What are the major social media platforms planning for 2023? That’s quite a loaded question when it comes to Twitter. It’s only just been bought over by one sole billionaire running it, whose whims are frankly causing everyone to question the future of the company. But other platforms tend to have a mandate in place for the future. Facebook, for example, is making no secret of its desire to get the Metaverse off the ground. But beyond that, what are the bigwigs in their high towers planning for your favourite social media platforms? Some of these could be useful to social media marketing or affiliate marketing, or they might just give you a little thrill as a user. Read on to find out what these predictions are and if they’re of any use to you.
TikTok
TikTok always seems to be changing. Every day there’s a new feature implemented if there’s nothing new to watch. Its latest feature comes from its makers: China. Chinese and other East Asian media have grabbed the concept of livestream shopping channels with both hands and TikTok wants to bring it to the West. How will this turn out considering Instagram tried and gave up on the concept, we’ll find out. But in the meantime, it would be a good opportunity for brands and even for affiliate marketers to make a career.
But, most importantly, apparently, TikTok is looking into the Creator Fund for a new way to pay creators. As Social Media Today put it: “The problem with the Creator Fund is that as TikTok gets bigger, the payout amounts get smaller, so as TikTok benefits from creator content, those creators get paid less.”
So it’s predicted that TikTok will start looking at other ways to pay their creators or risk losing them.
The platform that time forgot. Pinterest has made quite the habit of playing keep up over the past few years, and the last year was no different. The platform saw a surge due to Covid lockdowns, but once physical retail doors opened up again, the customers returned and Pinterest was left as the spark of the social media retail space that Instagram and TikTok have instead turned into a roaring fire.
So, how will they regain their user base? With live-stream shopping and AR Try On tools. We’ve already covered livestream shopping above, but AR is typically a tool of Snapchat. It makes sense. One of the biggest uses of augmented reality is the retail space right now, theoretically allowing you to try on outfits and decorative items before you buy. Sure, it won’t give you a size or a feel of the material or any other practical uses, but you’ll know if it looks pretty. Advice to marketers would be to convey these things in other ways, like video content or descriptions.
Ah, the platform for B2Bs. The boring answer to what LinkedIn is planning starts with improved data insights for jobseekers, but that’s not flashy. What’s flashy is the improved video features. But rather than aiming for the TikTok audience, LinkedIn is looking to be more like Zoom and is hoping it can be the new platform for video business meetings and networking. Makes sense. Additionally, there is to be a greater focus on professional audio events, like talks, panels, and podcasts, complete with its own audio rooms getting developed.
So, what is Musk doing with the world’s most political and opinionated platform? From his talk/tweets so far we can gauge there is likely to be a big push towards monetisation. Only, it might not have occurred to Elon Musk that free speech doesn’t attract marketers. Free speech comes with hate speech, which marketers don’t want anything to do with.
As Nilay Patel from The Verge recently noted, “You cannot reasonably expect to collect any meaningful advertising revenue if you do not promise those advertisers “brand safety.” That means you have to ban racism, sexism, transphobia, and all kinds of other speech that is totally legal in the United States but reveals people to be total assholes.”
So, Musk’s first try is to charge users for the site. The list of things that come with this $8 Twitter Blue subscription is growing, to the point that you might as well not use the platform without it. But why would anyone pay to use social media platforms when there are plenty more free ones to choose from? All of which don’t spell well for marketers.
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