Introduction: Metricool presents the findings of the “Social Media Trends 2023 Study.” Explore the key insights to shape your social media strategy for 2024.
The oversaturation of content, a widespread decrease in impressions, interaction, and reach, coupled with high engagement and the rise of video formats, are some of the trends defining the social media landscape in 2023.
As highlighted in the “Social Media Trends 2023 Study” by Metricool, an analysis encompassing 9 social media platforms, 978,379 accounts, and 29,482,611 posts reveals the dynamics of social media. This study explores what transpired on social media platforms, which platform performs best based on user objectives, the evolution of various platforms over the past year, and trends to anticipate in 2024.
Key Findings and Trends: Among the study’s conclusions is the refinement of algorithms by different platforms and the growth of Pinterest in 2023. These insights serve as a precursor to the prevailing trends in the Social Media world in 2024, crucial for developing a forward-looking social media strategy.
Quality Content Reigns Supreme on Social Media: Metricool explains that user exposure to content saturation is directly reflected in metrics such as impressions, interaction, or reach. In this era of content bombardment, these metrics experience a decline compared to the previous year. Platforms, therefore, maintain a strong commitment to refining algorithms, offering users more tailored recommendations to keep them engaged on their social networks. This marks one of the early trends for 2024 – the quality of content emerges as a fundamental element.
Specifically, Facebook has witnessed a significant decrease in reach and interactions. All metrics related to actions, such as likes, comments, and other forms of participation, have declined. However, the star of Meta’s social network has been the short video format, with accounts posting 600% more than in 2022.
TikTok Dominates Among Platforms: Despite a decrease in metrics, engagement has withstood the fall. Users actively participate in posts, leading to a key conclusion in Metricool’s study: reaching fewer accounts, but achieving effectiveness.
TikTok stands out in this regard, maintaining its position as the ideal social network for brand promotion. The study details that Tiny accounts, with 0 to 500 followers, maintain a good engagement ratio at 55.4, while Huge accounts, ranging from 50k to 55 million followers, even surpass the previous year with a 61% engagement ratio.
However, interactions and views have decreased compared to the previous year, indicating content saturation. Creators need to focus on creating more effective strategies for user engagement.
Video Content Retains its Strength: Video content continues to be users’ preferred choice. Instagram and Facebook Reels, TikToks, and YouTube Shorts exemplify this, emerging as the protagonists of their respective platforms.
2023 witnessed the consolidation of Reels, with Instagram posting more than double the content compared to 2022, exceeding one million Reels. This surge in publication has been particularly noticed in Huge accounts, which have gained an 18.26% increase in interactions. Similarly, YouTube has demonstrated the enduring popularity of video content, with a 27.5% average increase in the frequency of long and short video publications across all channels.
Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and More in 2023: Changes in X, formerly known as Twitter, have been a major highlight of 2023. Following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform in 2022, numerous changes have been introduced. This transformation is reflected in Metricool’s study, where impressions have decreased, and content has achieved less reach.
However, content interactions have resisted, with engagement gaining a few points, significantly improving across all accounts of all sizes. Content reaches fewer users, but those it reaches interact more.
LinkedIn mirrors a similar scenario to X. As detailed by Metricool, the data reveals a decrease in impressions, but interactions have contributed to maintaining a good engagement ratio. Sharing a post has proven successful across accounts of all sizes, suggesting that in 2024, professionals and brands must prioritize quality over quantity to viralize their content.
A surprising revelation from the “Social Media Trends Study” has been Pinterest. In 2023, it has solidified its position as the platform for discovery. “It has achieved a high interaction rate, a 17.4% increase, thanks, in part, to the rise in external clicks, its standout interaction.”
In addition to being a content discovery platform, Pinterest excels as a social network for generating traffic to external pages. This data leads to another conclusion: Pinterest will establish itself in 2024 as a direct shopping social network.