14 social media trends for 2023

With its many platforms and wide reach, social media has become one of the most powerful marketing tools for businesses of all sizes in recent years. However, social media trends can be ephemeral, especially as technology advances and different platforms wax and wane in popularity.

For this reason, it’s important for professionals to stay up-to-date on new trends and best practices so they can integrate them into their own marketing strategies. If you’re looking to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to your social media campaigns, check out these 14 predictions for 2023 from members of Forbes Communication Council.

1. Influencer Marketing Will Grow

The use of influencer marketing will grow exponentially and move beyond the bleeding-edge innovators into less-mature marketing organizations. Marketing leaders who harness the power of influencer marketing will develop structured systems to source and manage a firm’s influencer sphere, allowing them to quickly identify topic trends and respond with turnkey influencer content. – Jen Iliff, WunderLand

2. Employee Advocacy Will Take Priority In Brand Building

Trends keep us on our social media toes! Short-form video, bigger video budgets, content creation and influencer marketing will reign supreme. In addition, organizations and businesses will begin to prioritize employee advocacy as a way to build an authentic brand. – Jennifer Gaier, Elwyn

3. AI Will Help Power Social Media Marketing

With all of the amazing advancements in AI, we will continue to see AI hard at work in social media. Marketers will need to be savvy enough to be early adopters of this technology, know when and how to leverage AI capabilities, ensure the appropriate data and applications are utilized, and tailor it to be unique enough for their needs and accelerate their time to market. – Esther Flammer, Wrike

4. More Brands Will Turn To TikTok

The biggest social media trend in 2023 will be the evolution of TikTok for brands as they look to engage consumers in new ways and generate growth through brand marketing and social commerce on the platform. Marketers can take advantage of it by hiring the right people who know the platform and empowering them to create content that creates cultural conversations and taps the hottest trends. – Donna Tobin, DDB Worldwide

5. Company Leaders Will Openly Communicate When Things Go Wrong

Visionary leaders will follow the Southwest example by admitting when things go wrong, articulating clear action steps and living up to brand aspirations. TikTok will be an essential gateway to more news and “how-to” information. YouTube will become more vital than ever to communicators and the public. Twitter will survive because of its ROI for niche users. We win by living our values. – Sylvia Ewing, Elevate

6. More Focused Communities Will Form

Groups and communities on social media platforms will increase significantly, enabling collaboration on topics and persons of interest. My personal hope is that communities are built to solve real-world problems—per the concepts of Wikinomics and the sharing of problems, the collaboration of minds can solve problems quickly through data sharing, ideation and resolution. I also hope for a reduction in public blaming and shaming. – Gary Lyng, Hitachi Vantara

7. Marketing Will Move To Niche Platforms

We’re seeing the rise of more niche social media platforms, such as Substack to help people publish newsletters and Patreon to help creators monetize their work. As these platforms improve and gain more traction, marketers will need to keep tabs on where and in what format they can best engage their audiences. It might not be all about 280 characters anymore. – Nicole Zheng, Pontera

8. Brands Will Experiment With Virtual Influencers

Virtual influencers are becoming increasingly popular with social media audiences. These digital creations interact with viewers across online platforms and the metaverse, offering brands new opportunities for collaboration. The ones with the bravery to experiment will reap the rewards of reaching early adopters and contribute to the creation of deeply engaging experiences. – Victor Potrel, TheSoul Publishing

9. Owned Social Media Will Be A Primary Focus

For B2B marketing, owned social media will become a primary focus instead of paid media. This shift is due to the politicization of existing social media channels, which is decreasing platform predictability. In addition, marketing budgets are shrinking while privacy concerns and cybersecurity issues are rising. You will see B2B marketers organically increasing engagement with owned assets. – Deetricha Younger, Deetricha Younger, LLC

10. Brand Communities Will Supplement Social Media Efforts

Social media platforms are constantly changing and often fracture the tight-knit communities they form. The answer isn’t to immediately jump to the next trend, but to consider how your owned brand community can supplement your social efforts. Self-service knowledge hubs, authentic conversations and cross-platform integrations are good places to start. – Dillon Nugent, Khoros

11. Long-Term Creator-Affiliate Partnerships Will Grow

Creators want to be paid for their content; I want ROI. Now we can have both: Creator-affiliate platforms support payments via a hybrid model. Including a placement bonus along with commissions for sales, for example, could be a winning compromise. And one-off campaigns aren’t as effective as longer-term creator partnerships, so play the long game—it works. – Cristy Garcia, impact.com

12. User-Generated Content Will Become More Important

I believe the biggest trend that marketers should consider in 2023 is the growing importance of user-generated content, such as reviews and ratings. Marketers can take advantage of this trend by encouraging their customers to leave reviews and ratings on their social media profiles and by featuring user-generated content on their own social media channels. – Eileen Canady, BST Global

13. ChatGPT Will Help Produce Content

ChatGPT will have the biggest influence on social media trends in 2023, as marketers will be able to take advantage of OpenAI’s platform to produce quality content quickly. From asking ChatGPT to write a social media post to having it craft a social media ad on the fly, the influence of ChatGPT will be far-reaching in 2023. Upon its launch in December 2022, ChatGPT reached 1 million users in five days. – Dave Dabbah, Robocorp

14. Creators And Influencers Will Gain Autonomy

Trends are happening more frequently and fading faster on social media than ever before, so if brands want to join, this will mean investing more trust in their creators and engaged influencers. It also means fewer rules, which will require brands and agencies to do the work on the front end to ensure they’re engaging creators who will deliver for them with little to no direction. – Dixie Roberts, DKC/HangarFour

(This article was originally published by Forbes. It has been edited for style and content.)