32 Predictions for Social Media Marketing in 2023
We’re nearing the end of yet another year, and what a chaotic 12 months it’s been for the major social networks. Meta continued its gradual decline, TikTok continues to rise, and Twitter is right now in the midst of a chaotic management shift, which could basically see anything happen at the app.
With all that’s going on, it’s difficult to predict what might be coming next, but we’ll give it a shot, with our 2023 predictions for each of the major social apps.
Of course, nobody knows for sure what’s coming, but we’re pretty in tune with the latest shifts, more so than most. And while you’re not going to get any crazy, brain-reading, far-off forecasts of a distant future here, what you will get is some solid, realistic and viable potential changes coming your way over the next year.
So, let’s get into it, starting with everyone’s formerly favorite social network Facebook.
It’s been a hard year for Zuckerberg’s first social app, with big blue falling out of favor with young users, losing ad dollars to Apple’s ATT update and suffering from something of an identity crisis in the shadow of the TikTok shift.
As TikTok’s short-form, algorithm-led approach has changed consumption behaviors across the board, Facebook has been the biggest loser - but Zuck and Co. say that they have a plan to get things back on track. Maybe.
Here’s what we see coming next:
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Yes, you’re going to see more and more content from Pages and people that you don’t follow infiltrating your Facebook feed.
Zuckerberg has said this straight up, noting in a recent interview with The Verge that:
“What’s basically going to happen is that, over the next year or two, we’ll start showing more recommended content in the Feed. And we’ll know that we’re doing a good job because the content in the beginning is going to displace some other content, and either displacing that content is going to lead to negative feedback from people, and lead to people connecting with each other less in all the metrics that we focus on, or it will actually lead to people connecting more and being more satisfied with the product.”
This trend stems from TikTok, which focuses on showing you the best content from all users, as opposed to pushing you to build your own social graph. That enables TikTok to maximize user engagement, because your feed mix isn’t limited to updates from certain profiles that you choose, while it also provides more exposure potential for creators, who are then able to have their posts seen by a lot more people, outside of their own audience.
Zuckerberg believes that Facebook actually has an advantage in this respect, because on Facebook, users aren’t restricted to just short-form video content, you can also be served images, text posts, links, news updates, group updates, long-form video and more.
Zuck’s view is that this will give Facebook a leg-up, if it can get its content recommendations right. Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, and as Zuck notes, the usage metrics will tell the tale either way. But at least in the early part of 2023, your Facebook feed is increasingly going to be filled with posts from Pages and people that you’ve never heard of.
Eventually, Zuckerberg’s view is that 40% of the content in your main Facebook feed will come from Pages you don’t follow.
For brands, that could also mean expanded opportunity, as Facebook’s algorithms will look to show your best-performing posts to even more people, even those outside of your current audience. Read More…
