Social Media & Influencer Trends
The social media and influencer trends or scenery is ultra-competitive and eventful. Just think about the dispute around Twitter under Elon Musk’s control to see just how excited it can get!
But the social sphere is the place for brands to make their mark and gain their customer base. With so many social media networks to select from for your marketing activities, it can be difficult to keep up with what’s new and what chances are out there for operating brand awareness.
It’s our task at the DMI to keep an eye on directions, so we’ve talked with our experts to find out what’s coming down the line in 2023 in social media and influencer trends.
- Social media goes back to its ‘roots’
- Social networks are beginning to decentralize
- A new era of influencers
- Vertical and long-form video is on the rise
- Local targeting will grow
- Video content will continue to dominate
1. Social media goes back to its origin :
Marketers use social media channels on many occasions. It could be to get in front of new listeners, retarget previous customers or try out new creative content. But in 2023, digital alteration expert Neal Schaffer believes social media will go back to its origin. His experience has seen web traffic to his site from social media lessen from 2 percent to just 1 percent. We’ve seen the rapid appearance of Instagram Reels, and a brand new social media culture that focuses not on the number of followers, but on the content itself in this generation of what they’re calling recommended media. For that basis, brands are even more confronted to create the type of content that social media users crave. In 2022 Meta launched a Facebook ‘Feeds tab’ that advocates content from friends, groups, or pages to users that are customed and can be organized in a ‘Favorites’ tab. Instagram is also active in encouraging advocated media, creating ‘Candid Challenges’ in response to the rising popularity of the app BeReal. This feature will give rise to users capturing and sharing a photo of their environment in a different two-minute window each day.
2. Social networks are beginning to decentralize:
Many users are glancing for a new type of social media platform – one built by the masses and owned by everyone. This desire has seen the disclosure of new platforms such as Mastodon. On Mastodon, you can join different ‘instances’, which are basically forums based on your interests or geographical location. And the plan is that you move your social media profile between these instances, rather than having entrance to one central newsfeed like on Twitter. The other one to bring up is BlueSky which is being built by ex-Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey. It points to a new decentralized offering that’s less a social network and more of a protocol to build other platforms, It’s essentially going to offer users more choices in terms of what kind of algorithms they would like to use, and their practicality. That’s obtainable for people to sign up for the waitlist and I can imagine that’s getting a lot of signups.
3. A new era of influencers
Influencer marketing has been beating as a trend for years but in 2023 the concept of the word ‘influencer’ is changing gradually. It’s not just about the mega influencers with millions of followers, it’s about influencers with dedicated followers and calling knowledge that can create great user-generated content. It’s a prime thing to know the dissimilarity between influencer content and UGC content. While the first requires sponsored posts and a contractual agreement, user-generated content is someone talking about your brand or content related somehow to it. As social media becomes more pay-to-play, brands should be looking more to influencers and to user-generated content to help them appear, and be seen through the uproar, not from their own opinion, but from the opinions of others. That means it is about finding influencers that are important to your listeners or industry. This particularly matters for small or medium-sized businesses and B2B brands. As customers look for content they need and crave, companies need to collaborate with influencers and content creators that have sway in that area. Comprehensively, this could also include internal influencers, such as your employees, or non-influencers, i.e customers, or other subject matter experts from a B2B marketing perspective.
4. Straight and long-form video is on the rise
As marketers, we should know the power and effect of video marketing. The format provides a successful way to provide information, entertain and engage. In 2023 the video landscape is becoming more complicated as different formats become more popular. All of the social platforms now are categorizing video content, and their algorithms, including platforms that may be traditionally text-based like LinkedIn.With nearly 5.5 billion mobile users worldwide, people use their devices to watch videos and access social media. That makes thinking perpendicularly important. This format is not only better for mobile viewers but social media platforms are holding it. Just imagine how you hold your mobile when scrolling or taking a photograph. Here’s a great example from Adidas that holds straight. Long-from video is also seeing growth in demand. This can be particularly useful in the B2B space as it helps convey more detailed information visually and easily.
5. Local targeting will grow
Using location-based targeting helps companies attract local customers. A familiar way to discover locals is to use geotagging in social media content to reach a target audience. Social media users can search for posts near them, so you should be sure to add a location to the post. For example, Instagram has a location search option. And on Facebook, companies can “boost a post” and select target locations for the audience to assist narrow the reach.
6. Video content will continue to dominate
Eighty-two percent of global customer internet traffic will be video content. However, long-form videos are losing popularity as more consumers turn to short-form videos, such as those on Instagram Reels, Facebook’s Reels, YouTube’s Shorts and Stories.
Moreover, businesses are turning to live-streaming to grab consumers. These videos can include telling a story, revealing a product, promoting events or sharing other company communications. The length of social media videos should be kept to around a minute.
For more information please feel free to contact us.
