Given that more than a billion people use Instagram every month, tapping into that audience is crucial for any successful business.
While this rapid pace of change can be intimidating for some, it keeps social media users and marketers on their toes.
2023’s Biggest Instagram Trends
1. Reels
People these days want their information delivered quickly and easily. To accommodate this trend, Instagram has introduced “Reels,” a new video content type that limits uploaded videos to 60 seconds in length. Instagram’s algorithm actively promotes these videos as a means of competing with TikTok’s enormous success in the production of short videos.
As a result, your company’s visibility and community can benefit greatly from your presence on both sites. Instagram’s recommended feed content and users’ personalised explore page are great places to find new followers, so it’s important to keep posting high-quality, niche-specific reels on a regular basis.
Similar to regular Instagram grid posts, Reels can help creators get their work seen by a wider audience. In contrast to TikTok’s stringent 100-character limit per post, its creators are allowed to use up to 30 hashtags within its 2,000-character limit per caption.
2. Social Movements
It is only natural that the millennial and post-millennial generations, who are so invested in social justice, should take their activism online. After a tumultuous couple of years that exposed long-standing social injustices suffered by underrepresented groups, many companies have used the moment to publicly declare their solidarity with these causes and affirm their own core values.
Since it has become common practise to “cancel” or “boycott” businesses over their controversial sociopolitical beliefs, many businesses have learned the hard way the importance of using their voice and resources to show their support for particular causes.
Implementing new programmes and initiatives to show support for company members impacted by social issues that their audiences care about is also a part of social initiatives.
Instagram users can demonstrate their solidarity with social causes by sharing posts about those causes. As a result, consumers will now anticipate and even demand that brands take political stands on social media.
Many members of the millennial generation place a high value on supporting brands that take a stand against injustice and are open about their practises, as this aligns with their own political and social beliefs.
Show your brand’s support for a cause or the charities it donates to, and see the level of engagement with your content soar as a result.
3. Marketing with Influencers
80% of millennials and Gen Zers agree that content creators/social media influencers have a greater impact on culture and society than traditional celebrities, according to Instagram’s 2023 Trend Report. In addition, 72.5 percent of American marketers are expected to use influencer marketing this year. But what exactly is influencer marketing, and why is it so crucial right now?
Influencer marketing, in its simplest form, is the practise of forming strategic partnerships between brands and social media content creators who already have an active and engaged niche audience and encouraging them to promote the brand and/or its products and services via social media.
The idea behind this type of advertising is similar to that of celebrity endorsements, but it places a greater emphasis on the level of credibility that the creators have built up through their fan bases. As a result of their modest fame, which they have usually earned through their own efforts alone, their fans are more likely to relate to and respect them than fans of A-list celebrities.
It is crucial to the success of your influencer marketing strategy that you choose influencers who are a good fit for your brand and who accurately portray your style and clientele. If you’re able to do this with a creator whose interests align with the influencer’s audience, then that audience is much more likely to be interested in what you have to offer.
4. Putting Your Brand’s Character on Display
While it’s great to showcase your brand with visually appealing and high-quality images on social media, coming off as too performative can have the opposite effect. Since more and more people are turning to social media as a way to meet new people and build relationships,
Your brand’s Instagram account should reflect these shifts, as Instagram has done so before. Act naturally and let your individuality shine through! You can give your brand an individual voice in a variety of ways: the way you write, the occasional meme, the creation of relatable, non-business-focused content, questions and answers in Instagram stories, or even by having a member of your team go live on the platform.
In a similar vein, your content should primarily focus on being entertaining, informative, or thought-provoking rather than “selling” your products or services. We believe in the 80/20 rule of content marketing because this causes users to disengage.
Eighty percent of the content we create for our clients is meant to inform and entertain, while only twenty percent is meant to promote our business.