On The State of Digital in 2023

By Kayla Pasacreta ,?Senior Digital Account Executive and Logan Nesson , Digital Account Executive?

Meltwater released their 2023 Global digital report , and it is 465 pages of incredibly insightful information. If you don’t have time to sift through 465 pages — don’t worry. Fenton has you covered on the top 5 takeaways that can inform your digital work today.?

Despite criticism digital platforms received this year, our online world continues to expand.

As of January 2023, the internet penetrated 91.8% of the US population, or 311.3 million internet users. The U.S. is now home to 246 million social media users or 72.5% of the total population. However, this growth is not distributed evenly. While Facebook is still the most used social media platform, new platforms like TikTok are blasting off. Which brings us to our next takeaway…

Apps like TikTok are changing the way people interact with brands.

67% of the general public makes purchases online based on recommendations from influencers, such as “Get ready with me” (#GRWM ) content and viral moments.

According to a study by TikTok, brands on TikTok see higher levels of receptiveness to brand messaging, calls-to-action, and ad breakthrough. The potential reach of ads on TikTok is 1.05 billion users over the age of 18 — a 19% increase from 2021.?

Video continues to reign supreme.

Let’s break down the evidence that supports this claim. In 2022, Tiktok was the number one downloaded app, and YouTube was the second most popular website. Beyond just the platforms, finding videos is the number three top reason users identify for using social media. And what do the performance metrics say? While videos only make up 22.6% of Facebook’s total page posts, they have double the engagement rate of all other post types.

Third-party cookies are going extinct

Expect widespread shifts in gathering first-party data and using contextual marketing. Understanding who your audience is, where they are active online, and how they interact with brands and content is going to be vital in building a strategy in 2023 and beyond.?

Accessibility is an expectation (as it should be), not an option.?

With the continued rise of video content as well as AI, closed captioning has become both easier and expected. Disability justice activists have been fighting for years to make the? internet a more accessible place, and we’re thrilled to see steps towards progress. However, inaccessibility is still a huge problem online.

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