Social media is in a state of perpetual change. Social channels constantly evolve and adapt their features based on user appeal and potential growth. This continuous flux also presents an excellent opportunity for marketers looking for new creative ways of reaching their audience.
Following up-and-coming social media trends expected to dominate this year, is key to a successful marketing strategy.
Social Media Trends to Watch Out For in 2023
Utilizing the following social trends is sure to help you stand out and increase your brand visibility, market reach and user engagement.
1. Authenticity is the key
Apart from video content that keeps on appearing on the trends list for the last couple of years, authenticity has slowly become the determining factor of success for social media platforms.
In the time of overly-edited images and videos and customer cynicism, authenticity, posts in real-time and posts that customers can relate to are more of a demand than an expectation.
2. Short video & TikTok
Speaking of video content, naturally, Youtube remains the leader in that area. Especially so, for 92% of marketers that tend to view it as a vital part of their marketing strategy.
The video momentum has only increased as major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn improve their video capabilities to catch up with the growing popularity and new trends.
But an interesting trend has steadily grown with the rise of TikTok Marketing. Short-form videos have become something of a popular phenomenon with younger audiences. Generation Z is the driving demographic behind this trend, but others are following suit.
And it is clear why short engaging videos are so widespread. They are easy to create and fairly inexpensive, which results in some great user-generated content.
3. Micro influencers and their effectiveness
On the topic of influencer marketing, this trend is going to be even more important this year. As more and more users shop from home, your brand promotion strategy will be defined by partnering with influencers to their audience. Although influencer marketing is an effective social marketing strategy, it can be costly.
Due to the sudden spotlight on social media, the cost has increased and well-known influencers are asking for a high price when promoting a brand. In this case smaller businesses are cut off from an important market share. This is why reaching out to smaller influencers in your particular niche may be better.
4. Social commerce on the rise
Go where your customers are, or better yet get there first and set up a shop. That’s what Facebook and Instagram had in mind anyway. They were the first platforms to offer social commerce options. With the gradual switch to online shopping and the new wave of active users pouring in, they had the right idea.
So you can be sure that the Facebook Shop and Instagram Storefront will become one of the most used features on their respective platforms if they are not already.
5. Social networks for customer service
Social media networks have evolved quite far from the days of being simple channels to connect people and to give them a way to share content with each other.
With their adoption for business use, another piece of the puzzle starts to fit into place. As commerce becomes a vital part of social media platforms it only makes sense that the next step is their use as a customer service channel as well.
It is important to have a direct line of communication with your customers to quickly address potential issues. What better way to connect with them than using an already available feature where the back and forth between you and your customers is almost instant?
6. Personalized ads on social media
Paid advertising works, which is the reason why more than half of businesses are planning on increasing their social media advertising budget.
Considering the rising trends on social media are focused on video and graphic content, it’s no surprise that Instagram will see the majority of ad spending on social media. And not to mention also due to the boost in audience the platform saw in recent times.
Facebook, Youtube, and LinkedIn will also see an increase in ad traffic and content promotion. Marketers report these channels as being the most effective in reaching their business goals according to Hootsuite. And they are quite effective for different types of business growth.
7. Social listening & brand involvement
You need to know what’s the word on the proverbial social street. Follow the conversation so you can pitch in and actively engage with what your audience is talking about.
But, talking with many people at once is messy and you can lose sight of what they were talking about anyway. Especially when the conversations are happening in several places at once. Don’t worry, Mediatoolkit has you covered.
Social Media Trends are Changing
But then again they constantly do. Popular trends have small beginnings. This is why you should keep your ear close to the buzz on social and watch out for opportunities you can take advantage of.
Be careful though, not to spread yourself too thin. Focus on a couple of trends you can fit in your marketing plan and do them right. Find out what works for you and your brand while paying attention to your audiences.
