A Quick Glance Back at the Digital Marketing Changes in 2022

Yes, Elon Musk spent most of the year monkeying around with Twitter, but for small biz owners, the following changes were more important to their businesses:

Google Business Profile
In April, Google announced that Google My Business was being phased out. Instead, they introduced Google Business Profile, which is very similar with a few updates. Now you manage your profile through Google Maps or through Google Search. 

When you arrive at the “Your business on Google” page, there are icons to click on for editing your profile and products, reading messages and reviews, and reviewing performance data. Google also made it less easy for random people to edit your business’s profile. Now, folks can “suggest an edit,” which means you should get a notification before Google implements it, but experts advise that you should still check regularly. 

By the way, if you still have not claimed your business’s Google profile, stop reading this and do it now! Or ask us to help you, because it’s really that important to your SEO.

Mobile internet growth
It’s been years since we advised all of our clients to switch to “mobile-friendly” websites. Do you remember learning about building websites using Responsive Web Design so the site would be properly viewed on different-sized screens? These days, it’s just commonplace for web platforms.

Optimizing for different screens, however, is more than just automatic rearranging and businesses would do well to pay more attention to the user experience. A huge swath of the world has computer-in-your-pocket phones, almost double the number who have desktop devices. 

New this year is the growing number of smartwatches, up 14.1%. Beyond checking texts, people are watching or listening to entertainment more often on their smartwatches and downloading browsers in order to search the internet. Now that’s a small screen!

Less social, more media
Social media usage continues to grow, although people using social media aren’t connecting with one another the way they did in the early days. Now, social media is more often used as an entertainment platform. 

The fastest-growing platform, TikTok, has grown 15% year-over-year with almost a billion users who watched 15-second videos in 2022.  A study released by TikTok itself says that 48% of users purchased a product or service after watching a 15-second TikTok video about it. With that kind of response, it’s no wonder that other social platforms are offering short-form videos as well.

That said, TikTok and short-form video has not been the only path. Long-form videos, like watching craftspeople build things, have also been very popular and Facebook is still the most-used social media platform. As always, really knowing and understanding your target audience is the best guide when strategizing. 

For small business owners, chasing digital marketing trends like what color checkmark to have on your Twitter profile may not be high on your radar. Still, it is useful to keep an eye on the news so you can judge for yourself which trends to bypass and which are to your advantage. Sprocket Websites is your partner to navigate internet marketing, so give us a call to talk about how we can help your business in the new year.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood

Kate GingoldKate Gingold

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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