Table of contents
Social DNA Team
Trends
Corporate Influencer
Trend #1 - The big meta(verse) update
Facebook - Year of Efficiency
Facebook's user numbers have been stagnating for years. Facebook is even losing active users in its core US market. TikTok is a major competitor and impresses with a new algorithm and better integration of influencers/creators and music. Facebook also has an image problem and has to deal with political attacks and government regulations. However, instead of concentrating fully on Facebook and getting the world's largest social network back on track, Mark Zuckerberg is focusing on the dream of building the "Metaverse", which is unrealistic, at least in the short term.
Social media professionals have been complaining about Facebook's lack of support and usability for years, as described in this LinkedIn post, among others:

But not all is lost. Following the massive pressure on the markets and the changed overall situation, Mark Zuckerberg has recently shown some insight and admitted mistakes. In a video interview with the New York Times he announces that Meta will focus on greater efficiency and profitability. This gives hope that more improvements will be made to the core product Facebook and the high-flyer Instagram. In line with this, Facebook announced in mid-January that it was closing the Creator Studio and upgrading the Meta Business Suite instead. A real step towards less tool chaos(source). Last but not least, Facebook is dependent on the advertising business and this must now be expanded further. The Q4 2022 quarterly figures give cause for hope and the share price has also recovered significantly(source).
Another reason in Facebook's favor is that the social media network is (still) doing extremely well in many markets. Facebook is still the most frequently used social network in Germany, with 69% of the particularly affluent target group of 30-49 year olds using it at least once a week, 33% of 50-69 year olds and even 17% of over 70 year olds(source).
Marketers should therefore not write off Facebook. However, due to the very low organic reach on Facebook, engagement should always be accompanied by social advertising.
WhatsApp: More applications for companies
WhatsApp is still an untapped monetary treasure for the Meta Group. No usage figures have been published for some time, but we can assume that well over 2 billion people will be using WhatsApp in 2023(source). The message service has been completely free of charge for more than twelve years and is therefore unprofitable. In the current market situation, this can no longer continue. Meta has already started to tentatively monetize WhatsApp in 2022. WhatsApp currently earns money in two ways: with WhatsApp Business, business customers pay a small fee of less than one cent per message for marketing, sales and support. With WhatsApp Pay, users in pilot countries such as India can send money to each other and small businesses can also use this type of payment. Meta offers this service partly free of charge and partly with a small fee. Attempts are being made to expand the business quickly. A third option is always hotly debated: Advertising placements in the app. This could also be launched this year.
And what about the Metaverse now?
The Gartner Hype Cycle has rarely been more applicable. At the beginning of last year, the metaverse was still at the peak of exaggerated expectations, but today it is more likely to be in the valley of disappointment. A lot of money was "invested" in the metaverse by companies and individuals at the beginning of 2022. For example, 4.3 million dollars were paid to secure a piece of "land" in the sandbox metaverse (not from Meta)(source). Today, the various metaverses appear to have only a few thousand active users per day, falling further short of projections(source). The value of the piece of land today is only worth a fraction of the millions...

Figure 1 - Gartner Hype Cycle by Social DNA
And with Meta? Mark Zuckerberg invests USD 10 billion here every year. Has this expenditure paid off? Yes and no! After all, Meta's metaverse "Horizon Worlds" has around 200,000 active monthly users(source). Although this is far below expectations of half a million, it is still a strong figure compared to the other metaverses. Meta also supplies the associated hardware. Anyone who has ever tested the Meta VR glasses knows how powerful this technology is. According to market research company IDC, 15 million devices have already been sold worldwide(source). Meta is finally allowed to sell its VR glasses in Germany. Just in time for Christmas sales, the glasses were offered for less than €500(more information). Zuckerberg has projected that the investment in the Metaverse will not pay off in one to two years, but rather in ten to 15 years. Let's wait and see when the metaverse reaches the plateau of productivity. In the meantime, we can pass the time with Instagram.
Trend #4 - Content Creation is King [and now also Queen]
TikTok invigorates the industry
Competition stimulates business. This is what happened with Instagram, Facebook and even LinkedIn. They all had to adapt to the recipe for success of the "attacker" TikTok in order to avoid losing even more users. In addition to the pure focus on videos and the better connection with music and sounds, TikTok's success can be explained above all by the changed "content recommendation algorithm".
Excursus: How does the TikTok algorithm work?
The TikTok algorithm recommends content based on a combination of several factors that are weighted differently and constantly adjusted. The most important factors:
- Playing time and frequency of the videos
- User interactions
- Relevance of the sender
- Topicality/ trending content
The exclusion and devaluation criteria for content include, among others:
- Spam/ Hatespeech
- Keywords defined by TikTok
- Reported content
You can find other relevant factors in this infographic:

Figure: Social DNA infographic TikTok algorithm
The list is based on our tests, experience and information from TikTok and is arranged according to estimated weighting.
Strategic recommendations for action
- You'll be on the safe side with Instagram and LinkedIn in 2023 A lot will happen on TikTok and Twitter in 2023. Brands should be vigilant, experiment and learn.
- Due to changes in social media algorithms and challenges in social advertising targeting, content creation is becoming even more important.
- Of course, the quality of content must be right, but quantity and speed have often been underestimated in the past. This has consequences for companies
- Invest in content in-house production and/or increase agency budget for content.
- Stay close to the trends and algorithm changes. Either through your own research or regular exchanges (daily to weekly jour fixes) with your agency partners.
- Strengthen relationships with influencers and creators, learn from them and use their content for your channels after consultation.
- Venturing into YouTube Shorts. 9:16 Content needs to be created for Instagram and TikTok anyway.
- If you haven't already done so: Start your employer branding strategy now to reap the first rewards with a strong social recruiting campaign at the end of the year.

Social advertising hacks 2023
Content targeting: The desired target group should already be reflected in the design of the ad.
Manual campaign management: Close monitoring of campaign playout and quick adjustments are becoming even more relevant.
AB Testing: Because many ads no longer achieve the desired results, marketers need to test more variants and only then allocate a large part of their budget to winning creatives.
Integration of (corporate) influencers, creators and KOLs: Personal brands bring their own specific target group with them. In times when targeting is more difficult, companies can take advantage of this. Meta already offers solutions for integrating influencers into the Ad Manager. LinkedIn wants to follow suit and will probably introduce corporate influencer ads in 2023.
Analytics: Advertisers need to improve their own attribution models and switch to server-side tracking.
Those who focus fully on content and implement these changes will win the social advertising game in 2023. Social advertising is still an elementary component for achieving business goals. A new playing field for ads will be the YouTube Shorts format and more advertisers will also be added to TikTok.