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We’re only halfway through January, but the social media landscape has already had its fair share of novelties.
LinkedIn and Twitter have been brimming with screenshots, memes, and opinion pieces on the latest AI-powered chatbot—ChatGPT. In addition, 2022’s top social platform TikTok began testing a new feature to allow creators’ agents to oversee brand deals.
So far, 2023 seems to be a promising year for social media. Brand and individual creators alike will have a myriad of social media trends to hop on and work their way to the crème de la crème —or at least deliver a positive ROI from their digital campaigns.
Read on to discover the top social media marketing tips for 2023.
#1 Create Content Valuable to Your Audience
Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter use a traditional approach to social media—users manually curate their feeds by choosing who to follow—people you know, brands you purchase from, and artists you love.
However, this idyll where social networks made a bunch of money with minimum effort was disrupted a few years back by TikTok.
The video platform uses an algorithm focused on delivering users with highly personalized content recommendations. Coming to a feed of videos curated by users’ unique preferences and interests is one of the factors that majorly contributed to such strong appeal for the platform.
In 2023, Facebook and Instagram algorithms will too start leaning towards showing more recommended content in the Feed. According to Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, by the time of the final algorithm update rollout, 40% of the content in the main feed will come from pages users don’t follow.
For businesses and creators, the change comes as a double-edged sword. While there will surely be losses in reach and interactions from existing followers, the algorithm update will push content to a pool of “handpicked” users across the platform.
The algorithm update could actually prove quite useful, helping you extend reach among non-followers in an organic way, without having to pay for it.
So, what can you do to respond adequately to this novelty? Fortunately or not, not much.
There are, of course, good old content creation tips, such as establishing your authority in the topic, creating accurate and relevant content, and driving the audience to action with your posts.
Continue creating great content, post regularly, analyze what works, integrate it into your social media strategy—and hope the algorithm will work in your favor.
#2 Use Paid Social Wisely
For businesses and creators just starting out on social media—and those looking to reach a wider audience—the paid social feature seems like a perfect solution to jumpstart their profile.
Especially now, in times of never-greater content saturation and an overall decline in organic reach, paid ads have positioned themselves as a fairly inexpensive and effortless way of brand promotion on socials. Stats from 2022 suggest that social media accounted for 33% of all digital advertising spending.
However, paid advertising shouldn’t be regarded as a long-term marketing strategy. This is because the results will stop showing once you blow your budget. What’s more, turning every post into an ad halts your content’s organic reach.
Another reason why you shouldn’t misuse the paid social feature is a bit of a conspiracy theory. So, advertisers have been reporting lower organic reach post-advertising. Basically, the networks’ algorithms would “punish” those who stop pouring money into ads by decreasing their reach compared to that of pre-advertising.
Be it really social media algorithms’ vengeance or simply a stark shift compared to the success of paid ads—investing in social media ads should be done with great care.
Use the paid feature wisely and only when appropriate. For instance, resorting to paid advertising is great as a short-term strategy when announcing a new product, partnering with a brand or an influencer, promoting a job offer or a seasonal discount, etc.
Invest in paid ads from time to time, and boost posts that have a clear purpose—selling more products, promoting brand innovation, and finding a perfect employee.
#3 Pay Attention to Community Management
In late 2022, a multinational underwear and sleepwear manufacturing brand faced a nationwide backlash after one user called out their body-positive campaign on Instagram. According to the user’s comments on the post, the brand doesn’t offer underwear in larger sizes and is thus not genuinely a body-positive brand.
Now, audience feedback like this happens on a daily basis to brands small and large alike. Brand reputation crisis can be challenging to deal with—but by following some tried-and-tested steps and a bit of common sense, you’d probably be off the hook after a few well-crafted comments.
However, this isn’t how the underwear brand’s crisis ended. After a few back-and-forth comments from the brand and the user who called them out, the brand responded that if the user can’t find a garment for herself, she should buy something from their assortment as a present for someone else.
Naturally, the brand’s remark didn’t go well with the user—nor a large portion of their followers. By the next morning, social media and online magazines were brimming with analysis of what went wrong.
What ultimately proved more damaging for the brand was not the fact that its products don’t reflect its body-positive campaign—it was the lack of judgment by the brand’s community management/social media teams.
Social media marketing doesn’t end with you ideating, creating, and posting content on your social profile. User feedback is what makes or breaks your social presence, so make sure you put equal effort into community management.
#4 Multi-sensory Social Media Presence
Multi-Sensory social media will probably be one of the most inconspicuous yet influential trends in 2023. The term refers to the integration of different media formats—like audio, video, text, or fully-immersive environments—into a single post.
Of course, multi-sensory social media isn’t anything new. For instance, TikToks featuring video and an overlay text, video together with accompanying music, or all three combined, are well-known examples of this trend.
Furthermore, a multi-sensory approach to marketing goes beyond social media alone. According to Radhika Duggal, CMO at Snapcommerce, “Consumers act on and react to the basis of the perceptions they evaluate and interpret—not objective reality.”
Duggal shares a campaign by Dunkin’ Donuts, which installed machines in Seoul public transport to release a burst of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee scent every time their jingle played on the radio.
Technological innovations continue to drive the multi-sensory trend forward. Recently, Twitter added a podcast page, currently available only in the US, Instagram launched the feature of adding music to still images, and Meta—naturally—heavily invests in building the metaverse.
Even though we’re still a long way from living the Ready Player One plot, multi-sensory social media is here, and it helps create unique and engaging experiences for social media users.
The latest amazing multi-sensory campaign was launched by Marriott Hotels. The brand used a VR headset to digitally transport its customers to a variety of vacation destinations where Marriott Hotels offer accommodation. Besides being able to see the popular holiday spots in a remarkable way, Marriott’s audience had a unique experience of feeling the smells and sounds of their desired area.
Of course, you can introduce the concept of multi-sensory social media even on a much smaller scale—and with a tighter budget. For instance, you can create content to include diverse media, such as audio, polls, GIFs, captions, and more.
To Wrap Up
By the looks of it, 2023 is going to be an amazing year for social media. Besides the mainstay trends such as user-generated content, short-form videos, and social shopping, new social tendencies emerge as you’re reading this.
In a competition for user attention, quality content creators, and businesses’ marketing budgets, social media platforms promise lots of innovations—from new features to updated algorithms.
And while novelties coming from social platforms are fun to jump on—or poke fun at—these innovations impact social media marketing trends in an instant. For many businesses, rapid shifts in what’s in and what’s out on social media are a genuine and considerable issue.
So, if you, or your marketing team, feel overwhelmed or seem to be missing the mark with your company’s social media strategy, hiring a digital agency might be your best choice. You can find the best digital agencies on Design Rush, a renowned global B2B marketplace, so check it out.
Social media marketing is one of the vital aspects of your business, and you should treat it as such.
