5 INFLUENCER TREND PREDICTIONS FOR 2023.
So just like that, it's 2023, and it's safe to say that the hunger for original social media content is still huge. Throughout 2022, we've seen the unstoppable growth of TikTok continue to skyrocket, record levels of engagement posted by LinkedIn, celebrities and public figures enter the space in record numbers, and short-form videos continue to take over.
The landscape and the opportunity show no signs of slowing down into this year and beyond, and whoever says it's "too late to try" is sorely mistaken. Many new influencers emerged last year, and some have experienced almost immediate mass exposure and virality, rising to the top of the food chain faster than ever before possible. Moreover, with TikTok setting the trend for an interest-based algorithm, it's now possible for influencers entering the playing field to capture and grow audiences almost immediately, which is staggering and a complete game changer.
But, despite the massive growth and opportunity, the tide is changing, and some will be left behind.
It's been a challenging year for social media platforms and established influencers. Facebook is struggling to stay relevant and keep its head above water as the tides change, and Instagram is fighting tooth and nail with TikTok. Twitter has, well - that's a story for another day. But it's not just the platforms that are experiencing unpredictable headwinds…
A lot has changed in the past two years, and the audience's needs and wants are changing just as drastically.
The world is finding its new normal as we exit a life-altering and reality-shifting pandemic. Many people face the challenges of an actual cost of living crisis; priorities, goals, and expectations are changing, and how we seek and consume content, entertainment, education, and community is rapidly shifting.
So, what does that mean for long-established influencers who thought they had it all figured out? Well, firstly, their content is not guaranteed to do well anymore. The algorithms are pushing out content based on interests over follower count, so influencers are now competing for attention with a much broader base of content creators. But they also need to adapt quickly and authentically to new attitudes, feelings and desires from their existing and new audiences, which can be challenging.
THAT SAID, 2023 WILL BE A BIG YEAR FOR EVERYONE IN THE SPACE.
It will be a massive year for social media platforms, influencers, new content creators, and brands who work, or want to work, with influencers. But, of course, audiences will determine who sinks and swims this year, and it will be a bumpy, or highly lucrative ride, depending on where you fall.
Although predicting trends is sometimes like finding a needle in a haystack, we thought we'd throw our hat in the ring and come up with five solid predictions for how influencers will change and evolve in 2023 and how businesses and brands can prepare to stay as agile and ahead of the curve as possible this year.
Let’s go!
PREDICTION 1: 2023 IS THE YEAR OF RELATABLE OVER ASPIRATIONAL CONTENT.
When it comes to this year, we're placing our bets on everyday people rising to influencer status and relatable and authentic triumphing over aspirational and aesthetically curated content. In 2023, 'influencers' as we've known them are dead in the water.
The days of audiences lapping up highly aspirational content from influencers with perfect skin, masses of PR gifts, a wardrobe full of designer handbags, a luxury paid-for home, 12 holidays a year, and just the picture-perfect life overall are gone.
Audiences are tired of filters, overconsumption and the perfect aesthetic, which has caused a tidal wave of changes in attitudes and demands across all industries and categories. For example, the market is turning away from fast fashion and luxury brands and towards DIY, thrifting and preloved. This massive cultural shift is also impacting the influencer and content creation space. Consequently, in 2023, audiences will want to see and connect with creators who look, feel, and live just like them - not aspirational celebrities but relatable friends. But why is this change happening? Well, there are a few reasons.
Firstly, there's a cost of living crisis. The open life of luxury that many established influencers have become accustomed to sharing is off-putting to audiences. Many people are having to cut their budgets, put off big purchases, downsize their homes, switch to a cheaper car, and get a second job, so no, they don't want to spend their downtime hearing about how an influencer is jetting off on yet another 5* gifted trip to the Maldives. That goes without saying.
But it isn't just that. The aesthetic, aspirational and 'perfect life' influencer is now the rule, not the exception, and audiences are bored of it. Back in the early 2010s, when influencers and content creators first came on the scene, regular people created content for fun and just so happened to stumble into a highly-lucrative career and business opportunity over the years. They were the underdog, and audiences wanted to champion them, cheer them on, and see their dreams turn into realities.
But those same people who were once relatable (the underdogs) are now, ten years later, effectively celebrities. So they're not the underdogs anymore, and that's saturated the space with influencers who live a disconnected and unrelatable life to most of their audiences. So, audiences are now looking for the exception to the rule in a haystack of aspirational influencers. They're bonding with content creators they can relate to, who live everyday lives, with regular jobs, with normal means.
PREDICTION 2: 2023 IS THE YEAR OF THE LINKEDIN INFLUENCER.
As we've already touched on, in 2022, LinkedIn posted record levels of engagement on their platform, and much of that attributed to non-professional related content. What does that mean? LinkedIn is becoming a social platform, not just a professional networking tool.
It's an exciting time for LinkedIn, which has been around for some time as a platform. But even up until now, it's still an "if you know, you know" club. LinkedIn still needs to be widely adopted among the masses, but those who are loyal and regular users are just that, dedicated to the platform, which is why engagement levels are so high.
Those regular users are starting to branch out in their content, treating the platform as a social tool rather than just a professional networking hub. Why? Because they're taking advantage of the undersaturation and the opportunities it possesses. LinkedIn is suffering a massive demand vs supply issue. Have you ever wondered why your feed serves old content when you refresh, sometimes 5 - 7 days old? Because there needs to be more content to satisfy the demand of its users. There need to be more people posting regularly and consistently to service its user base. Couple that with LinkedIn's unique algorithm favouring engaging and quality content over follower count = the perfect storm of opportunity and plenty of space for new creators to enter the playing field.
So, in 2023, we predict the world will see the first real LinkedIn influencers. But it won't be who you think; these future LinkedIn dominators aren't even on the platform yet.
Suppose you've ever stepped foot in LinkedIn land. In that case, you'll know that the majority of self-proclaimed 'LinkedIn influencers' are responsible for the endless streams of self-congratulatory sh*t content which see them posting on LinkedIn about how to 'do' LinkedIn.
Imagine if your TikTok 'For You Page' was full of self-crowned 'TikTok influencers' who made video after video about how to be as good as them at TikTok and then spent the rest of their time patting the other 200 self-proclaimed 'TikTok experts' on the back and congratulating them for how fantastic they are. That would be insufferable. Well, that's what LinkedIn is right now.
So, we predict that a few new creators will enter the platform, treating LinkedIn as an undersaturated platform hungry for real people with authentic and relatable things to say, and they will take over quickly. It also comes back to what we said earlier about audiences crying out for real people with real jobs and lives.
Let's call them the next generation of accidental influencers, much like what happened on TikTok and what happened in the early YouTube days.
PREDICTION 3: 2023 IS THE YEAR OF RELIABLE REPETITION.
Everyone finds comfort in routine; that much is obvious, we're human beings, and we crave predictability, repeated patterns, and something we recognise. The pandemic further conditioned this into us when we were all stuck in our houses, and everything we'd known was gone instantly. As a result, we couldn't find comfort in our daily routines anymore, going to the gym at the same time every day, arriving at work, or going to our favourite lunchtime cafe. When life brings chaos, people look more and more for those bits of stability and routines we can rely on for comfort.
Unfortunately, our experience in the pandemic not only stripped away the things we did every day but also cut us off from our friends and family. So what did we do? We looked to online creators and content to bring that stability and predictability into our lives. Creators who posted daily get ready with me's, make dinner with me's, or storytime with me's - they exploded and dominated. Not just because they were relatable but because it was an anchor in our day, something we could rely on every day to be the same, repeated and consistent, in a world of chaos and unpredictability.
Many of us also spent long periods alone during the pandemic, so we would put on content as we washed the dishes, bathed the kids, or worked from home, to hear a voice, or feel like we were listening to a friend updating us on their day in the background. That's why podcasts did, and continue, to explode in popularity because we're not just looking for content to watch anymore, but content to listen to, which sparks familiarity and makes us feel part of something and connected to creators we find genuinely relatable.
Speaking of relatable, remember the good old YouTube days when the first influencers came onto the scene? Their content was chatty, authentic, and usually, a sit-down and get ready with me or a clean my room with me. When people are uncertain and experiencing a challenging time, they look to childhood nostalgia for comfort. Wonder why you get the urge to watch Harry Potter with a hot chocolate when you've had a bad week, even in your mid-30s? That's why. Those relatable, 'like the good old days' nostalgic creators blew up on TikTok for a reason: people were looking for calm in the chaos.
Just because the pandemic has gone away now, the effects linger, and we're still taking comfort from those creators who show up daily with the same reliable and repeated content.
PREDICTION 4: 2023 IS THE YEAR OF LESS NICHE, MORE 360°.
This one is a controversial opinion. More often than not, the advice is "go niche, go niche, go niche" if you're thinking of trying out content creation for yourself. Still, we predict that creators who document their whole life, and everything that makes them, them, are going to outdo niche influencers this year. Not only that, but we think that traditionally niche influencers, like creators who started only talking about makeup, cars, fashion, antiques, or personal finances, are going to transition towards a more 360° documentation of their life, relationships and challenges, and just the everyday mundane tasks of life.
Why? Because of everything we've already spoken about, the desire for more authentic and relatable influencers, our need for repetition and predictability, and the craving for nostalgia, audiences will seek out those chatty, friend-to-friend, real connections creators. That means a massive resurgence of the day-in-the-life videos, storytimes, off-the-cuff live streams, and people who just let it all out. We want whole, real people, not just one-dimensional characters.
The change in direction also comes from those of us who were in our teens when the first YouTube content creators exploded in the early 2010s and are now in our mid-20s to early 30s. We're not sitting around doing our hair, gaming, or putting together outfits all day anymore. Instead, we're working a career, raising children, taking care of a home, cooking meals, caring for pets, and everything else that adulthood brings. So we're no longer interested in influencers who only do one thing because we don't only do one thing.
Think about it; this goes back to our need to find people who act, live and look just like us. We want you to moan about the same things we moan about and share every nitty-gritty detail. We want to feel like we know you. None of us is only interested in one thing. We're busy people, multi-faceted and have many hobbies, goals, aspirations, failures, relationships and commitments. In 2023, influencers will build their brands from their personalities and lives, not their niche or category.
PREDICTION 5: 2023 IS THE YEAR OF YOUTUBE SHORTS.
Mobile-friendly short-form video content is king and has been for some time. There's no denying that, and at the moment, TikTok is the go-to channel for it. Google is now ranking TikTok content in its search engine results, which is massive. TikTok is also the no.1 search engine amongst Gen Z, and users spend considerable time on the app. It's a kingdom of opportunity, has captured massive attention, and has genuinely paved the way for how platforms and algorithms will evolve, grow and position themselves over the coming years.
That said, TikTok doesn't own short-form video content, and some heavy competitors are on the playing field. We're calling it that YouTube Shorts will be massive this year and that many YouTube Shorts content creators will garner colossal attention and audiences in 2023.
YouTube is still the second biggest search engine in the world, behind Google, and has over 2 billion, active users. It's investing in and pushing YouTube Shorts massively in 2023. Recently, it has launched a new monetisation programme where creators can earn ad revenue from ads shown in between videos in shorts. It's almost inevitable that established TikTok creators will head to shorts to take advantage of the new monetisation opportunities, and new creators will then follow.
So, there they are, our influencer trend predictions for 2023.
Want to know more? Connect with Up The Anti on LinkedIn, where we'll discuss more 2023 trends in influencer marketing and content creation. You can also tune in on TikTok to stay up to date on the latest.
Are you interested in working with us? Get in touch if you're a business and want to do influencer marketing well and stay ahead of the curve. You can find out more about us and what we do here.
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