Three large-scale trends for 2023: actionable entertainment, making space for joy, and community-built ideas.
Recently, TikTok published its 2023 Trend Report with predictions for micro and macro trends for the upcoming year. Let’s figure out what it means for influencer marketing and how you can use this for your campaigns!
The first fundamental we need to know from this report is the definition of “trends”. TikTok divides trends into
- Moments (days to weeks lifecycle) – creative prompts that quickly gain traction and buzz, but also quickly lose the audience’s interest.
- Signals (months to a few years) – new content patterns that reveal emerging behaviours and interests, especially in specific content categories.
- Forces (up to several years) – large-scale behavioural transformations and major cultural shifts.
Moments
Considering the duration of a typical influencer marketing campaign (2 weeks) and the time for its preparation, there is no chance to plan those sudden “moments” in your future campaigns. It’s better to be flexible and to give more freedom to influencers in the integrations. Encourage them to use these trends by themselves and be ready to approve the piece of content asap. The faster you react, the better results you’ll get!
Follow these trends in the brand’s communications on TikTok and other social media. It will show that the brand is trendy and will gain higher performance results.
But hype wisely! Don’t follow controversial trends and do at least minimal research beforehand, to not threaten the brand’s reputation.
We’d recommend having a constant close look at this type of trend if
- your brand or product has Gen-Z among its target audience – if you’re targeting younger, fast-reacting people;
- your product is sold through quick deals or impulse purchases;
- your product is in the low price range, and you can use discounts to boost sales;
- it’s crucial for your brand to remain visible to your target audience;
Mostly relevant for such industry types as retail, beauty, food and e-commerce. But still can be useful for any other company.
Such trends usually cause tons of content, and it’s hard to navigate through all publications to find something worthy. Use Companion to automatically track influencers or brands you’re interested in and see their reaction to the latest trend.
Signals
Since Signals are more long-lasting, keeping them in mind while planning your campaigns is highly recommended. This type of trend causes changes in content formats within specific categories and generates more views and higher engagement rates. Which is crucial for influencer marketing performance.
Moreover, ignoring them could cause a decrease in the performance of the content that normally shows great results. It could be explained by the refocusing of the users’ interest. They’re keen on finding something trendy and lose their interest in other types of content. Meanwhile, you’re getting out of the recommendations and other more active brands are taking your place in users’ attention.
Experienced influencers can’t miss this type of trend and are more likely to implement this in their content without reminding. The main challenge is to be same up-to-date in your brand’s or client’s TikTok profile, considering that it’s not that flexible. Depending on the main goal of this social media for the brand, the strategy of using this trend will be different.
Strategies of using Signals:
- If you strive to expand your audience, find new customers and increase brand awareness – go for it immediately. The faster you start creating content using a new hyping format, the sooner you’ll get a new audience.
- If the main goal of your TikTok account is to create a community and increase brand sentiment – first ask your audience what they would like to see, and whether they would be happy to have these changes on your page. Even if you are 100% sure these changes are for good, your audience may think differently. Sometimes it’s better to stay the same, to keep your customer interested.
- If you use TikTok to sustain a brand image – act depending on the trend itself and evaluate whether it could help or make things worse.
The one thing that can affect your brand negatively is if you react to the trend too late. Usually, it happens when brands are clueless about the latest trends and start acting when everyone is already annoyed by this line. Sign up for Companion to avoid this mistake by tracking the content and hashtags of the key influencers working with brands like yours.
Forces
Forces are the only type of trend you need to use in your brand’s communications and integrations. They represent social patterns, major cultural shifts and the way people think nowadays. Ignoring “forces” can affect a brand’s reputation, and other companies can catch your customers just because they are more up-to-date.
“In 2023, TikTok will empower users with the confidence to rethink their values and find new paths to success, happiness and health. Three relevant, large-scale trends will take over in the new year: actionable entertainment, making space for joy, and community-built ideas.”
TikTok gives clear guidance on how to use these key forces in your brand’s communications by dividing them into signals. Let’s take a closer look at it.
Actionable entertainment
This force means creating entertaining content which encourages viewers to take action – super crucial for brand marketing. For customers, it’s important to hear compelling stories from real people they can relate to (experts or someone who simply looks or acts like themselves).
Key signals in this force:
- Show, Don’t Sell – use tutorials and storytelling instead of direct ads. #Storytime #POV
- TikTok Investigates – uncover truths and debunk myths to build credibility and trust with viewers. #ExpectationVsReality #FactOrCap
- Customer-to-Creator Pipeline – use organic videos of your brand’s fans in your influencer marketing activity. #MustHaves #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt
These signals are absolutely need-to-use ones as the platform gives us a great tip to improve our influencer marketing by uncovering this secret. It means the platform itself will help to promote such type of content, and you need to take advantage of it in your communications.
Making Space for Joy
This force reflects that people are seeking more ways to take care of themselves – and going on TikTok for advice.
Key signals in this force:
- The Memeing of Life – use humour to promote your brand, as memes often show the best performance on TikTok. #CornKid #TeenageDirtbag
- Wellbeing Your Way – share everyday strategies and “lifehacks” with your product to inspire people for trying it. #InnerChild #HotGirlWalk
- Little Luxe – show your audience how they can reward themselves with your brand. #TreatYourself #UnwindWithMe
This force brings emotional bonds between your brand and audience, which is likely to encourage them to try your product. Build a positive connotation for your brand using humour, lifehacks and ideas on how to treat themselves with it.
Community-Built Ideals
This force means you need to stay focused on building long-term relationships with your customers, help them change their lives and overcome their challenges.
Key signals in this force:
- Ask TikTok – teach your audiences something interesting to cut through the noise, as they are coming to TikTok to find answers to their questions. #EduTok #TikTokMadeMeTryIt
- Destination: Growth – give them advice on topics you’re an expert in, and help your potential customers grow with you. #GrowthMindset #Advice
- Bestie Behaviour – do simple things to stay close to your audience, show them simplicity and be their best friend on TikTok. #ShopWithMe #ComeWithMe
These signals encourage you to stay connected and close to your audience, which means you need to put more effort into creating branded content, but it is likely to turn into long-term cooperation instead of a one-time purchase.
It’s going to be a year of fascinating content and influencer marketing solutions, and we wish you to ride this wave. Let us know if you need any help with running your influencer marketing, and we’ll make you proud with your achievements in a year.
- Sign up for Companion to manage your campaigns wisely and track influencers’ activity with zero effort.
- Create award-winning campaigns with Billion Dollar Boy to stand out with your advertisement.
- Contact Fergus Scholes at [email protected] to discuss details and find bespoke solutions for your brand.