Global Trends in Social Marketing
Users are eager to return to real social interaction. When formulating marketing strategies, public relations marketers in the corporate market might as well let go of “traffic anxiety” and pay attention to the aspirations of the younger generation of users.
Tiktok, the rival of Facebook and Instagram, is deeply involved in the vortex of accusations by the United States. Bilibili’s channel owners initiated a widespread suspension of updates. The BBS Tianya, which carries the memories of the earliest generation of netizens in China, was forced to shut down because it could not solve the debt problem. After all, it became the era sorry. Who will lead and influence the global social media market pattern in the second half of 2023? Who will withdraw from the stage in the brutal fight? What trends do platforms, users, and brands present?
Trend 1: Social media platforms have entered a cold winter, from “competition” to “both competition and cooperation”
Demographic changes have already had a noticeable impact on the Internet industry. In 2023, whether in China or outside China, social media platforms have stabilized, and it is almost difficult for brand official accounts to achieve explosive growth. In view of the current situation, mainstream social media platforms know that if they want to survive in the future, they must change from “competition” to “both competition and cooperation”. The most typical example is the handshake between WeChat and TikTok in April 2023. It is not enough to rely solely on platforms, brand owners and KOLs. Recently, Bilibili’s channel owner has stopped updating on a large scale, which is a precursor to the social media platform entering a cold winter.
Trend 2: Metaverse ends, AI becomes social media productivity tool
The development of artificial intelligence is very rapid. Starting in 2023, the open source artificial intelligence platform represented by Microsoft ChatGPT will become a powerful productivity tool for major social media platforms and corporate social media operators. With the help of these emerging AI platforms, people can search for materials, production copy, pictures, videos, music, animation and even complete planning proposals. On April 15, the AI song “Heart on My Sleeve,” created by TikTok users using voice models from Drake and The Weeknd, exploded in the online community. It is foreseeable that AI will soon enter the “flooding period”, and when human beings truly enter the era of strong artificial intelligence, in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, a large number of basic social media operation positions in the brand department, marketing department, and public relations department will face unemployment. tide. The metaverse virtual social network that was still on the social media platform last year has sadly left the scene and stepped down from the altar.
Trend 3: Chinese young people migrate from Baidu Weibo and Zhihu to Xiaohongshu
Young users and even middle-aged users are quietly migrating from Baidu Weibo and Zhihu to Xiaohongshu. This strange phenomenon also directly led to this year’s major Internet companies joining forces to “encircle and suppress” Xiaohongshu. Young mothers, young men, strong women in the workplace, middle-aged executives, retired old teachers… On Xiaohongshu, people are more willing and eager to share their real life status. The reason is very simple, today’s Xiaohongshu looks like more than ten
Weibo from years ago. Because there are no acquaintances, everyone can get a relatively real voice. Although today’s Xiaohongshu is commercialized enough, it is indeed not a “pure land” for users. I have to admit that at a time when realism is scarce, it is already one of the few apps in China that allows people to escape from the “social circle of acquaintances” and obtain first-hand information.
Trend 4: Personality of Chinese social media platforms tends to be blurred
Since the start of video in 2020, video has become the standard configuration of every company. On this basis, each platform gradually complements the capabilities of long text, long video, etc. by coincidence. As a result, the major social media platforms in China tend to be the same in terms of content. Zhihu, which is known for its independent thinking and in-depth questions and answers, has gradually lost its distinctive features since it began to lay out video content three years ago. After the WeChat video account was launched, it made up for the lack of video content of the WeChat official account, but the public found that it was almost the same as TikTok content. In addition, the assembly-line operations of a large number of MCNs and Internet celebrity organizations are also an important reason for the homogenization of Chinese social media apps today.
Trend 5: Brand owners are more cautious and conservative in advertising on social media platforms
In the past, advertising revenue was the “revenue hero” of various social media platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, Toutiao, Facebook, and YouTube. If brands want to gain traffic, they must abide by the content publishing rules of each platform. Against the background of sluggish global economic growth, brand owners have become more cautious and conservative in their advertising business on social media platforms. This has caused the commercialization team of the social media platform to face enormous operating pressure. Under the fierce competition in online advertising, how to find commercial advertising content that meets the needs of different industries and scenarios has become the main problem for social platforms this year.
On the whole, the script of “old products redeeming themselves and new players trying to subvert them” is still being played out on the social media track. Obviously, users are eager to return to real social interaction. When formulating marketing strategies, public relations marketers in the corporate market may wish to let go of “traffic anxiety” and pay attention to the voices of the younger generation of users, focusing on how to continuously create a sense of value for the company under this new trend.