The Future of Social Media

A new year is just around the corner, so let’s take a moment to reflect on what happened in the past year.

It has been a chaotic 12 months for the major social media platforms.?

• Meta had an ongoing continual decline?
• TikTok continues to rise?
• Twitter is currently in a chaotic management shift

With all of what is going on, we can’t exactly predict what would really happen in the coming year, but let’s shed light on some realistic and viable potential changes coming your way.?

Let’s look at it on a platform-by-platform basis:?

1. Facebook: In the wake of the TikTok shift, Facebook has suffered from something of an identity crisis, losing ad dollars to Apple's ATT update and falling out of favor with young users.

Facebook's algorithm has changed consumption behaviors across the board and has been the biggest loser. Despite that, Zuckerberg said he has a plan in place to get things back on track by showing more recommended content in the Feed. Zuckerberg aims to have 40% of the content in your main Facebook feed come from pages you don’t follow. Also, brands need to show their best-performing posts even to those outside of their current audience.

Moreover, Meta really wants to get people more excited about metaverse, and integrate its digital avatars into more apps.?

2. Instagram: Instagram has also been in a state of confusion, as it always looks to keep up with the latest trends and habits.?

Instagram is copying TikTok at every turn; the app now reports up to 2 billion monthly active users.??

Just like Facebook, to maximize user engagement, Instagram is also incorporating AI content and reels.

It’s a big change for Instagram because your main feed is now a mess of old and new posts, and it doesn’t seem basically to be working. Instagram however is always eager to show people more of the best content from across the app with specific focus on highlighting creators.

3. Twitter: This is the hardest App to predict the future of because nobody knows what is coming next under Elon Musk.?

Musk has laid out multiple plans but none that seem set in firmly.?

Musk looks to charge business users a monthly fee to use the app by enticing them with improved analytics insights. He also got the idea of charging users a small fee to tweet; this charge applies to commercial/government users and not the regular ones.?

Musk has also been trying to work out a way to authenticate all real humans through a verification process where users confirm their identity via phone number or any other details to better pinpoint bot profiles in the app. Users who have confirmed their identity will get a gray tick which could be an alternative verification process.?

Another pitch Musk has made is the potential to use the platform as a vehicle to facilitate payments, likely via cryptocurrency. His initial fortune from being the cofounder of Pay-Pal, so payments contribute largely to his professional experience. Twitter will make it accessible for those who can’t access the banks.?

Crypto is predominantly prevalent in big countries where banking services are not don’t offer a lot of options, so there could be a big potential to have Twitter as a new banking service that could facilitate transfers, product advertising, etc..?

4. LinkedIn: Throughout the year, LinkedIn continued to achieve record levels of engagement, including both professional and non-professional posts, which puts LinkedIn in a good spot.

We can expect the platform to keep providing more data and more linkage to Linkedin learning courses.?

Keep in mind that LinkedIn owns the largest database of professional and career insights and is always integrating multiple ways to help people maximize their opportunities.?

Such is expected to continue throughout 2023, with an increase in details about people and how they can obtain their dream job. Based on that, LinkedIn could really map out your whole career by assessing and assuming what other people with the same skill-set and interests have done. LinkedIn insights could really provide guidance for people and lead them to roles they would be happy with.?

Furthermore, LinkedIn is expected to incorporate more advanced video tools, including video meeting options, live-streams and much more advanced tools geared towards people who prefer video content.?

In addition to the aforementioned, LinkedIn seems to be a perfect app to host professional audio events, making the platform a core asset for the biggest engagement possible.?

5. TikTok: the trendiest app of the moment and most intriguing app among others. This status has achieved does not stem from the content that it provides, rather from its linkage to the Chinese government.?

In 2023, that could come to a head which will force TikTok to separate its data from CCP and could lead to problems for the app. Could it actually be banned in the U.S? There are a lot of possibilities.?

As the world continues to evolve, we expect that in 2023, all social media platforms would dramatically strive to improve themselves by tailoring to customer experience, using AI-based advanced tools that go with their interests. The aim is to encompass the consumption behavior of all viewers and to go along with all the upcoming trends and the coming changes, as compensation for their loss from the last year and for generating more revenue.?