Trends come and go, but social media is forever – right? With almost 80% of the Australian population being active users of social media, it’s a big one to harness. This new year make it a goal to stay on top of the social media marketing game and use it to your advantage. Personal branding, connecting with business prospects, building a stronger network, creating awareness for your name and company – keeping up with the social media marketing trends is imperative for the lot!
It could just mean choosing to understand and keep track of the social media marketing trends that deem relevant to you and your brand. It may be just the thing you need to build your socials and awareness up!
To keep up with social media marketing trends this New Year, we’ve come up with a few tips to get you started!
- Short-form video
It started off with Gen Z and has now taken over other demographics too. Short-form video app Tiktok has gained a cult number of users being the most downloaded app in 2021, with a projected 5 billion active users expected by the end of 2022. This new year it’s time to hop on the trend and experiment with quick, engaging short-form videos for social media to get your brand out there!
- Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is continuing to be a growing trend, with almost 50% of Australian consumers saying they have purchased something because of influencers. On top of this, influencer marketing’s return on investment (ROI) is actually 11 times higher than other Internet marketing strategies, whether it be utilising them to represent your brand or product, or simply linking and engaging with them to represent a well-connected relationship. It really is one of the top tools for growing your personal brand, awareness and network, so if you haven’t explored and conquered the intricate and exciting world of influencer marketing and the opportunities is has for your business, the new year; 2023; is the time to do so!
- Joining the platforms of the future
With news apps and platforms coming out just about every second, it’s important to be conscious and educated on which to put your time and energy into growing for your brand. Tied in with being just as important as joining the right platform, is joining the trending social media platforms that you can harness to create the most effective social media marketing campaigns. Not just being a part of but being active and engaging and providing opportunity for interaction and connection on a trending platform is the perfect mix for getting your brand out there and achieving marketing success.
A key point to remember alongside being engaging on trending platforms is being authentic. Educate yourself with social media trends and get involved with them, but ensure you are remaining true to yourself and your brand through authenticity. Be creative, get imaginative – spice your social media marketing up with your own takes on trends!
Here’s a couple of social media platforms to watch out for this new year:
- Instagram – a classic that is continuing to grow and well-worth taking the leap into this new year… perhaps living under a rock if you haven’t already yet!
- Tiktok – filled with Gen Z, but rapidly spreading its popularity over to other demographics – it’s the fastest growing platform of the year!
- Discord – the platform for community management and engagement, Discord is a huge new platform generating attention from all – particularly with it’s astounding 150 million and growing monthly active users
- Twitch – an ever-growing live streaming service which has expanded from its gaming roots to offer creative and inspired content of all kinds
- BeReal – perhaps not one to utilise as part of your social media marketing campaign, but being one of the most trending platforms in our world right now it is important to be educated and in the know of.
Lastly, there are a few social media marketing trends which I believe will be essential to take on-board your upcoming campaign:
- Interactive Content like quizzes, polls and surveys, as well as competitions for audiences to engage with
- Shoppable Posts including a link to your shop in your bio or product links via Instagram stories
- Social Media Messaging Apps where a plugin is installed on your site to allow for customers to directly connect with you about product questions or other enquiries.
- A number of these could be intertwined to elevate the customer experience and engagement – for example customers directly connecting to you could tie with a quiz or poll experience to demonstrate community and connection
With a tonne of new trends shooting our way this new year, it’s important to stay educated and on top of them to help you and your brand connect better with your existing networks, and to also find new ones. Be bold, jump on the bandwagon because social media will take you places this new year!