2023 Social Media Trends

It feels like it’s been an even more unpredictable year than normal in the world of social media.

Who would have expected the leader of an electric vehicle manufacturing company to buy out Twitter? But with more than half the world’s population on social media (59%),¹ social media makes the world go round, and if you’re not already capitalizing, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Here’s what we’ve seen in 2022 and what we look forward to in 2023 as far as social media is concerned.

Video is Still Queen

We said this last year, and we’re saying it again: videos aren’t going anywhere, especially short-form. Not only did short-form videos on all platforms continue to thrive this year, but more, even unexpected platforms added short-form video options. We now have Amazon joining in and rolling out Amazon video shorts.² Additionally, Instagram announced this year that all videos will be reels, simplifying the process of sharing videos on the platform.³ Videos are generally more engaging than text in a post or even a graphic. They may take more work to create, but they definitely hold a higher reward. Try videos if you haven’t already. Your metrics will thank you!

User Generated Content

User Generated Content will continue to evolve and integrate more authenticity as it does. You may have noticed LinkedIn posts have gotten longer and less professional. No, it’s not your imagination. LinkedIn will become even more personal and less ‘business like’ as time goes on. We speculate two reasons for this shift: COVID and Facebook. Thanks to the pandemic, the line between work and home has blurred, which could be why work is becoming more personal. It could also be because trust in Facebook is low and seems to be getting lower by the day, so social media viewers need to find authenticity in other platforms.⁴

New Paid Social Media Options

The biggest story in the world of social media has easily been Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. It has made waves both on the bird platform and with its competitors. Amidst the rumors and drama, there is a lot of information to maintain. One of the revoluntionary ideas is their paid account verification option. Regardless of your opinions of the new Twitter Blue, it could benefit your business. Some current benefits of Twitter Blue include:⁵

Seeing fewer ads
Ability to post longer videos
Blue checkmark
Bookmark folders
Tweet priority in verified section of notifications
Top articles
Editing Tweets

Not only does Twitter Blue have numerous benefits, but it is also experimenting with Twitter Blue for Business which includes an affiliation badge and gold checkmark. We are wondering if this could be an option in the future for other social media platforms as well.

What does this mean for you and your content?

With all these changes, how do you make social media work for you? First, keep making videos and if you haven’t done so already, invest in learning more about short-form videos. Make sure you capitalize on the time and effort you put into these videos by cross-posting. If you post a video to Reels, then post it to YouTube shorts; if you post it to YouTube Shorts, then post it to Facebook Stories.

Ensure your content is sincere. More personal posts tend to outperform other posts. Let’s face it: no one wants to be sold a product every time they scroll through social media. It defeats the purpose of social media. Consider more personal posts like photos of everyone at the office or even doing something outside the office, like volunteering. Your audience wants to see the people behind the brand.

Additionally, look to adopt long-form storytelling posts. These posts do better because they are genuine and more human, which does more for analytics. The longer the post, the longer the reader will stay on that particular platform, which is the primary goal of any social media platform. For the same reason, posts without links do better.

Sound like a lot of work? Advisor Expressions is the marketing partner with the experience you need to improve your online presence and take your company to a whole new level! Let us take care of complicated social media trends so you can take care of your business!

^{1 https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/#:~:text=More%20than%20half%20of%20the,5.22%20billion%20unique%20mobile%20users}
^{2 https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/25/amazon-rolls-out-a-youtube-like-video-shorts-section-on-instant-video/}
^{3 https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-updates/instagram/every-video-a-reel/}

^{4 https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-trends/#5_LinkedIn_will_be_about_much_more_than_jobs}^{5 https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-blue#tbbefore-difference}

It feels like it’s been an even more unpredictable year than normal in the world of social media.