In the last few weeks, the ever-changing nature of the social media landscape has been brought into sharper focus after Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter and the global reaction.

For two decades now social media platforms have been part of the fabric of modern life. What started with Bebo, MySpace and Vine has now graduated to ever more sophisticated platforms, like TikTok and BeReal,  which are being increasingly used as tools for brands and businesses to communicate with ever-growing audiences.  With the surge in social media there is a temptation for organisations to jump into this space. 

At Perceptive, we keep abreast of the latest changes across different channels and focus our efforts on the platforms that are most valuable to our clients. Importantly, from the outset, we work closely with our clients to carefully plan the campaigns which are underpinned by a set of clear goals aligned with their organisational objectives.

On LinkedIn we recently helped a client devise a creative and highly targeted recruitment campaign for four key senior vacancies which were hard to fill, especially in such a competitive recruitment market. These roles were key to the organisation’s priority goals. Not long after the campaign had ended, all four roles had been successfully filled. 

In 2022, we saw short form video continue its upward trajectory with TikTok leading the charge; the app now has over 1.5 billion monthly active users. The last twelve months also saw more brands using social media influencers to leverage their products or offerings, with 64% of marketeers saying they used influencer marketing or planned to do so in 2022. 

Our work on Instagram includes a successful influencer campaign which drove several high value leads for a recently launched urban development. In the week following the campaign, web traffic surged by 174%, resulting in 19 additional enquiries and at least one reservation for these luxury urban apartments.

So what does 2023 have in store?  TikTok is tipped to continue its incredible growth into next year; scroll-stopping short-form content will be more important than ever. This will go hand-in-hand with more influencer marketing as smaller brands tap into affordable micro influencers and their highly engaged audiences, while user-generated content is set to become even more important, particularly for consumer-facing brands.

All of this is underpinned by the key pillars of authenticity, storytelling and community building which should be essential ingredients in the mix of any social media strategy.

So before jumping in and creating that TikTok account, make sure you first lay out your objectives and consider which social media platforms will best help you achieve them. Where possible, set clear, measurable goals to help you keep track of progress; if you’re looking to increase brand awareness on Instagram, what are you hoping to achieve as a result in the next three months? 

From there, you can begin to plan your content, ensuring you have a regular drumbeat of activity, with each post having a clear purpose. Content  might include showcasing your company’s culture with ‘meet the team’ features or blogs. Do some research into key awareness days or events in the calendar that are relevant to your brand and consider how you can join these conversations which are already happening to maximise your content. 

Done right, social media has the potential to be a key driver of success for any organisation. But in an ever-changing world, it pays to have your finger on the pulse. Chances are this time next year there will be new platforms to explore and discuss. It’s an exciting time and I look forward to seeing which new innovations come to the fore in 2023. 

Julie Moulsdale is Managing Director at Perceptive Communicators, which supports clients in science, technology and the built environment improve lives and transform futures through better communications www.perceptivecommunicators.co.uk