The 4 Biggest TikTok Trends in 2022

TikTok trends — it’s not easy to keep up, right?

TikTok content is constantly changing as the platform evolves and grows every second. It can be overwhelming to keep up to date with the latest trends… If we also consider all the other trends on the social media channels on which your brand is present.

Enough to drive you nuts! 🤯

But don’t worry, take a deep breath, I’m here to help you not get lost in this endless ocean of Tiktok content.

In this article, I’ve listed 4 of the biggest TikTok trends in 2022, to enlighten you in your content strategy, so without further ado, let’s get started!

Trend #1: Branded Hashtag Challenges

Obviously, the first trend I’m going to tell you about is branded hashtag challenges.

As on other social media platforms, hashtags on TikTok are essential and play a significant role in content discovery.

Through these hashtags, all content creators are able to spot new, emerging trend opportunities on which to focus their efforts. For brands on TikTok, one of the best ways to take advantage of these hashtags is to create a branded hashtag challenge — an ideal way to drive engagement and increase brand awareness.

But what exactly are branded hashtag challenges?

The point of a branded hashtag challenge is to create a specific hashtag linked to a video challenge which people can participate in. Here’s what TikTok says about why brands should engage users with challenges:

“The branded hashtag challenge is a fun and easy way for brands to collaborate and seamlessly integrate with the TikTok community.”

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

Well, it’s easier said than done. Tiktok is overwhelmed by challenges, so if you want to create one that stands out from the crowd, you’ll need to create one with a clear purpose and come up with a really engaging idea to get as many users as possible involved — this way, you’ll increase your chances of bringing plenty of benefits to your brand.

TikTok users have shown extra enthusiasm for this kind of content as there is enough room for creativity and that is what TikTok users are looking for!

Here is a good example of branded hashtag challenges:

Colgate created the branded hashtag #MakeMomSmile for Mother’s Day. The aim was to make your mother or mother-figure smile — a challenge 100% open to creativity. As you can see below, this branded hashtag challenge generated 5.2 billion views – that’s a lot!

Trend #2: Memes

Memes are one of the most powerful social media plays out there. Highly exploited for their benefits, they are particularly effective in getting messages across in a fun and creative way.

Memes have without doubt conquered the world of social media, and continue to grow in popularity thanks to new platforms such as TikTok.

Many brands use memes as a way to connect with their audience and develop a brand personality — and this strategy works well on TikTok. Being a video platform where content creators show a high degree of creativity, and where users consume a lot of humorous content, TikTok has high meme potential.

So if you are in the middle of creating your content strategy on TikTok, I’d recommend (if your brand allows it) to consider using memes. Even though memes are easy and cheap to create, they have incredible viral potential. What better way to increase your brand exposure and engagement (and have a good old laugh, too!)?

Here is a great meme example by Gymshark:

Trend #3: Influencer Collaboration

The top 50 TikTok influencers are followed by more than 16% of the world’s population! Fact.

If there’s one place where your brand should collaborate with influencers, it’s on TikTok. Especially if you’re targeting a younger generation market!

Why?

On any social media platform, you should avoid over-selling, or at least not give the impression of selling, and this is particularly important on TikTok because of the youthful demographic. All marketers know that Gen Z is difficult to reach using traditional advertising. What they want is entertaining, fun, and easy to consume content, and where do they find that? On TikTok, naturally.

That’s why choosing to collaborate with influencers turns out to be a more organic and safe way of selling products and services than paid marketing, which could have negative effects on your audience.

Keep in mind that TikTok is first and foremost a place of expression and creativity for content creators. Considering this, take care to give creative freedom to your influencer, and trust them to provide authentic, well-built content that meets the expectations of their audience. By utilizing the talents of established influencers, brands have a great opportunity of succeeding in their influencer marketing campaigns.

See how Too Faced Cosmetics takes advantage of the potential that TikTok has to offer in terms of influencer marketing:

Last year, Too Faced Cosmetics sponsored a video by Kristen Hancher – a vlogger who has more than 24.6 million followers on TikTok – to promote the launch of their new “Damn Girl” mascara. The influencer used the hashtag #TFDamnGirl and shared a before-and-after video to show off her lashes before and after applying the product.

The video itself generated 169.6K views and the #TFDamnGirl hashtag generated 1 billion views.

To check out more influential brands on TikTok, read this post on the blog now!

Trend #4: Duets

TikTok Duets allow users to create content featuring an initial video, so both videos appear side by side on the screen. They are super popular across the platform.

Duets are a fun way of collaborating with your TikTok followers. This way, not only do you engage with your audience, but you also access your duet partner’s audience too.

If you’re looking to make your brand viral on TikTok, you should really consider trying them out. If they are correctly implemented, duet chains can lead to some incredible viral content.

TIP: To link to the previous part of this article – if you’re collaborating with influencers on TikTok, duets are a great format for them, and an incredible way to increase your reach as a brand. This is due to the fact that you’re no longer limited to your influencer’s followers, but also are able to reach the audiences of any of the users taking part in the duet with the influencer. Think of it as a virtuous cycle of reach.

[For more TikTok marketing tips, check out this post on our blog!]

For example, Vessi, a footwear brand based in Canada, combined three great content strategies in one: a duet, a giveaway, and a branded hashtag challenge. They asked their users to show their Vessi shoes using the hashtag #vessifootwear to be in with a chance of winning a free pair!

Check out their promotion duet, which hit 3.8 million views:

Conclusion

Et voilà!

Those were the 4 major TikTok trends that I strongly encourage you to take a look at before the year ends.

Given the rise of TikTok, trends will continue to change very quickly, and by the end of 2022 we’ll be blessed with more and more great content.

If you’re getting started on TikTok, it’s important to understand what works and what doesn’t beforehand. Spend time studying the biggest trends, make sure you’re always up-to-date, and be as creative as you can possibly be, to be in with a chance to make a place for yourself and be successful on TikTok.