In 2023, businesses that take a social-first approach to their brand and customer care strategy will be the ones to reap the benefits. Stronger brand reputation, greater customer interaction, trust and loyalty – now and in the future – depends on it.

That’s the conclusion of Hootsuite’s 7th Annual Social Trends Report, leveraging surveys from over 10,600 marketers and primary interviews with social marketing practitioners, leaders, observers and partners.

Here are the top insights for marketers to consider in the year to come:

• Big brands are investing less in influencer marketing, opening the door for small businesses to engage top creators (at lower price points!)
• Social’s newfound exposure in the C-suite opens it up to new levels of scrutiny – with differing opinions on what ROI looks like among social marketers and senior leaders
• Recycling content becomes a thing of the past; marketers stop chasing new features and start getting more strategic, creating more creative, unique content for fewer platforms
• Social commerce loses traction with platform pull back, but is only a loss to those that follow suit; marketers with the patience to hold on see new opportunities to gain a competitive edge
• Google, who? Social search optimization emerges as a make-or-break skill for marketers
• The return to brick-and-mortar shopping makes businesses lose focus on digital customer service – opening the door for chatbot adopters to gain a massive advantage
• Marketers don’t feel equipped for digital customer service, and the implications of unanswered DMs are further reaching than one might think

At the time that last year’s Social Trends Report was released, pandemic restrictions were starting to ease and markets were booming – a positive turn of events that had many feeling optimistic for the future. However, looking ahead into 2023, a looming recession, rising inflation, declining consumer spending, and workforce reductions across major business sectors have made decision making precarious for businesses of all sizes. Despite this uncertainty, Hootsuite’s report shows that there is good news on the horizon.

Social marketers are experiencing a defining moment in history for the industry. After decades of advocating for social to have a seat at the boardroom table, it’s finally happening – social marketers are getting more agency over their work, and social media marketing has matured as a profession.

“Social media has never played a more central role to businesses. As businesses continue to look for ways to future-proof operations and connect with today’s tech-savvy customers, social media and digital marketing will inevitably play a part in nearly every business strategy,” said Maggie Lower, Chief Marketing Officer, Hootsuite. “In 2023, businesses that take a social-first approach to their brand and customer care strategy will be the ones to reap the benefits. Stronger brand reputation, greater customer interaction, trust and loyalty – now and in the future – depends on it.”

Social has become intrinsically intertwined with how people live, work, operate, and shop — with more than 4.7 billion people around the globe now using social media. While keeping up with all the evolving trends can be intimidating, Hootsuite’s Social Trends Report offers marketers a guide to the wild world of social — complete with simple, specific recommendations — to help them gain an edge on their social strategy in 2023 and build community and connection with their customers.

“In a year marked by global economic and social upheaval, brands and organizations are looking for tools to help navigate their business through the noise to connect with their customers — and with even more urgency as we all become more digital and connected,” said Tom Keiser, Chief Executive Officer, Hootsuite. “With the launch of our 2023 Trends Report, we’re proud to provide our insights, recommendations and tangible recommendations to help organizations not only successfully navigate the digital wilderness, but also adapt to new buyer trends, find new ways to support their customers, and identify new paths for growth.”

To help our customers put the top social trends into action in real-time, we have paired each trend within the report with newly-created resources that social media marketers can build into their strategy and begin using today. The suite of resources developed to support this report (available for download at the links below) include:

Download the full report.