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In 2022, a report by HootSuitein partnership with WeAreSocial revealed that approximately 58.4% of the population used social media, on average, for two hours and twenty-seven minutes per day. As social media have become increasingly popular, they have changed the way companies interact with and approach their stakeholders.
When used strategically and intelligently, social media can be a major asset for corporate communication, as they allow companies to connect with and build relationships with their target audience, promote products in a more cost-effective way and build a company’s image. However, creating a social media strategy is not easy; it is important to know how to stand out in a world of constant and accelerated change, with high levels of competition.
With the start of the new year, we highlighted some trends that companies can use to develop and enhance their social media presence in 2023.
Demonstrating authenticity on social media is about showing the true side of the brand or company to its followers, rejecting the more artificial qualities that have defined social media marketing in recent years.
This quality can be reflected in many ways on social media, whether through the chosen content (which should be increasingly human and close to followers) or through the way the brand interacts with followers (whether in comments, stories or private messages).
In fact, the shift towards more authentic marketing has generally represented an emerging trend in which consumers choose to buy products/services from companies that share their moral,social and political beliefs. According to a study from the 2022 Sprout Social Index™, alignment between a company and consumers’ personal values is 74% more important to consumers than it was in 2021.
It is through authenticity and transparency that consumers feel more connected to a brand. In a report conducted by #BrandsGetReal, it was found that this connection leads more than half of consumers (57%) to increase their spending on that brand and 76% to choose that brand over competing brands.
On social media, the connection with consumers will become increasingly stronger the more transparent and authentic the brand or company manages to be. In fact, the TikTok platform itself encourages brands to be more authentic, based on a study revealing that authentic content leads 73% of users to develop more positive feelings.
Although Google continues to dominate the world of online searches, the phenomenon of “social search” is gradually growing, especially among younger generations. In 2022, a survey conducted in the United Kingdom showed that TikTok was one of the fastest-growing news sources for the adult population (over 18 years old).
Currently,around 40% of young people turn to TikTok or Instagram as a search tool, according to Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President at Google. With this growth, TikTok UK launched the campaign “Search It with TikTok”, encouraging younger users to use TikTok as a search engine.
The Network One report also identifies this trend, as a large proportion of younger users use TikTok and Instagram to carry out searches. On Instagram, 62%of users say they use the app to search for brands and products. This means that, for content to be discovered, companies need to optimise their posts, as younger users will make use of these social media features.
Therefore, in 2023, it is important for companies that already implement traditional SEO strategies to also implement a social media SEO strategy: creating a list of keywords and using those keywords in descriptions, biographies, captions and even location tags.
Since the explosion in popularity of the social network TikTok and as human attention spans continue to decrease, audiences are consuming more and more short-form video content.
Short videos are becoming increasingly popular among marketing professionals for several reasons: they are more widely viewed, impactful and far more persuasive in conveying messages, making them one of the most powerful social media marketing tools at the moment. In fact, a marketing trends survey conducted by HubSpot concluded that around 51% of marketers who used short videos last year are willing to invest more in this format.
According to Adweek and InfluencerMarketing Hub, this type of format generates around 30 billion views per day on YouTube Shorts, and more than 167 million videos are viewed per minute on TikTok.
These formats have several advantages:
- They are easier to produce, giving creators the opportunity to test new ideas;
- They generate high interaction rates from users;
- They create memorable content.
For short videos to be effective, they need to be concise and have well-distributed information, always taking into account that the information included must be interesting in order to capture attention.
Influencer marketing is expected to become a more conventional approach alongside investment in social media and content marketing. Involving influencers in content marketing will not only increase demand but will also result in greater customer engagement with a company’s initiatives.
Accordingto AdAge, influencer marketing is transforming the world of B2B purchasing, with around 38% of professionals already considering this type of marketing an important tool for generating leads on social media.
After selecting an influencer, the impact of the campaign may take at least six months to be reflected, as most B2B sales involve several decision-makers, making it likely that it will take longer to reach the maximum number of people.
Since the launch of the Clubhouse app in 2020, interest in social audio has been growing quietly in the background. As Clubhouse initially required an invitation to join, it created a major opportunity for other platforms to offer audio options. In 2021, Facebook launched podcasts; Soundbites and Rooms emerged; Twitter introduced voice tweets; and LinkedIn launched audio events.
Although this format is not new, its presence on social media is. Using only people’s voices to reach audiences, giving them the option to listen wherever they want,is gaining popularity, and is expected to continue. This format can be advantageous for companies, as it is a good way to communicate directly with their audience. To implement a social audio strategy in 2023, it is necessary to pay attention to user privacy and to the creation of sustainable relationships with creators and audiences.
When planning social media strategies, it is important for companies to keep these trends in mind in order to make 2023 a year of better results and innovative content. To learn more about trend forecasts in the communications sector for 2023, you can consult our article, available on our website.
Contact us to find out more about how to implement these trends or how to innovate your social media strategy!
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