Every month, we’re sharing bite-size summaries of the top social media news, tips and ideas we came across, to help you, as a Social Media Manager, improve your approach and boost your results. These are based both on the hundreds of industry posts and articles we read monthly, as well as on our experience helping teams simplify and scale up their content creation processes with our platform.
Discover these December trends for ideas on how to improve your social media strategy. But be sure to always test before making any big changes, as not every best practice works for every account or audience.
Want even more social media trends and tips? Check out our February 2023, January 2023, and other monthly roundups, as well as the biggest social media trend predictions for 2023.
1. Social media news: Catch up on the latest platform updates
Stay up to date with the biggest social media platform news and developments for December 2022:
- Instagram is launching native post scheduling for Reels, photo and carousel posts for business and creator accounts.
- Instagram is rolling out the option to add music to feed photo posts.
- Instagram is testing a feature to pin a Reel to your Reels tab, and the ability to hide the like count on Reels with selected users.
- LinkedIn has rolled out native post scheduling to some users.
- YouTube launched a Shorts viewing experience optimized for TV screens.
- YouTube introduced Go Live Together, which lets you invite other YouTubers to your live stream using your mobile phone.
- TikTok introduced Audience Insights within TikTok Ads Manager, to help advertisers better understand their audiences.
- TikTok is rolling out new text-to-speech voices to more users — check out some examples if you haven’t yet tried the feature.
- TikTok launched its first in-app shops in the US.
- Pinterest launched Shuffles, a collage-making app, in selected English-speaking regions.
- Facebook is rolling out an “introduction prompts” feature for groups.
- WhatsApp launched polls in chats.
- WhatsApp officially introduced Communities to facilitate more structured discussion groups in the app.
- Telegram added several features including topics for groups, video message transcription, and “collectible usernames.”
- Meta Quest launched XTADIUM in the US, a VR sports hub featuring live and on-demand sporting events. You can watch with friends, experience games from the front row, control the camera angles, and more.
2. Twitter news: There’s been a lot of talk, but not a lot of (lasting) change — yet
With so much happening at Twitter under Elon Musk, any news we share about the platform might be overturned as soon as we publish this article… Bearing this in mind, here’s an overview of the biggest and latest updates, and what we can expect from Twitter next:
- Twitter’s rules have not (so far) changed. Even with the reinstatement of previously banned accounts, and talks of failing to maintain compliance with the Apple Store’s regulations, no official change seems to have taken place yet.
- A revised Twitter Blue verification program is due to be “tentatively” launching on 2 December: “Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not) and all verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates.” Individuals could also get a second tiny logo to show that they below to a certain organization.
- Twitter’s roadmap focuses on advertising as entertainment, video, encrypted DMs and longform Tweets.
3. Facebook trends: Less political topics, still plenty of gossip and trivial content
Meta just released their quarterly Widely Viewed Content Report for Q3 2022. This report looks at what people in the US see on Facebook, including the most widely viewed domains, links, pages and posts.
So what are people seeing on Facebook? The first noticeable change we see is a big decrease in political and Facebook rule-breaking content.
In addition, we spotted the following main content trends:
- News and celebrity gossip: News and magazine sites make up a large part of the top 20 most-viewed domains (dailymail.co.uk, cbsnews.com, people.com, etc.), and “news and entertainment” page LADbible is the 2nd most widely viewed Facebook page. Looking at the top links, the focus is on celebrity gossip and sensational stories (Elon Musk’s mom sleeping in a garage, Millie Bobby Brown being too mature for Hollywood, Lady Gaga going bankrupt, etc.), while current affairs-related content also turns up among the most-viewed posts (cost of living, the Queen’s passing, etc.).
- Fun and light-hearted content: Totally The Bomb takes the top spot as the most widely viewed Facebook page, while jokes, funny dog content, fun facts and surprising videos make up half of top posts.
- Videos and GIFs: YouTube, TikTok and Tenor were in the top 4 most widely viewed domains, and videos made up half of the top 20 posts.
- Content aimed at older generations: Several pages dedicated to 1980s content (e.g. 1980s Memory Lane), as well as pages for those “a bit older” (e.g. Silver Elephant) make up a large portion of the most widely-viewed Facebook pages.
- Heart-warming posts: Moving tales of sportsmanship, school food-sharing initiatives, baby elephant rescue, and other touching, “who’s cutting onions?” content come up again and again in the list of most widely viewed posts.
- Victim-support content: The war at home – if only someone knew was the 4th most widely viewed Facebook page, and its post appears in the top 10 most viewed.
These themes and trends give us a good idea of what people (especially in the US) enjoy on Facebook. As Social Media Today notes, much of this content seems to be targeted at older generations, who now make up the majority of Facebook users in the US.
If you’re looking to increase visibility for your own Facebook posts, think about how you can jump on some of these topic ideas, post formats, and messaging trends, in a way that makes sense for your brand and target audience.
4. Social media tip: Grow your employer brand and boost your recruiting efforts
Is one of your organization’s goals to hire more employees? Consider how you can use social media to grow your employer brand and accelerate your recruitment efforts.
Numerous surveys confirm that most applicants use social media in their job search (Career Arc, 86%; Glassdoor, 79%, etc.). And our own research found that 96% of recruitment and employer branding specialists in medium to large companies use social media to reach and attract new hires.
How can you grow your employer brand and reach potential new hires via social media? Here are our 8 best practices:
- Define your employer branding social media strategy, including goals, target audience, EVP, style guide, and more.
- Develop a consistent identity for your employer brand, to grow memorability and recognizability.
- Launch dedicated social media channels, to tell a stronger employer brand story and get in front of the right audience.
- Tell an authentic, believable story. Share both the good and the bad — no workplace is a complete paradise!
- Vary your employer branding social media content, from job openings to tours of the workplace and team celebrations.
- Leverage your employees’ social media networks to increase your talent pool by 10x.
- Let your employees do the talking with employee takeovers.
- Secure the necessary resources by educating your organization on the benefits of employer branding and investing in the right tools.
Read more about these best practices, plus catch up on the latest employer branding trends and statistics, and employer branding social media examples to inspire your social media strategy.
5. LinkedIn company page tips: How to increase reach and engagement
Just Connections released their 2022 LinkedIn Algorithm Research report. The report shares insights on how to get more visibility, reach and engagement for your posts. While the report focuses on personal profiles, it also reviewed over 400 LinkedIn company pages. See a summary of the findings and authors’ recommendations below.
Stats and trends for LinkedIn company pages:
- The average reach of organic posts dropped for the 3rd consecutive year, from 3.2% of followers to 2.4%.
- The average engagement on organic posts increased by 15% compared to last year.
- A comment is 8x stronger than a like, 12x stronger than a share, and 6x stronger than a click on “See more”.
- Engagement from employees has around 30% less impact on posts’ reach and performance compared to engagement from non-employees.
LinkedIn company page best practices:
- The optimal posting frequency is 4 to 5 times per week.
- The best days to post are Tuesday to Thursday, and Saturday.
- You can post multiple times per day without harming the average reach of the previous post (this is not the case for personal profile posts).
- Popular content topics with the highest reach and engagement scores include personal stories, employer branding, thought-leadership and social responsibility.
- Having an employee advocacy strategy helps increase social media engagement. The fact that more and more employers have such a strategy is likely the reason behind the increase in average page engagement. Get tips for employee advocacy on social media.
- External employee advocacy tools help you achieve up to 4 or 5 times more results compared to only using LinkedIn tools. (Shameless plug: Check out how our Content Stadium SHARE employee advocacy solution can work for you!)
Read pages 35 to 40 of the report for all the findings, trends and stats for LinkedIn company pages, or get a quick overview with this infographic. But keep in mind that LinkedIn regularly updates its algorithm, so something that performs well now might not always work in the future.
6. Social media tip: Add key holidays to your 2023 calendar
Get your social media content calendar ready for 2023 by taking note of any annual holiday relevant to your brand — from #LoveYourPetDay to #WorldMusicDay, #NationalSelfieDay and #WorldBookDay.
Check out HubSpot’s and Meltwater’s calendars for dates and ideas.
7. Facebook test: Boost your posts to increase product usage among your followers
In a field experiment conducted on the Facebook page of Discover Vitality, researchers found that when customers follow a company’s social media page and regularly come across its content, they use the company’s products more.
These are the steps the researchers took to increase product usage for Discover Vitality, and their results:
- They invited customers to like the Facebook page.
- They paid to boost posts and targeted them to people who liked the page (after testing organic content alone, which didn’t have an impact).
- Customers that liked the page earned 8% more points (gained through the Vitality program) on average during a 2-month period.
Why does it work? Existing customers who are regularly informed about company news are more likely to use its products and services. And boosting posts helps content reach a much wider pool of followers than organic posts alone.
You might also like these social media trends & ideas
- Catch up on the top social media trends and news for November and October 2022.
- Get 37 examples of event social media posts.
- Find out why Content Stadium is a “life-saver for any social media manager” — according to the European Handball Federation.
Plus, follow us on LinkedIn to get our monthly social media best practices and more straight to your feed!
