2023 Social Media Stats You Need To Know

December 8, 2022
12:00 pm

Posted by DMA Solutions Team

As shocking as it may seem, 2023 is just around the corner! While this year might have flown by, we’ve been able to gather some takeaways from social media in 2022 that will help inform your plans for the year ahead. Prepare for 2023 with the trends and statistics below to ensure you’re ready to take on another year of top-notch social media strategy!

Social Media Statistics You Need To Know for 2023 Planning

TikTok: It’s here to stay

TikTok has over 1.5 billion monthly active users
TikTok is the most downloaded application in the third quarter of 2022
Advertisers may be able to reach 885 million users aged 18 and above on TikTok as of January 2022

We’ve talked about TikTok for quite a while. In fact, you likely remember us saying TikTok is not for everyone and it’s certainly not for every brand. With the level of commitment it takes to be successful on a platform like this, it often isn’t worth the investment for many of the brands we work with…at least for now! However, these stats are not something to ignore. Understanding that TikTok continues to grow and be one of the main ways for brands to reach younger audiences, we suggest starting with TikTok advertising. This is a great way to dive in without having to fully invest your time and resources. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, check out our Core post all about TikTok advertising.

Instagram Reels: You’ll only be seeing these more

Reels grew by 220 million users between July and October of 2022
62% of Instagram users say they use it to research brands and products

A large trend in 2022 that we expect to continue and grow throughout 2023 is the use of Instagram Reels. As an agency, we have made an effort to consistently include Reels in our monthly content and have seen as much as double the engagements as a result. This is consistent with statistics that Reels are, on average, generating 22% more engagement than static images.

If you need help getting started with Instagram Reels, contact us to set up a call! We can create monthly Reels for you to use or even a batch of Reels for you to share throughout the year.

Hashtags: Are they out?

40% of 18-24-year-olds are using social media as their primary search engine
In a study run by Hootsuite, they found that using keyword-optimized captions instead of hashtags increased reach by 30% and doubled engagement

For years, we’ve suggested to the brands we work with that hashtags are not necessarily the end all be all to increase reach, and we are continuously finding this to be true. While hashtags are certainly not useless, Instagram’s CEO himself has informed us that hashtags are not a way to get more distribution, but rather to help categorize your post. When you are using Instagram hashtags and the platform picks up that the post you created is, in fact, engaging based on the results it’s getting, Instagram will then suggest it to more people through the Explore page, top posts on hashtag pages, hashtags people follow, and suggested posts in the home feed. So, the act of simply adding hashtags to your post will not result in an increase in reach, it is the engaging content itself that helps to increase reach through the automated Instagram algorithm. With that said, we suggest brands continue to utilize hashtags in the first comment so the categories are attached to your post, but that the primary focus is on using keywords and engaging copy in the caption to intrigue Instagram users in the first place.

LinkedIn: Beyond the B2B Market

33% of B2B decision makers use LinkedIn to research purchases
LinkedIn users have 2X more buying power
Over 200 characteristics to help tailor your targeting

While LinkedIn has classically been used as a B2B-only channel, the lines here are starting to blur. For example, have you noticed that you’re seeing more personal updates across your feed? Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should be posting personal updates on your company’s LinkedIn page, but it does mean that the extremely formal nature of the platform could be starting to shift. Try testing out more casual language and maybe even the use of an emoji every now and then to see how your audience responds! As LinkedIn is the social media audience with the highest buying power, we also recommend considering some B2C targeted ads along with your B2B strategy. In our industry, ads targeted to specific keywords or locations are relevant to everyone, no matter what company they work for! With LinkedIn’s extremely detailed targeting capabilities, leads will certainly be more expensive, but they just might be more qualified (and ready to purchase) than ones you receive on other platforms!

If you need help taking action on any of the above, give us a shout! We’ve been furthering fresh food brands for decades, and we’d love to add your brand to our growing list of clients.