Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, introduced its plans for the metaverse in 2022. Meta will likely introduce more features into the Facebook app to get people excited about the metaverse, which has not gained much popularity in 2022. These features already include creating avatars on Facebook and augmented reality experiences available through filters.
There will likely also be a continuation of the intense marketing from Meta for the metaverse, although it is hard to say whether it will work or not. This may include different brands and advertisers joining the new platform or influencers joining to check out the hype.
UGC and Influencer’s are here to stay
Influencer marketing is the idea of having people with large followings on social media sell products to their fans through sponsored posts and ads. This has been a popular trend since before 2022, and it will likely grow even bigger in 2023. User-generated content, like the type of content influencers create, is more relatable and more likely to lead consumers to make purchases, according to PR Daily. This means that brands can have more effective advertising through influencers than through traditional ads on social media.
Hundreds of influencers have popped up in 2022, especially on platforms like TikTok, and have found sponsored posts to be their main form of income for producing their content. Influencer marketing can be done through photos, videos, and even livestreams.
Video content will continue to grow
You have probably noticed the push for video content across the internet. From TikTok extending the maximum length of videos in 2022 to Instagram introducing Reels, video is everywhere.
Video is not just a trend though; it is here to stay. Video content, especially in short-form (a few seconds or minutes), seems to keep users the most engaged, so platforms will keep pushing it onto your feed even more in 2023, according to PR Daily. In late 2022, Elon Musk even tweeted that he may bring back Vine, a now-defunct video social media platform that Twitter bought in 2012 at the height of its popularity. This is another video push we may see in 2023.
Users will want more uthentic content
With the rise of BeReal and TikTokin 2022, it is clear that users want to see more authentic content on social media. These features largely became popular because of their in-the-moment nature where there is no time to fix one’s makeup or retouch photos.
Professional and photoshopped content is no longer meaningful to everyday users, so expect to see more authentic and less polished content from your favorite brands, celebrities, and influencers in 2023. This means more blurry iPhone photos that express a feeling and fewer professional shots that look like a commercial.
The Instagram Photo Dump phenomenon also speaks to this demand for this genuine everyday content that users find more trustworthy when scrolling online.
Twitter is going to keep growing
Twitter has been chaotic, to say the least, since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022. The platform will likely take a “trial and error” approach for its new features, trying out different methods to get more users engaged and seeing what works. This also means we are likely to see a few failed attempts.
Will this mean a heavier push to get people to subscribe to Twitter Blue? Or possibly more changes to the famous blue verification tick? Bringing Vine back? It is hard to say what direction Twitter will go in, with pretty unpredictable things happening to it in the last months of 2022, but it will definitely be a place of change in 2023.