Social media is all the time evolving to fulfill the wants and pursuits of its customers. New social media platforms emerge to serve particular audiences or to supply one thing totally different. In 2016, a bit app referred to as TikTok remodeled the social media panorama by means of its brief movies and informal, spontaneous aesthetic; it’s now the most-downloaded app on the planet.
In fact, not all new social media apps will blow up like TikTok. However they do reveal how social traits and consumer expectations are evolving over time. In the event you’re not already keeping track of the platforms beneath, it’s value checking them out to see how social media is altering in 2023.
Obtain our Social Traits report to get knowledge from over 10,000 entrepreneurs that you should use to plan a viral-worthy social technique in 2023.
New social media platforms to observe in 2023
BeReal
In the event you’re bored with the “Instagram Actuality” of filters, photoshop, and faked photograph ops that dominate social media, then BeReal might be for you.
However what’s BeReal precisely? Created in France in 2019, the mission of this app is to create “a brand new and distinctive option to uncover who your mates actually are”. Right here’s the premise:
Every single day at a random time BeReal sends you a notification that it’s time to be actual. You then have 2 minutes to snap a photograph of no matter it’s you occur to be doing. (It’s really two photographs without delay, utilizing your cellphone’s back and front cameras.)
No filters. No modifying. And you may solely do a re-shot inside that 2-minute window.
Instagram has taken be aware, launching its personal two-camera filter to duplicate the BeReal look inside its personal app.
In 2022, BeReal’s utilization was up 312%, and downloads have been up 1,000% from the earlier yr. (It’s been downloaded simply shy of 30 million instances since its launch.) In different phrases: this app is sizzling, sizzling, sizzling.
Clubhouse
Clubhouse is an audio app, that includes chat rooms the place customers can drop in to take heed to dwell conversations.
Clubhouse made an enormous splash when it was launched in March 2020 for iOS. An Android model adopted in Could 2021. In between these two dates, the app exploded in recognition, buying two million lively weekly customers by December 2021.
That is particularly spectacular contemplating the app was technically nonetheless in beta-mode, and restricted to invitation-only. (Or possibly that exclusivity was why curiosity was so excessive? Within the early months that invite codes have been reportedly promoting for $400.) In July 2021, when Clubhouse opened as much as everybody, there was a ten million particular person waitlist.
However, alas, it seems to be like Clubhouse’s shine has pale, peaking in recognition in February 2021, when large names like Oprah Winfrey have been internet hosting chats, and declined from there. Since then, lively customers have declined greater than 60%.
Clubhouse is staying sharp by providing new options and partnering with TED, and nonetheless hosts greater than 3.5 million lively customers, primarily within the STEM house. You even have to provide credit score the place credit score is due: Clubhouse did encourage greater gamers to their very own audio-only apps (LinkedIn, Spotify, and Twitter, for a time), so whether or not it carries on previous 2023 or not, its legacy shall be felt for years to return.
Instagram Reels
Like Twitter Areas, Instagram Reels will not be a brand new social media platform a lot as a brand new function. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless value being attentive to.
Reels launched in 2020 as Instagram’s reply to TikTok. Whereas short-form video was already part of Instagram posts and Tales, Reels added some new capabilities.
Instagram Reels are brief movies (as much as 90 seconds) that will be edited proper within the app. Not like Tales, they don’t disappear after 24 hours. They dwell in your feed beneath a devoted tab.
Reels supply extra subtle modifying choices than Tales: you’ll be able to edit clips collectively, regulate the format, or add AR results. The outcomes are enjoyable and artistic, which is why Reels are so standard on the Discover web page.
And curiosity in Reels is certainly rising over time:
Ought to your model be making Reels? We ran an experiment to see if Reels would increase our engagement, and general we noticed a small enchancment. However Reels is usually a highly effective option to join with audiences, and Instagram has configured the app to showcase high quality Reels content material.
And in the event you’re already creating video content material for Tales, it’s undoubtedly value exploring Reels to increase the attain and lifespan of your content material!
Spotify Reside
In June 2021, Spotify launched their new app for dwell audio conversations (sound acquainted?) referred to as Spotify Greenroom–in April 2022, the branding was modified to Spotify Reside.
The twist is that Spotify focuses on musical artists and athletes, leveraging its present consumer base of podcast and music followers.
Whereas a Spotify account isn’t required for Greenroom, you’ll be able to log in to the app together with your Spotify credentials. You possibly can tune in to Spotify Reside chats through your favourite artist or creator’s web page (search for the “Reside on Spotify” function), and if you wish to be part of within the dialog, you should use the devoted Spotify Reside app to chime in on a dialogue or begin your individual Reside room.
A month after launch, they’d 141,000 downloads on iOS and 100,000 on Android, although Spotify has been cagey with more moderen numbers. Whereas this new social media app hasn’t taken off in a giant means (but?), Spotify has the benefit of constructing on a platform that’s already audio-focused.
Discord
Simply as TikTok was as soon as merely “the dance problem app,” Discord was launched in 2015 as a distinct segment app for the gaming neighborhood. Since then, it’s grown into a significant participant amongst chat-focused social media platforms. In March 2022, Discord secured $995 million USD in funding, and in July 2022, it welcomed 522 million guests. With cash and recognition on its facet, it’ll be fascinating to see the place the chat hub goes from right here.
Discord remains to be standard amongst players, who can stream video games on the app. However different communities use the video, audio, and textual content options to talk about every kind of matters, from relationship exhibits to sports activities. The NFT and crypto neighborhood are likely to congregate on Discord servers, too.
Whereas Discord doesn’t promote advertisements, manufacturers can nonetheless have a presence on the app by creating their very own channels or servers (collections of associated channels on a subject). The emphasis on real connection and dialog affords an opportunity to construct deep relationships and achieve helpful buyer insights.
Twitch
Based in 2011, Twitch is likely one of the oldest platforms on this checklist. And though it has 26.5 million lively customers every day, except you’re within the sport house, you’re most likely not conversant in it.
Right here’s the deal: Twitch is a video streaming platform the place creators stream dwell content material to their audiences. As of October 2022, there have been 7.1 million lively streamers.
Whereas video games nonetheless dominate the platform, streamers create every kind of content material: cooking exhibits, make-up tutorials, and musical performances. In a single quarter, Twitch customers watched 6.1 billion hours of streaming content material.
As Twitch continues to broaden its attain past the gaming neighborhood, manufacturers have extra alternatives to achieve audiences by means of the app. Firms can create their very own branded channels, accomplice with Twitch influencers, or purchase advertisements on the platform.
Need to study extra about Twitch? We’ve created a information to Twitch advertising and marketing for you.
Patreon
Based in 2013, Patreon permits content material creators to earn cash from subscriptions. In trade for his or her monetary help, subscribers obtain entry to unique, common content material and might work together with content material creators. Since its inception, Patreon has grown to greater than 250,000 creators and over eight million paid subscribers.
For creators who’ve developed a following on different platforms like YouTube or Instagram, Patreon can present extra possession and management over income. Patreon affords two fashions: a month-to-month subscription or a plan that permits you to pay per submit.
Substack
The best option to describe Substack is as an electronic mail publication platform. Based in 2017, Substack is a publishing platform that leverages the ability of particular person creators over media shops. Every creator has their very own publication, which permits them to attach straight with audiences with out the oversight of a writer.
There’s additionally Substack for Podcasts, a comparatively new instrument that enables audio creators to publish and develop their podcasts. In early 2022, Substack additionally began beta-testing a video participant for creators, that means the potential for content material creation is just rising.
Creators can supply paid tiers (beginning at $5 USD/month) in addition to free content material. Like different social media platforms, Substack depends on influencers to construct its viewers and has supplied six-figure advances to entice well-known writers to publish on the platform.
Comparatively talking, Substack remains to be fairly small: as of November 2022, it had greater than 1.5 million subscribers. Nevertheless, that’s a dramatic enhance over the 250,000 subscribers it had in September 2020. And curiosity in Substack is constant to develop:
Substack represents a departure from many different social media platforms, which reward novelty and fast gratification. Creators on Substack usually produce long-form, in-depth written content material, which requires deep engagement with topics and matters. Substack prides itself on deviating from the “consideration economic system.” Every Substack features as a neighborhood for its viewers, who can submit feedback and work together with posts.
Substack additionally represents a shift away from conventional publishing, as customers flip away from bigger shops in favor of curating a customized choice of writers and creators. Its rising recognition means that, regardless of rumors of declining consideration spans, customers are very keen to have interaction with in-depth, high quality content material.
Telegram
Messaging app Telegram was based in 2013 as a privacy-focused different to greater platforms like Fb and Instagram. Customers can trade information, photographs, movies, and extra by means of chats by means of group chats that may embody as much as 200,000 folks. There are additionally public Telegram channels, which might entice thousands and thousands of followers.
Telegram has grown quickly lately: it now boasts 550 million month-to-month lively customers, and in December 2022, reached 1 million premium subscribers. Lately, it has attracted much more consideration for its function within the Russia-Ukraine Warfare.
Telegram added promoting to the platform in October 2021. Adverts are restricted to public channels, and Telegram has promised to not give advertisers entry to non-public knowledge or observe whether or not customers click on on advertisements. As a substitute of focusing on particular consumer demographics or pursuits, advertisers can select the matters, channels, and languages for his or her advertisements. Manufacturers may also attain audiences organically by beginning public channels or creating chatbots to help prospects.
Polywork
Does LinkedIn lastly have a challenger? Polywork, launched in April 2021, is a brand new social media platform centered on skilled networking, the place customers can create profiles, curate a private feed, and attain out to different customers to collaborate and work collectively. It raised one other $28 million in September 2022, so it doesn’t appear like it’s going anyplace.
Not like LinkedIn, the place customers have a single headline describing their present function or specialty, Polywork designed for the hustle-culture era, permitting customers to focus on a number of roles, facet gigs, ardour initiatives, and specialties.
Along with profiles, Polywork goals to attach people for collaboration with beta options like a digital house for group work referred to as Golf equipment.
It’s thrilling to see somebody lastly shaking up the skilled networking house with a extra Gen Z-friendly platform. It’ll take loads to unseat LinkedIn, which has 875 million members. However Polywork is value keeping track of, because it represents an thrilling evolution in skilled social networking.
Yubo
Launched in 2015, Yubo is a live-streaming app with a concentrate on friendships and connection, with 40 million customers (up from 25 million in December 2021). Although it was based in France (bonjour!), 60% of its customers are based mostly in Canada and the US. And in the course of the early months of COVID, when everybody was caught at house, Yubo tripled its every day consumer base.
Yubo customers can create video chats, the place the streamers can work together with viewers. Customers can add one another as pals, which permits them to start out particular person chats.
Amongst new social media apps, Yubo is especially teen-friendly, with a devoted neighborhood for customers 13- to 17-years-old. And Yubo has invested important assets in making the platform a protected house for customers.
Superior age-verification know-how is meant to mitigate abuse, and there’s a Security Hub that customers can entry 24/7 to report considerations or ask questions. There’s additionally human and algorithmic monitoring of content material to swiftly handle any breaches of the neighborhood pointers. And customers who share private info in a chat, similar to their cellphone quantity, will obtain a pop-up security alert to teach them about threat.
This focus is refreshing, given what number of platforms have turn into unsafe areas the place customers (notably ladies and folks of shade) face harassment and threats. Whereas Yubo doesn’t supply promoting or alternatives for model partnerships, it’s an instance of how consumer expectations round security and privateness are altering.
Mastodon
Downloads of Mastadon jumped 6,000% within the wake of Elon Musk’s buy of Twitter Whether or not customers keep there stays to be seen, however it’s undoubtedly a Twitter different that ought to be on entrepreneurs’ radar. As of November 2022, Mastodon had a million month-to-month customers. (For comparability, Twitter is predicting it’ll attain 335 million international customers in 2023.)
Mastodon is a free, open-source platform and social networking app, launched in March 2016, the place customers can share textual content, picture, and video updates with followers. Not like Twitter, nevertheless, Mastodon is a decentralized social community: customers can begin their very own in-app networks with rules of their selecting. Individuals can then be part of servers which are related to their curiosity
Like Twitter, Mastodon customers can comply with one another and have interaction in dialog with replies and likes. However not like Twitter, Mastodon’s newsfeed is only chronological (no algorithm to appease right here) and presently has no promoting choices. This might present a problem to entrepreneurs on the lookout for paid-placement alternatives, however in the event you’re seeking to attain a distinct segment viewers with some natural engagement techniques, the appropriate server might be ready there for you. Plus, Mastodon may additionally be a very good place to do some social listening.
Study extra concerning the up-and-coming Twitter different, Mastadon, right here.
Locket
Launched in early 2022, the Locket widget is designed to show photographs out of your BFFs proper in your cellphone’s house display screen (whether or not you’ve received an iPhone or an Android). Your buddies add photos utilizing the Locket app, they usually’ll seem in your finish all through the day.
Developer Matt Moss created the widget to share photographs together with his girlfriend, however the idea intrigued so lots of his pals that he made the instrument right into a public app.
@locketcamera
Inside just a few weeks of its launch, Locket skyrocketed to the highest of the U.S. App Retailer charts, with greater than two million customers signing up in simply two weeks. Although it was developed as a little bit of a micro-social community supposed for partaking together with your 5 or 10 closest pals, it just lately raised $12.5 million in funding… so clearly, somebody on the market within the enterprise world thinks there’s potential right here for branding.
For entrepreneurs, the massive lesson right here is that there’s a rising curiosity in additional private digital experiences, and constructing high quality connections, not simply racking up big likes.
Tribel
Tribel payments itself as a “bigotry-free social community the place kindness and intelligence flourish” and is owned by the activists Rafael and Omar Rivero, who run the information web site Occupy Democrats.
Tribel claimed to have 400,000 customers as of October 2022. The format and performance look fairly much like Twitter, however as you may think, Tribel’s small however lively viewers leans left. You’ll discover quite a lot of political memes right here. Customise your profile and feed, or be part of a public or personal group.
There doesn’t presently seem like a option to promote on Tribel, but when a vocal, left-leaning viewers is your jam, becoming a member of this community to start out some dialogue might be worthwhile.
Study extra about figuring out your audience right here.
Hive Social
Hive Social was first developed by a mysterious founder named “Raluca” again in 2019; In November 2022, the community hit 1.5 million customers.
The mobile-only social media app is much like Twitter. Observe different customers, like, and repost content material. One key means that Hive Social is distinct from Twitter, although, is that its feed is chronological; Raluca, so says the About Us lore, was impressed to create Hive as a result of she was bored with her posts not being seen by pals.
One other differentiator: there are not any character limits for posts on Hive Social. There’s additionally no option to confirm customers at this level or to spice up posts.
However what there is is a variety of the way to customise your profile, too — join your account to your Spotify to play a track when folks go to your profile, and add your astrological signal and pronouns in the event you’d like.
Gasoline
Gasoline is presently solely out there in 12 states however is dominating excessive colleges wherever it goes. Between August 2022 and November 2022, it was downloaded 5.1 million instances. The social media app permits customers to submit ballot questions on their pals and gather nameless solutions. (Suppose “Who ought to DJ each social gathering?”)
The questions all skew constructive, which is sensible, on condition that the title “Gasoline” refers back to the objective of “gassing up” pals with compliments. Customers earn cash for taking part in polls, which they will then commerce in to disclose who answered questions on them. Juicy!
In case your best viewers is Gen Z (or youthful), it is a key one to control. And these sharing apps are likely to trickle as much as older demographics — take into consideration how youngsters have been the primary adopters of Snap and TikTok earlier than Millennials received within the combine.
Dig into our newest Digital Traits report for youth traits and up-and-coming social platforms to ensure you’re all the time within the loop.
CoHost
CoHost takes its design cues from Internet 1.0 — you get the retro feeling of being again on a Geocities web page — however the running a blog web site affords some intriguing trendy options. There are not any character limits, and the choice to make pages with themes for various initiatives or random whims; these pages will be collaborative if you wish to workforce up for one thing. The Verge describes CoHost as “the awkward offspring of Tumblr, Twitter, and a touch of Reddit.”
Customers can incorporate CSS into their posts, which makes for some fascinating, clickable content material with interactivity — an uncommon function for a social media web site.
CoHost remains to be in invite-only mode and is experimenting with monetization through subscription-only CoHost plus accounts.
Alternatives for social media entrepreneurs listed below are presently unclear, however preserve your eyes on this house. A social community for creativity looks like a refreshing change of tempo.
Counter Social
The ad-free, chronological information feed launched in November 2017 however finds itself as a part of the Twitter Alternates dialog in 2023.
CounterSocial claims to have greater than 63 million month-to-month customers, although these folks aren’t essentially signing in from everywhere in the globe — the app bans entry to widespread bot-and-troll hotspots like Russia, Iran, North Korea, Syria, China, and Pakistan. (A transfer some critics have referred to as xenophobic.)
Funded purely by app customers and based by a hacker named The Jester, CounterSocial is constructed on the precept of no assaults, no advertisements, no harassment, and no disinformation. Followers reward the shortage of toxicity locally and might even apply a filter to see “lighter” content material in the event that they crave extra canine pics and fewer political discourse. Consideration for cybersecurity is inbuilt all through: uploaded pictures and movies are stripped of metadata.
An app to handle all of your social networks in a single place
It may be intimidating to maintain up with each new social media platform that arrives on the scene, however having a primary understanding of the panorama is crucial if you wish to make sensible selections in your model’s social media technique.
Fortunately, social media dashboards like Hootsuite will help preserve your workflow working easily together with your tried-tested-and-true social media accounts, so you could have extra time to review up on the brand new children on the town.
Our present social community integrations embody: Instagram, Fb, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Enterprise Profile, and Whatsapp.
Save time managing your social media presence with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you’ll be able to publish and schedule posts to all the most important networks, discover related conversions, have interaction the viewers, measure outcomes, and extra. Strive it free at the moment.
Do it higher with Hootsuite, the all-in-one social media instrument. Keep up to the mark, develop, and beat the competitors.
