We’re calling it: top social media trends for 2023

Read time: 10 min

This is without a doubt my favourite time of year. Not because Christmas is just a few short weeks away, but because clients actively ask us what we predict will be the biggest social media trends to come.

*Cue Media Mortar crystal ball gazing season*

We love predicting social media trends, so it was fitting for our latest Feeling Content live event that we turned the whole morning into a forecast session – looking forward, looking back: hottest social media trends to come out of 2022 and into 2023.

For those that couldn’t make it, we wanted to share our best guess on what we think will stay and what will go.

 

Looking back – 2022

 

Trend 1: Vertical short form

Don’t worry, if you’re starting to think you’re seeing everything in a 9:16 aspect ratio you’re not alone.

The world has been turned vertical with just about every social media app on the planet (except for LinkedIn and Twitter) swapping landscape for punchy short-form, vertical video.

It’s not just us who think it, according to Cisco, 82% (!!) of all online content now is made of video.

No surprises why brands are taking this route – the average engagement on video content is twice as much as static imagery – and any clients who receive one of our Media Mortar social media management reports will know this to be true.

If you’ve read our post about why you should use stories to drive sales, it should come as no surprise that it’s no longer a matter of putting content out into the world – your content needs to cut through.

In fact, according to AdWeek, the average time a person spends on a piece of Facebook content is down to a measly 1.7 seconds.

So if your content isn’t resonating or connecting with audiences – there’s your reason why.

Want to stand out? Front load your content, capture attention early and make sure you’re running full vertical video content.

Trend 2: Low -fi content

Content creators, you can take a backseat for five minutes because this year marked the rise of filter-free images in a bid for the ‘gram to be more #authentic.

This year, authenticity and raw and real content gained even more traction than ever before with content styles like photo dumps being the go-to post style of everyone from mum and dad IG’ers to the Kardashian/Jenners.

Driving authenticity up is the fact consumers are asking for (and demanding) more honesty from their apps (ICYMI, BeReal just answered their call).

We’ve excitedly put the low-fi content trend to the test, noting there’s been a negligible difference between reach and impressions on reel content shot by professional (and expensive) content creators vs our team armed with an iPhone and a trending audio track.

Our verdict? Good content, shot at the right time, with the right upload optimisations will always win out.

Want to know more about our experiments with low-fi content creation? Email hello [@] mediamortar.com.au and ask us about how we took an iPhone video to 400,000 people via a reel in less than 24 hours.

Trend 3: Google’s Helpful Content Update

In a gear shift from social media trends, one content trend we’ve been celebrating (big time) in the Media Mortar office is Google’s Helpful Content Update.

In August, Google came out with changes favouring content written for people, by people, not content written for search engines.

Google gods announced it, and then content creators and bloggers like us did a happy dance after years of being caught in a price race with AI-bots offering full website copy updates for less than the cost of my morning coffee.

In a nutshell, the changes see Google penalising those businesses / brands who are using automations, summarising content without adding value, or creating noise about things they have no authority in, all to take the search query and serve their website.

Since August, we’ve happily seen an uptick in clients working with their SEO agencies and using our blogs to power them. In fact, one of our clients is now driving 87% of all leads out of organic blog content alone, which is proof you can seriously measure ROI out of organic content – providing you know where to look and are happy to trust in the process.

Trend 4: Paid social takes the crown

As an organic social media purest, it took the team years to convince me we should start working in paid – but boy, am I glad I have a rubber arm that’s easily twisted.

Not only does paid social media account for a large portion of our work, for the first time in history, more money was spent on digital ads than traditional marketing this year (Source: Statista).

We’re proud to be part of the $521B that’s being spent on digital ads in 2021 and even more proud to be playing in the space when estimates put the global spend on digital ads at $876B by 2026.

You don’t need to be a social media expert to connect the dots to see organic’s fall is contributing to paid media’s rise.

The average organic reach for a Facebook post is 5.2% (if you’re lucky) which means only 5% of your followers will even see your content without a boost (Source: Hootsuite). While the average Instagram organic reach is a little higher, 13.66%, one thing’s for certain – social media is a channel that’s increasingly pay to play.

 

Looking forward – 2023

 

Trend 1: TikTok will need its own channel strategy

If you’d asked me six months ago, I would have told you TikTok was just a channel to watch, reserve your handles but certainly not one to focus on as it could risk “diluting the magic”.

I stand corrected.

Now, we’re strongly encouraging our clients to get aboard the TikTok train, encouraging brands to stop running the same content across Instagram and TikTok and instead run bespoke channel strategies.

There’s no doubt in my mind TikTok’s 30.8 million users are a force to be reckoned with and their number will only continue to grow.

More than just an app defined by dancing and make-up tutorials, TikTok has the highest user-dwell time than any other social media app (approx. five hours!) which is what makes it such a powerful tool in any marketer’s toolkit.

While the audience was once young, it’s aging, and for better or worse, by 2026 Gen Z will be the largest generation – and that means largest in employment soon enough (Source: Forbes).

Just as I once wrote why you should be marketing to millennials, the same can be said for this new generation who we’ll all be answering to soon enough.

As numbers using the app continue to soar, early predictions show that more ad spend will be placed on TikTok than YouTube by the end of 2023 (Source: Statista).

Trend 2: Employee-sourced ideation

Anyone who has been in the social media trenches will know it can feel exhausting being a social media manager. The circle of content’s life is swift and the fatigue of writing calendars is real.

Enter a new cure for it – employee-generated content (EGC).

Rather than have your social media team scratching around for innovative ways to run the channels – throw the question open to the whole business and see what others have to say.

Not only is this a great way to ideate and generate content for consumer facing channels, it’s also a great way to build employee advocacy which you can read all about in our recruitment marketing tips and tricks blog post.

Since customers crave authentic content, who better than your people to share the stories that mean the most to them on social media?

Trend 3: Customer service strategy

A hot minute in the community management trenches of any business will tell you – no one picks up the phone anymore.

Instead, customers (both existing and prospective) are all about the instant gratification and expect immediate responses from businesses and brands they are trying to get a hold of.

Not kidding, last Christmas we spent our holidays responding to people wanting a late check out, but apparently too inconvenienced to call reception on the free hotel phone.

Early estimates from Hootsuite suggest 60% of all customer service requests will be managed via digital channels in 2023.

With the dawn of a digital revolution comes a critical service delivery change for businesses large and small.

While the big guys are already using digital chat bots, how many small businesses do you know with 24/7 community management?

As costs rise with personalised community management, we’re working with our clients on how to run auto-responders more efficiently (like this resource we built for hairdressers), pre-populate FAQs using keyboard shortcuts and activate chat bots. It’s customer service, minus (some) of the headache.

Trend 4: Wearables are rising

One thing we’re watching is the rise of connected wearables and their influence on consumer behaviour.

According to CCS Insight, wearables like Apple Watches have grown 20% year-on-year, and show no sign of slowing down.

Although there is no current evidence we’ve seen to point to mass consumer behaviour shifts, we have to ask – will the rise of the micro screen change how people use their phones (and in turn, ads)?

While digital glasses are still in their infancy, what we know for sure is they will change user behaviour and it’s something every savvy brand should be watching.

What immediate social media trends do you have on your horizon?