6 2023 Content Trends To Watch Out For

The start of a New Year can only mean one thing: a slew of brand-new social media trends are about to happen. It’s 2023 and as a brand or business, it is more important than ever to tap into the power of social media marketing. As we enter 2023, posting without a plan isn’t going to help you hit the goals and milestones you’re working towards.

So what is the solution? To keep your finger on the pulse and understand what it takes to design high-impact social media content. You need to:

• Stay ahead of the competition
• Drive engagement
• Boost sales in 2023

So we’ve identified 6 social media trends every creator, entrepreneur and business owner needs to know about.

Trend 1: Social commerce will continue to grow

2022 saw a massive rise in social commerce with social media platforms allowing you to shop all through their platforms. Instagram shopping is one the most popular ways to shop on social media with Instagram continuing to add new features like product tagging, buying through the DMs, and allowing you to create a digital storefront all through the app.

The global social commerce industry is expected to hit $6 trillion by 2026. Figures from Instagram reveal that 70% of people turn to Instagram to discover new products and TikTok Shop is rapidly growing too with 49% of people discovering new products on TikTok.

Marketers and brands have the ability to take advantage of social commerce in 2023 and platforms like TikTok provide an infinite loop in the buying process instead of a traditional marketing funnel.

If you’ve ever seen a product go viral on TikTok and immediately sell out, that’s because there’s no start to finish in the buying journey on TikTok. Instead, you find out about a product, buy it, post about it, participate in the trend, and so on.

Trend 2: Authenticity will take over 

Transparency and authenticity are becoming more and more important to consumers than ever before.

Consumer behavior is changing and people are getting sick of the same old influencer-brand ads leading to ‘influencer fatigue.’ 47% of consumers are getting fatigued by repetitive influencers and 82% of Gen Z value brands that use real-life customers in their marketing than those that don’t.

Plus, apps like BeReal and TikTok Now are proving just how much people are craving authenticity on social media.

How brands can be more authentic with their social media:

• Focus on user-generated content (UGC): run a hashtag campaign on Instagram to gather content of customers using your products and share this UGC on social media.
• Long-term influencer brand partnerships: rather than churning out influencer ads, partner up with a couple of micro-influencers and make them brand ambassadors for months, if not years.
• •Share behind-the-scenes content: put real people behind the camera, share team content on your Stories, and make Reels like ‘a day in the office.’

Trend 3: TikTok SEO will dominate 

TikTok has become more than just a social media platform where users share funny videos. With TikTok’s massive rise in popularity and engagement, it’s become a marketer’s dream platform, but, it also acts as a search engine.

We’re all used to searching for things on Google which is why SEO is so important to drive website traffic. But, Gen Z is turning to platforms like TikTok as their preferred way to search. According to Google, 40% of young people go to TikTok to search for places to eat instead of using Google Search.

This presents a new opportunity to create content on TikTok that acts as social search optimization with dedicated hashtags and keywords for your niches.

TikTok SEO Tips:

• Know your audience: before creating your content, it’s important to understand your audience so you can better inform content strategy. Take advantage of TikTok’s new Audience Insights tool.
• Use keywords and hashtags: instead of hashtags and keywords being an afterthought, use them to inform your content. That means, researching popular and specific hashtags and keywords your audience is already searching for and making content in line with them.
• Use social search optimization in everything you do on social media: add relevant keywords to your TikTok bio and use the right keywords in your captions.

Trend 4: Short-form video content will dominate 

86% of businesses already use video as a marketing tool and 87% say video content has increased traffic. A whopping 81% say it’s directly increased their sales.

But, with attention spans getting shorter and shorter these days thanks to TikTok and Reels, video content has to be direct and punchy to keep people engaged.

58% of people will watch a video in full if it’s under 60 seconds and 59.9% of people say they won’t watch a video that’s too long. Short-form videos show the highest ROI of any social media content, so brands need to start incorporating bite-sized content using trends on Instagram and TikTok into their social media strategy.

Tips for making short-form video content

• Use trending audios: popular sound bites on TikTok and Reels will be your savior. Spend time on TikTok and Reels to find trending audios that relate to your brand and incorporate them into your content.
• Share BTS content: share TikToks and Reels of what goes on in your business. Create short-form video content of how you package orders, a tour of your offices, and what your team wears to a client meeting.
• Create educational content: 80% of people research a product before they buy it. So, create how-to videos about your products, educate people about what your products do, and create bite-sized DIY videos to target your audience in the decision-making stage of the buying process.

Trend 5: Closed captioning will be the standard for video content

Not only does including closed captioning in your video content create inclusivity and accessibility, but it’s a great marketing strategy too.

Plus, research shows that 69% of people watch videos with the sound off in public spaces and 80% of people said they’re more likely to watch a video in full if it contained captions. Plus, LinkedIn’s own research shows that 79% of people watch in-feed videos with the sound off.

Using closed captions in your video content keeps people engaged and watching your video in full and using keywords in captions can also help with your social search optimization.

Trend 6: Using social media for customer service

Long gone are the days when social media is exclusively used for social purposes. With social media becoming more of a retail platform as much as a social platform, using social media for customer service will likely follow.

In fact, Gartner predicts that 60% of customer service requests will be made through digital channels by 2023.

To stay ahead of the game, brands have to utilize social media to handle their customer service. Businesses like PayPal have been using Twitter via @AskPayPal to help get their customer’s issues resolved faster.

Iimproving customer service on social media

• Set up chatbots: use chatbots across all your social media accounts like Instagram and Facebook to lower your response times.

• Reply to public comments: publicly acknowledge your customer’s questions and concerns to build a positive brand image where customers can see you’re acknowledging and resolving their concerns.