Social media marketing in 2023: Trends for each platform
Social media marketing is a major part of online advertising these days. No matter your niche or business focus, odds are a significant portion of your marketing budget goes to social media ads, engagement strategies, and other elements.
But to continue to master social media marketing, you need to know what trends could affect the business and features of the most popular social media platforms, including Facebook. Let’s break down the important trends for each major social media marketing platform in 2023 and beyond.
Why bother with social media marketing anyway?
Simply put, because social media marketing allows you to connect and engage with your target audience like never before. Unlike traditional ads, logo design revamps, or posters, social media marketing:
- Lets you reach out directly to those people most likely to buy your product
- Allows you to forge long-lasting connections with your target audience members
- Helps bolster brand awareness
- Allows you to answer questions or concerns from potential customers or leads
Any modern business that wants to succeed needs to practice social media marketing across multiple platforms. Your content should be largely the same between different platforms, although taking unique trends into account is wise. Each platform has different controls and ad settings, which may influence the types of marketing that work best with them.
Marketing trends for Facebook
Facebook is, of course, the cornerstone of social media marketing. That’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Because it is still the most popular social media site, your business should stay active on this platform and make sure your profile is updated regularly.
As the third most popular website on the Internet, nearly 3 billion people use Facebook Groups today. On top of that, about half of all B2B decision-makers conduct important market research on Facebook. That could be your marketing team if you have the necessary tools.
Still number one
According to certain statistics, Facebook is visited by 69% of adults in the United States. Another 1.3 billion people continue to use the Facebook Messenger app. Because of this, we recommend focusing a lot of your advertising and other marketing efforts on Facebook.
It is also a good choice thanks to the shopping and new advertising tools Facebook has updated recently. You can post ads directly to Facebook from other social platforms, including Instagram (owned by the same parent company, Meta).
Marketing trends for Instagram
Instagram is another majorly popular platform, thanks to its photo and video sharing focus. It is a great marketing platform for almost all types of products or services, as you can create personalized Instagram stories, advertisements, and other video content to reach your target audience.
To date, approximately 500 million account users check out Instagram Stories each day. On top of that, around 71% of all businesses use Instagram regularly. Since your competitors won’t forsake this social media platform, you shouldn’t, either.
Continued video focus
Although Instagram began only as a photo app, videos are arguably the prime advertising medium on this platform today. Instagram offers Reels, Stories, and other controls to let you create commercials or personalized testimonials for your target demographic. For example, if your target audience is in Canada, you can make content lamenting the high cost of living and empathize with your ideal followers
Marketing trends for WhatsApp
Then there’s WhatsApp: a rapidly growing social media platform. Unlike other social media networks, WhatsApp doesn’t allow spam messages or advertisements. As a result, you may have to get creative on this platform if you already use it for your marketing campaigns.
You can still leverage WhatsApp for quality marketing because you can communicate directly to customers. Those who trust the WhatsApp brand may be more likely to hear you out or check your website if your messages are received favorably.
Ultimately, WhatsApp marketing is relatively low-cost compared to other social media ads or marketing efforts you might launch.
Expansion of features
WhatsApp is still growing and adding new features all the time. These include video calling, sharing images, and live location tracking. While the potential applicability to your brand marketing might seem limited, it’s not.
In fact, WhatsApp could expand so you can offer video testimonials or “candid” video ads on the platform to reach people who aren’t on Facebook or Instagram. Remember, while outright advertisements are not allowed, nothing is stopping you from using WhatsApp to post videos about daily life at your office or place of business and reach people that way.
Furthermore, WhatsApp may allow you to communicate and connect with individual clients more deeply. For small businesses that draw most of their revenue from a small pool of clientele, this could be an excellent marketing avenue worth exploring.
Marketing trends for TikTok
Last up is TikTok, the Chinese-based social media app that exploded in popularity in 2020 and continues to grow each day. This app really leans into bite-sized video content but offers engagement potential you can’t match anywhere else.
TikTok is an excellent choice if you want to reach out to young consumers. Young people, especially Gen Zers, use TikTok more than any other social media platform, including Facebook (which has ironically become more used by older adults).
Going viral on TikTok can be tricky, but once you create video content that sticks, you could boost engagement within your target audience in a massive way. It’s well worth it to learn the nature of TikTok’s unique algorithm. Even if you start with no followers on your account, you could get millions of views for an advertisement or influencer video in a matter of days.
Live streaming’s explosion
Going live on TikTok has led the charge toward live streaming’s major explosion in recent years. This means that you should use marketing on TikTok in conjunction with your influencer or candid video marketing ideas.
To many, authenticity and charisma are important above all else. If you decide to make ads on TikTok, try not to do so in the traditional way. Instead, have a brand spokesperson or ambassador guide viewers through a curated and catchy experience in your office, business premises, etc.
This is the best way to utilize TikTok’s unique platform and reach its relatively unique audience. Unlike other social media platforms, if your advertisements appear fake or forced, you’ll have a hard time getting the engagement you desire on TikTok.
Wrap up
Ultimately, social media marketing isn’t going away anytime soon. To maximize your returns and draw as many people to your brand as possible, you should continue to market on each of the above platforms and keep the described trends in mind. As social media evolves, you’ll need to evolve your marketing strategy in tandem with the industry so your business can continue to thrive.
Our guide will help you figure out which platforms you need for success.
