Social Media Trends We Are Watching

What’s new in the social media world? This was a topic of conversation in my recent interview with Lisa Nicholls, founder of the digital marketing agency, Tira Strategies. You can watch our conversation here and these are our collective takeaways and #unfiltered observations about platforms and content that we are watching in 2023. 

Twitter is a disaster right now (you did not hear it here first). We don’t know if it will go away or if it will become less relevant. It may become very specialized. Some people are jumping off it and exploring other social media platforms. Users are more willing to explore smaller niche social platforms. 

If you are highly invested in TikTok, consider other venues to engage your followers as bans on the platform are gaining momentum over privacy and security concerns.

On LinkedIn people are getting more personal and while some users are embracing this trend, others are not happy about it. 

Content is king. Instagram is now helping to facilitate paid partnerships, connecting content creators and brands. 

Videos will continue to be huge. If you’re shying away from the video, you could be missing an opportunity. The short video format seems to be a given to every social channel now. YouTube shorts are getting much easier to share on the platform and that continues to grow. 

Video on Instagram continues to be important. The reel views have been dropping but they are still performing better than general posts. Speaking of format, don’t discount stories when you’re looking at your content on both Facebook and Instagram, it is a good way to get your audience invested. Livestreams across various social platforms are an interactive way to engage with your followers and supporters.

Digital audio is continuing to grow. Audiobooks and podcast markets are continuing to grow. Podcasts are expected to become a $4 billion industry by 2024 and the audiobook market is expected to grow by 24%+ by 2030 (Spotify recently announced it is making a play for its share of that market).   

The pandemic was a fertile breeding ground for social audio growth. Clubhouse use exploded but is now past its peak and declining. But social audio is something we are keeping an eye on across social platforms: Twitter Spaces facilitating conversations (how will they ever keep it civil?), Facebook Live Audio Rooms, and Spotify Greenroom that connects artists and fans.

AI, artificial intelligence, such as chats, is growing. More organizations are trying to leverage those to engage their audiences or to provide support functions. We are also seeing interesting trends in chatbots. Avatars are a new breed of virtual companions with human-like characteristics.

The most important part of social media is to have a strategy (what are your goals and what channels make sense for your target audiences) and meaningfully engage to grow a community. If you are only pushing out content and not engaging in a dialogue with people, you could be falling behind the curve. For bigger organizations and businesses, the challenge is to find ways to personalize their connections with constituents, while for smaller businesses and nonprofits, it is about keeping up and retaining the personal aspects. 

If your organization is looking for strategic support, we can help.  Please reach out to talk about how we can collaborate or schedule a strategy session.