Reports recorded over 4.59 billion global social media users in 2022. And they expect this number to increase to nearly six billion in 2027.
With social media users constantly increasing, brands and marketers are strengthening their social media marketing strategies to boost sales and revenue. However, social media trends change over time. Some of last year’s marketing trends may not be relevant anymore.
Knowing the best practices to promote your brand can be challenging due to rapid changes. To ease the burden of your marketing team, here are the top 10 social media marketing trends you should leverage in 2023:
1. Word-of-Mouth Marketing From Social Media Communities
While social media thrives on content sharing, it also involves community building.
Community building means engaging and connecting with your audience. With an engaged social media community, you get more people talking about your business, products, or services—word-of-mouth marketing.
Joining social media communities is significant for consumers. These groups allow others to discover brands, participate in current demands actively, and assess products and services based on customer reviews. This is how word-of-mouth marketing turns consumers’ interests into daily dialogs that strengthen brand awareness.
Online communities also enable brands like yours to address concerns and provide customer support directly. They enhance brand awareness and improve the customer experience.
An engaged community provides free word-of-marketing through the following:
- Spontaneous brand promotions and sharing of your content
- Strong customer relationships
- Celebration of your successes and milestones
2. Edutainment Content
Edutainment combines the words “education” and “entertainment.” It is a social media marketing trend that provides informative yet entertaining content to let viewers have fun while learning.
Edutainment content has various formats, such as live streams, podcasts, and videos, that cover many topics. This type of content is popular since it focuses on consumers’ interests, needs, and preferences. Concurrently, it appeals to audiences because they learn new insights more easily and quickly—they don’t have to do more research to understand complex terms better.
For example, creating edutainment content is an opportunity to debunk a common industry misconception. You can also search through your FAQs for potential topics. Brainstorm how you will discuss these topics humorously.
3. Investing in Video Content Production
When TikTok was emerging, brands treated video production as an additional responsibility. However, now that the average American watches TikTok videos for 80 minutes daily, video production has become one of the most significant marketing priorities. For this reason, businesses aim to invest more in video production.
Investing more in video production involves increasing staff and professional equipment to create high-quality videos.
High-quality videos possess the following characteristics:
- Mobile-friendliness: Most consumers watch videos on their phones, so your video content has to be high-quality on mobile devices
- Engaging storytelling: Content or stories that can connect to the audiences’ emotions, increasing engagement
- Versatility: With more equipment and staff, you can create more high-quality videos that showcase your products or services, customer testimonials, and behind-the-scenes look at your daily operations
- Potential virality: Videos that persuade, inform, teach, or make people laugh can spread rapidly across social media platforms
4. Emerging and Re-Emerging Social Networks
While we currently have standard social media marketing networks—TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram—you should stay informed about emerging and re-emerging channels. You might need to create a new brand account sometime in 2023.
For one, Instagram launched “Threads” last July 5, 2023. This app garnered around 100 million users within the first five days, making it the fastest-growing app in history. Brands like yours should stay updated with this platform to leverage ad placements once available. However, you can still create a profile to acquire organic traffic, engagement, and followers.
Concurrently, you should keep tabs on re-emerging networks like Tumblr, Mastodon, and Discord. Study these apps through a social commerce report to understand their marketing landscape and see if they have profitable opportunities.
5. Creator Marketing
Influencers have become significant in purchasing decisions, particularly for young adults, making creator marketing beneficial for businesses.
Creator marketing involves partnering with content creators—like influencers—to promote your brand. You should leverage this strategy because the creator economy is expected to continue blossoming in 2023.
With the creator economy becoming more diverse and niche-focused, you can find and collaborate with creators that align with your marketing needs. You can start searching through your customers, followers, and superfans. Choose ones with established audiences that will be thrilled to be among your brand advocates.
6. Green Hushing
Many brands proudly share their environmental sustainability goals to engage with conscious consumers. However, some brands are now going for a quieter approach called “green hushing.”
Green hushing results from the fear of getting called out for greenwashing, as several non-profit organizations and climate activists dedicate themselves to exposing faux sustainability. So, overstating your sustainability practices prompts them to countercheck, which can bring tons of criticism to your business.
Treat your corporate social responsibility posts as PR announcements. Verify every claim to ensure accuracy and identify potential risks that will raise questions.
7. Short-Form Videos
Through short-form videos, TikTok brought a ripple effect on the social media marketing landscape. This trend is likely to stay in 2023.
Most consumers prefer this type of content because they are accessible on mobile devices and easier to understand. Some viewers also have short attention spans, so short-form videos deliver messages in a way that keeps them engaged and interested.
Moreover, many social media marketers use short-form videos, so it might be time for you to do the same.
8. Direct Messaging as the Preferred Customer Service Channel
Many consumers are turning to direct messages as their preferred customer service channels. Thus, your DMs might be flooded with inquiries or requests this year.
Consumers prefer sliding into DMs for the following reasons:
- Personalization and Casual Conversations: DMs can feel more personal, providing casual conversations
- Convenience: Users don’t have to search for your contact information or navigate other communication channels because DMs are one click away
- Data Privacy: Many customers are more comfortable sharing personal information in private messages than in public comments
- Real-Time Communication: Social networks have push notifications that alert users when you reply, enabling real-time communication
9. Cross-Posting Across Multiple Social Platforms
Most brands manage multiple social media accounts. While cross-posting has been a common practice, this trend isn’t going away in 2023.
Many brands cross-post the same content, while others are tailoring or tweaking captions and content for each platform.
Since each platform has its unique marketing landscape, tailoring or tweaking content allows you to meet the different audience demographic needs. This way, you can reach and entice consumers outside a specific platform (e.g., some TikTok users may not be on Instagram).
10. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Integrations
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is now more accessible than ever. For example, AI-powered filters have been making waves in TikTok, allowing users to turn themselves into cartoons based on different prompts.
Expect these kinds of AI integrations to grow more this year. Many marketers have embraced AI to provide enjoyable experiences, so leverage this trend to acquire more customers.
Stay Informed About Social Media Trends
The social media marketing landscape is enormous and constantly changing. While you think you know what to expect, this list is just a few trends that thrive on social media—they may differ in the following months or years.
As a business owner and marketer, you should stay informed about social media trends by regularly researching, analyzing, and understanding the market. Market analysis is the key to meeting consumers’ needs and navigating unprecedented social media activities.
