals to collaborative deals with bigger brands from Fanta to popular restuarants across the city. Mico influencers deliver higher engagement and drive more conversions. In a nutshell, micro-influencers are more like ‘real people’ – therefore they are more relatable and more authentic. The Zambian creator/influencer scene will definately continue to expand and grow in 2023 and beyond.

As brands and companies continue to jump on social media trends and create impactful content, it is clear that the above will continue to have impact in 2023. What will be the top social media trends of 2023? Come back in January for our predictions.

Don’t forget to Like, comment and share this article with others and SUBSCRIBE to our monthly newsletter for exciting tips and information.

See you in the next blog!