Every year that passes in the social media world is a transformative one. Social media trends tend to snowball, and with a bit of research and know-how, it’s pretty easy to forecast what the next transformative year will look like. The best part about it is, we’ve done it for you, so every important social media trend for this year is all in one place. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be too thankful… it is our job!
Authenticity over polish
One of the biggest social stories, and social media trends, of 2022 was the meteoric rise of BeReal. If you’re not familiar with BeReal, then we hope the rock you’ve been living under was comfy! It’s an app wherein you are sent a time-sensitive notification and must take a picture within those two minutes with your front and back camera. To say it’s been a sensation would be an understatement, with it being the most downloaded application for iPhone worldwide in September.
BeReal’s blistering popularity is a reflection of perhaps a broader social trend in general. We have come to value authenticity far more recently, maybe as a hit back at the uber-polished ‘Insta’ influencer trend that dominated the late 2010s. This demand for authenticity is only being met with supply – with TikTok Now and the pending release of Instagram Candids being almost carbon copies of BeReal. We expect this meteoric rise to only continue in 2023, as a key pillar of social media trends, so it’s important to use it to your advantage.
Brands keep growing arms and legs
As brands try and use this craving for authenticity to their advantage, the ‘humanising’ of businesses has become one of the most popular social media trends. One way in which social media executives attempt to humanise the brands they work for is through humour.
Ryanair is a great example of this, taking advantage of trends and comic filters to humour their followers about their budget options. This strategy has boosted engagement and, more importantly, helped the company’s reputation. Even talking from experience, the next time our legs are cramped on a flight, we’ll definitely be more understanding!
Looking forwards to 2023, we expect this trend to only grow. Users on social media enjoy authenticity and communication, and they won’t empathise with brands that come across as separate entities.
Instead, we are seeing a shift towards brands taking a ‘creator-style’ approach to their online presence, in response to the content-driven algorithms that now drive success on social media. Brands and their social media executives don’t have to possess the sharpest wit to achieve this. Adding a personal, creator-style feel is as simple as posting stories of what your business is up to, Q&As, and just ensuring that you are interacting with your followers on a personal level – you don’t want to come across as inaccessible.
The micro-influencer boom gets louder
At the beginning of the previous decade, if you asked somebody what a social media influencer was, they’d at least give you a very blank look. Now, the definition of an influencer (in this sense) is in the Cambridge dictionary, and it lies as the dream job for many of the upcoming generation, with 1 in 5 children wanting to be influencers when they grow up.
With their influence growing (sorry), and the appetite for influencer content increasing, this decade has ushered in a new wave of influencers – the micro-influencer, and we expect 2023 to be when the term becomes a household name, and micro-influencer marketing really blows up.
Micro-influencers are influencers that typically have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers, or in some cases, 1-10,000, and they usually have some kind of niche following that they adhere to – although this is not always the case. We expect their influence to grow significantly this year as, quite simply, brands and social media agencies are waking up to how effective a strategy using them can be.
Micro-influencers are a lot more cost-effective than using larger influencers, meaning that they can cater for all budgets. In fact, we think that even at a similar price, you would be attaining better ROI. This is because, although their audience is smaller, they are far more receptive, and more likely to trust the micro-influencer they follow and have a rapport with them, almost like a recommendation from a friend.
Also, as we mentioned, micro-influencers usually appeal to a particular niche, meaning that you can tailor your choice brand partner to your desired audience (after doing a little digging). What’s not to like about this social media trend?
Zero clicks, a lot of value
Zero-click, or no-click, content is something that has always been encouraged, but not necessarily utilised by content creators and social media executives. Instagram and TikTok don’t allow you to include links in the captions of posts, and Google makes answers to most of your questions readily available, so you don’t have to click a thing.
The main reason why zero-click content hasn’t properly taken off yet is that it’s terrifying. Not being able to measure your clicks, and therefore your ROI? Making the content you’ve worked hard on readily available without generating conversion? What we’re saying here is to trust the process, and we think that many brands and agencies are going to be thinking the same this year.
The crux of the matter here is that people hate clickbait. The first thing you want to do with social media users is to gain their trust, so that they stick around. The key thing here is that social media users are incredibly impatient, and clicking an external link when they can get instant entertainment by continuing to scroll is not very high on their priority list.
It’s important to just trust in your content, and trust that the content you’re producing is being enjoyed. You can still measure this through interactions, and can track impressions too. With all of this in mind, we expect to see a wave of Instagram carousels, LinkedIn list posts, Twitter threads and TikTok series with nuggets of accessible, engaging content – and we suggest you get involved with this social media trend, too.
Video tightens its grasp at the top
We mentioned that 2022 was the year of the meteoric rise in authentic content, with apps such as BeReal being mirrored by Instagram and TikTok. Well, it was also the year that short-form video content continued its dynasty over social media trends for content creation and engagement. It was the year that TikTok reached 3 billion downloads, and its main competitor, YouTube Shorts, hit 1.5 billion monthly users.
But social media trends come and go, right? That’s the entire meaning of ‘trend’. Well, not this one. Short-form video content is not going anywhere, and the reason why boils down to the psychology of the social media user. As we’ve established in this blog, they like transparent, relatable content, and they want to be constantly entertained.
What’s better than short, instant videos that put power into the hands of the everyday creator, with algorithms directly tailored for you? That’s why it’s so easy to log onto TikTok and suddenly see it’s three hours later and dark outside…
Final thoughts
There are many trends that shape the way we consume social media. Some come and go, and some are far more robust. We selected the ones above as we believe they have a common denominator – the brain of the social media user and the way we look for, select and enjoy content. Once you’ve mastered and understand your audience, and grasp the content they enjoy, they’ll be like putty in your hands.
If you don’t fancy taking on that burden and spending ages utilising these social media trends, then we are more than happy to at Beyond Co. We love finding and taking advantage of a social media trend and spinning it to accelerate growth for our clients. The best part? You can find out how we can help with a free discovery call, whenever you like. Don’t get left behind, and book one today.