Nowadays, almost everyone uses social media, and the industry keeps growing, with around 4.6 billion users worldwide in 2022. But some social networks had different levels of success in 2022. Facebook’s growth has slowed down since 2021, with less than 50 million new users in 2023, compared to 194 million in 2020. Twitter faced challenges, as half of its top 100 advertisers seemed to leave the platform after Elon Musk took over. On the other hand, TikTok’s growth was impressive and is expected to have 955 million users by 2025. Meanwhile, LinkedIn did really well with ad revenues reaching $13.8 billion, six times more than in 2017. This is about social media marketing for 2023.
This information shows that social media is always changing. What was effective before might not be now, and the future is uncertain. To make the most of your social media marketing for 2023, it’s important to keep up with the latest user behavior, features, and technology. That’s why we’ve gathered five important social media trends for 2023 to help you navigate this constantly changing world.
Top 5 Emerging Trends In Social Media
- The Continuous Surge Of Short-Form Vertical Video
In the past, people were used to watching videos in a wide format like on YouTube and Netflix. But now, more and more people prefer to watch videos on their smartphones. In fact, almost two-thirds of YouTube watching is done on mobile devices. Since smartphones are tall and narrow, it’s no surprise that most mobile video watching (83% on video sites and 92% on all sites) is done with the phone held upright.
At the same time, short videos have become very popular among both viewers and marketers. People like them because they’re easy to make and don’t take up much of their time. Because of this, 39% of video marketers say short videos give the best Return on Investment (ROI), and 47% believe they have a higher chance of going viral. In 2023, we can expect more brands to use these two trends together and create more short, vertical videos.
Short videos are really good at promoting products and services, which is really important in social media marketing for businesses. According to Wyzowl, 73% of consumers like to learn about products or services through short videos, while only:
- 11% prefer reading text information.
- 3% choose to download manuals or ebooks.
- 3% like to attend in-person pitches or webinars.
- 3% want product demonstrations or sales calls.
- Leveraging UGC Creators: Empowering Smaller Social Teams
User-generated content (UGC) is a powerful tool that social media marketers use. According to Tint’s research, UGC has a big impact on how much consumers trust and engage with a brand:
- 72% of consumers think reviews and testimonials from customers are more believable than content made by the brand itself.
- 93% of marketers agree that consumers trust UGC more than branded content.
- 64% of consumers are more likely to share content about a brand or its products if they see the brand regularly sharing UGC with its customers.
You might wonder why we’re talking about UGC in this article since it’s not a new thing, but there’s an important point to consider: how smaller brands can use UGC too. UGC is content created by a company’s customers or followers, which the brand shares on its own channels. But not all brands get a lot of UGC, so big companies usually get most of the benefits.
To fix this inequality, more and more smaller brands are using “UGC creators” – social media users who make content like UGC and get paid by the brand. Later, a Social Media Marketing for 2023 platform does this by hiring freelance creators to make UGC-style photos and videos for their social media accounts. By using UGC creators, smaller brands can compete with bigger ones and use authentic user-generated content to improve their social media presence and connect with their audience better.
- Brands Emphasizing First-Party Data: A Necessity For Future Success
In the constantly changing world of marketing, one thing is clear – it’s becoming more and more important to focus on first-party data. Big companies like Google are doing what Firefox and Safari did and getting rid of third-party cookies in their Chrome browsers. This change creates big challenges for marketers because third-party cookies were essential for tracking how users behave online. They allowed personalized ads based on what people buy and look at online, which led to more sales and money for companies.
But, because third-party cookies will disappear in Q3 2024, marketers need to quickly change their strategies in 2023 and start using first-party data. First-party data is owned directly by the brand and will become the main resource for personalized marketing campaigns. It won’t have any restrictions from outside sources.
Brands can collect first-party data in different ways, like getting customer email addresses in exchange for special content or discounts. Another clever way is to create specific communities on social media, like the successful Facebook Group made by Instant Pot, a popular brand of electric cookers. These communities let brands talk directly with their audience without relying on third-party tracking all over the internet.
Using first-party data is not just a fad; it’s a smart move for brands to be successful in the future when third-party cookies are going away. By connecting directly with their audiences and owning the data, brands can adapt to the changing marketing world and do well even with stricter privacy rules and protection of user data.
- Extended Reality Enters The Mainstream In Social Media Marketing
Using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in social media marketing is not a new idea. Brands have been trying out fun lenses and filters for a while. But now, because AR and VR are getting cheaper, 2023 could be the year when they become popular for everyone, not just big advertisers.
This change is good news for social media marketing for 2023 because it opens up exciting possibilities. Studies by Magna Global show that adding interactive features to social media ads boosts how well people remember the ad and how familiar they are with the brand. About three-quarters of viewers will interact with these ads and do different things. Some of the top things they do are:
- Searching for a particular product (64% of people said this).
- Looking for deals and discounts (63%).
- Searching for more information online about the product or brand (59%).
For example, watchmaker Breitling used augmented reality in 2022 to make an interactive guide that tells the fascinating story of its Navitimer wristwatch.
- Maximizing Social Media Impact Through Platform-Specific Content
Lately, there’s been a lot of focus on making content that fits each social media platform. There are so many platforms now that it can be hard for small marketing teams to post on all of them, and it’s even harder to make different content for each one.
Most people know that different types of content work better on different social media platforms because the audiences are different. But some marketers might wonder why they need to make different content for similar platforms like Instagram and TikTok. After all, both platforms are all about visuals and videos, especially Instagram Reels.
Even though copying content to multiple platforms can save time, research has found that it doesn’t usually get the results you want. Hootsuite says that marketers who take the time to make unique content for each social network feel more sure that their content is valuable and does well.
