Take a deep dive into the social media trends of 2023

Social media is the universe of trends, hacks, influencers, cute pets, and funny content. We are all active in this community and are part of a numbers game regarding likes, engagement, and comments, whether you favour TikTok or prefer Instagram.

Since the early 90s, we have been exposed to social media platforms like the pioneering Six Degrees. Over time, platforms have developed to serve a variety of objectives and niches.

This trend hasn’t let us, and, as a result, we saw the evolution of several social media-related developments throughout last year.

Changes in the social media scene in 2022

2022 was a rather abnormal year, as we all expected technology to develop more to improve our social media channels. We expected to see stability, but what we got was far from stable.

Facebook changed its name to Meta, transforming the brand into a holding company that oversees various digital services, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and others. Soon after the transition, Meta recorded a record loss in its user base and revenue.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk played a game of cat and mouse with Twitter, ultimately being forced to enter into a deal of his own making. But, of course, we all know how his acquisition has turned out and the turmoil it has put the company and its users through.

Even new players haven’t had it easy. Be.Real, a new social networking platform for capturing life has been criticised for allowing anybody to see your location. Despite this, and perhaps thanks the TikTok’s emergence, the app has maintained its appeal via short-form content.

Speaking of short-form material, the clear winner of recent social media wars is TikTok, with many other platforms observing and copying the success of the Chinese-based social network. Instagram and Facebook are notable examples, with Twitter announcing a similar feature in the pipeline.

Instagram, however, suffered the most significant damage due to this transition. The platform lost its photo-centric emphasis and no longer allows users to choose between video and photo-based content. Will a loss of focus damage it in the long run? Time will tell.

How will social media unfold in 2023?

Now 2023 and the year ahead. How should brands be using social media following the changes of 2022 and likely changes that will take place this year? Here is our guide for social media strategy in 2023.

Brand authenticity and social responsibility

Social responsibility and brand authenticity discussions are not new. However, companies continue to face increasing demand to demonstrate how they give back to society and whose ideals they support. If brands take a public stand on different values, behaviours, and speeches, they will be ‘approved’ by the general public and have a better image.

In this process, brands shouldn’t forget to be transparent about their process and why they choose to go in a particular direction. Advocating for different causes will put your brand in the spotlight, but you must be careful what you do with this newly won attention.

Multi-sensory social media

Instagram recently launched a feature that allows users to add music to still images; meanwhile, Twitter all but killed off the surprise hit app, Clubhouse, by introducing ‘Spaces’ – a live audio chat feature within the native app.

These audio-based tools should be used heavily by brands in 2023. An immersive omnichannel of content formats will catch people’s attention. With few other brands making full use of these features, there is still time to benefit from the halo effect of early adoption.

The ‘super-apps’

Multi-sensory features are being pushed to the limit by TikTok, which is quickly incorporating elements from other social media platforms into its existing app. It has adopted Be. Real’s concept, Instagram’s carousel, and many more. Their goal is clear: to have one app to access all content.

This can easily be used in your brand’s favour since it allows you to reuse the content in different forms, helping you test the best way to engage with your build community through other formats and styles and analysing the impact achieved on various channels. Who doesn’t love a little A/B testing?!

Short-form video

Short-form video content is currently king, and it looks like its reign it is only starting. We have seen famous YouTube creators giving up and focusing on new apps like TikTok and Instagram with short-form content.

This is all down to the number of hours people spend on the platforms, with more time spent on such platforms, despite the shorter format. So brands should take note and make the exact change.

Social media for customer service

Whether you’re a B2C or B2B brand, your customers are already using social media, so providing help via social channels is a fantastic approach to enhance customer service. Yes, even for B2B (have you seen LinkedIn lately?!)

Social platforms are well set up for customer service solutions, with the likes of Meta and LinkedIn allowing users to message brands directly. You can take this a step further with automated responses and chatbots.

By responding to customer requests on social media, other potential customers see you are an accountable and supportive brand. Conversely, those who neglect customer service will negatively impact their reputation.

Social media overtakes search engines

Social media content is rising the ranks on search engines, with short-form video content performing exceptionally well and being delivered above traditional websites.

Not only that, but customers are choosing to search for information on social channels directly, avoiding search engines altogether. So, your social media strategy should mimic SEO, looking for likely searches and questions and creating content to answer these.

We’re here to help

Social media is an ever-evolving scene; the day-to-day users drive the trends; brands must keep up and deliver content that matches the users’ needs. It can feel overwhelming for brands, who unsurprisingly have more red tape than the average social media user for what content they can put out.

Our advice: don’t try to tackle all the trends at once. Instead, consider your audience, your brand goals, and what is realistic, and take it from there. And if you need extra support, feel free to get in touch to hear about our content services. We’d be happy to help.