Hootsuite’s annual social media report is one of the top sources used by marketers to evaluate and plan their digital marketing strategies. This year’s report yielded three major trends social media trends, as discussed by Convince & Convert with Hootsuite. 
Trend #1: Using Influencers
In 2023, small businesses have a greater opportunity to use influencer power. As larger brands have changed the way they use their marketing spend, there is less competition for smaller businesses to partner with content creators. According to Hootsuite, only 28% of small businesses are working with influencers at any level, primarily because of the presumed cost. Cost is certainly a factor, but it should not necessarily be a deterrent.
Factors to consider for bringing on an influencer (or influencers) are audience alignment, collaboration and content creation quality and tracking the success of the campaign. It is possible to get great results with an influencer, even on a tight budget.
Trend #2: The Growth of Social Search
Younger people are now using social media for search, rather than more traditional search engines like Google. The 16-24 age group tends to use Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to search for information on vacations, clothing and coffee shops more often than search engines. TikTok has even promoted their search functionality.
As a result, marketers need to optimize their content for social search. After spending years trying to figure out SEO (search engine optimization), now marketers need to figure out SSO (social search optimization). A couple of tactics include:
- Using relevant keywords and hashtags to increase social search visibility.
- Using features such as geotagging and alt tags on images.
Trend #3: More Responsibility for Customer Service
During the viral pandemic, customer service had to pivot rapidly to virtual options, such as social media and other digital channels. Although most people have returned to an almost pre-2020 in-person status, they still expect to interact digitally with companies. Almost half (49%) of organizations responding to the Hoostsuite survey said that social customer service was exclusively or almost exclusively the responsibility of their organization’s marketing team. Thus, marketers must keep social customer service as a prime consideration in their competitive marketing strategies.