2023's Social Media Trends
Recently, Hootsuite released their annual report on the Social Media Trends they expect to takeoff in 2023. Not all of us have the inclination or time to wade through their 46-page report, but I did. So, here are a few takeaways.
1. The Creator Economy is Shifting
With the pandemic, the seemingly endless concerns about an inevitable recession, and financial crises nationally and commercially, many companies have started restructuring and re-thinking their budgets. This is often bad news for the marketing team, as their budget is usually the first onto the chopping-block. This has led to a decline in discretionary spending, meaning that some social media influencers and creators have seen bigger companies backing out of paid deals and sponsorships. Now, while this seems like a huge blow for the creator economy, it paves the way for smaller businesses to compete for top creators at lower price points.
So, where do we go from here? Well, for the creators and influencers: don’t be afraid to work with smaller businesses. They can be a great source of collaboration, experience and opportunity, especially if the larger companies are starting to shift their focus. For the brands: think strategically rather than about reach. Large follower counts don’t necessarily lead to higher conversions or sales. It’s more important to find a creator who can collaborate with you to make inspiring content relevant to your product or service, with integrity and creativity.
2. Shaping Content to Fit the Platform
People go to different social media platforms for different reasons. Hootsuite designed this diagram to illustrate this:
Because of this, many platforms have tried to amalgamate all the best features of all their competitors into their app. This hardly ever works, as most people have already formed their ideas, feelings and desires to each of the individual platforms. This is why Instagram, in their attempts to mimic TikTok’s structure with Reels, have found it difficult to compete.
For the creator, its important to understand this detail. If every user is going to each social media platform for their own distinct uses, then the content you create has to match it. Become savvy at creating curated content that best suits the platform its going onto. Look into the top uses of Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube, and create the best content you can to fit the platform.
3. Social Searching is on the Rise
The preeminent figure of Google has stood as a monolith in the search engine and SEO space for most of this millennium. It was always the go-to searching platform, swatting away its competitors like Yahoo, Bing and DuckDuckGo. But now it faces competition from out of left-field: Social Media.
Statistics show that nowadays, most young people are more likely to head to social media before Google as their primary search engine. In fact, an internal study by the search-giant themselves found that 40% of 18- to 24-year-olds are now using social media as their go-to search engine.
This is also for a variety of searches: dinner and holiday recommendations, clothes shopping, and most interestingly, to research and evaluate brands. Gen Z now use social media more than search engines to evaluate products, compare prices between competing brands, and make decisions about where to spend their money.
While this is fascinating, and in many ways rather concerning as the integrity and accuracy of more than a few social media-based brands and posts is questionable, it also presents a valuable opportunity for business.
Companies can start to present themselves as authorities; one-stop-shops for all the accurate and important information a user might need to answer their questions. Whatever sphere you’re in, if you can start making content that best answers the public’s questions and presents yourself as an authority, you set yourself up well to capitalise on this shift.
As for some nitty-gritty tools on how to immediately utilise this: start using ‘alt text’ on your images. These are descriptions within the HTML code that help to improve accessibility and SEO. Many platforms have an easy way for you to fill in alt text as you post.
Location, location, location. This is, of course, a cliche and a sorely missed British TV Show, but it is also key in helping you ride this new wave. If users are searching for good businesses in their local area, or around where they might be heading, geotagging your posts places you on their watchlist. You want your business to appear at the top of the search results when someone in your area is seeking your kind of products or services.
4. Good Customer Service Stands Out
Over the pandemic, digital customer service, by necessity, rose. But now, as people return to in-person stores, businesses and interactions, it’s crucial that your digital customer service is better than ever. This might sound counterintuitive, or even counterproductive, but, as the marketing and customer service teams begin to shift their focus back to the ‘real world’ (so to speak), great online care will stand out even further.
So, how can you make sure you hit this sudden opening? Firstly, bring the social media marketing and customer engagement teams to the leadership table. Social media is not, and cannot afford to be, an afterthought or a throwaway nicety for mere promotional announcements. Social media is the beating heart of this modern culture and especially this modern generation. You have to capitalise on this position and make sure you are best equipping your relevant teams to do their best work.
Secondly, make sure you have facilities for personal and career improvement for your marketing teams. They might need some new, or extra, training to enable them to provide the best online customer service they can. Thankfully, Hootsuite were quick to remind me that they offer exactly what you might need, in their bright orange text, at the end of the report.
The world of social media is loud, ever-evolving and constantly fascinating. Hold on to your hats, 2023 is shaping up to be a big one for social media.
If you want to have a read through of the full Hootsuite report, you can find it here.