The possibilities of social media are endless and in this ever-changing cyber world, every year sees new advancements in our social platforms that lead to new social media trends. So what is this year?
1. INCREASED USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR E-COMMERCE.
E-commerce and social media have become two peas in a pod with brands using social platforms to promote products through targeted ads and organic posts.
E-commerce social media marketing;
• Promotes and drives traffic to a branded app or e-commerce website.
• Directly sells products on social media.
• Provides customer support before and after sales are made.
• Allows companies to engage with their customers via social media.
• Builds an online community around a brand.
• Collects insights about a particular market and industry.
2. GREATER USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS AND SUPPORT.
Social media has influenced the way people communicate about mental health and their access to resources and support.
The recent sharing of more mental health awareness content has helped to normalise the discussion of mental health and has started to tackle the stigma behind it.
Social media grants access to resources, motivational posts and support platforms for mental health and allows people to share personal stories online.
With mental health being more talked about than ever, we will see more of the topic across all social media platforms this year.
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3. THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE.
Statistics show:
• 64% of people would rather message than call a business.
• 70% of people are expected to message businesses more in the future for customer service queries.
• 1 billion messages are exchanged on Facebook Messenger between consumers and businesses every month.
This year will see a push for social media communication between businesses and consumers as consumers perceive it as easier, less time-consuming and more convenient. This will mean that consumers will communicate any queries or complaints through social media platforms belonging to the business.
4. THE USE OF VIRTUAL REALITY AND AUGMENTED REALITY IN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGNS.
Many social media platforms are currently developing VR and AR tools such as new filters, avatars, lenses and even virtual worlds where people can meet up with friends, build places they want to visit, play games and explore other published worlds.
Some businesses such Adidas have collaborated with apps like Snapchat to create bitmojis that can wear Adidas clothing.
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5. MORE TARGETED AND PERSONALISED ADVERTISEMENTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
Targeted marketing is where businesses are able to use audience analysis and data about the interests, demographics and online searches of their audience to tailor content specifically relevant to their profile. This creates specific messages for individual consumers.
We will start to see more social media platforms using this method of personalised marketing this year.
6. BIGGER FOCUS ON USER-GENERATED CONTENT.
User-generated content is a very effective marketing strategy for businesses. It is essentially any content such as images, videos and reviews created by consumers that is published on a business’ social media account.
In terms of marketing, this type of content will encourage more audience engagement with brands as there is the perception that the content is more authentic because it has been created by other consumers.
7. THE RISE OF TIKTOK AND INSTAGRAM REELS.
The use of short-video marketing has proven very successful in 2022. So successful that 85% of brands have planned an increased spend in TikTok for 2023. Along with this has come the popularity of Live Streaming.
The sudden growth in popularity has stemmed from consumers feeling as though they can engage with businesses better through video. Consumers can get a better insight into the business and the people behind it.
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8. MORE GROWTH IN INFLUENCER CULTURE ON PLATFORMS SUCH AS YOUTUBE, TIKTOK AND INSTAGRAM.
Influencer culture is an ever-growing method of marketing. Highly-influential people with a large following are paid to promote products and services on their social media platforms in order to build brand awareness and attract customers.
2022 displayed how successful these influencers are and it is highly likely that in 2023, more brands will want to work with them to get a better audience reach.
9. THE GROWTH OF BEREAL.
From April 2022 to January 2023, BeReal’s app has grown from 2.93 million daily active users to 10 million daily active users. Like TikTok, this is another up-and-coming social media platform for businesses which asks users to post unfiltered pictures of themselves once a day.
This realness within a brand will make them more relatable to consumers and the lack of editing will also make the businesses appear more authentic.
10. THE RISE OF ‘EDUTAINMENT’.
Educational Entertainment or ‘Edutainment’ is growing in popularity with people, places of education and businesses. These are videos, video games, TV programmes or other materials that are educational but also enjoyable.
With the rise of social media we have seen edutainment all-over social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. This popularity is set to continue rising this year as it is now seen as a more effective way to educate people, particularly younger generations.
Kids2, Hello Einstein Studios and Moonbug have recently premiered a new edutainment series targeted at early-stage parents and families to reinforce early learning.
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Need help keeping up with the trends this year? Contact us and we’ll keep your business in the loop!