There’s a shift in what consumers find memorable on social media

Meanwhile, one in four people believe speaking out about social issues and causes makes a brand memorable, despite this being seen as a differentiator in recent years. 

With consumers primarily following brands on social media to stay up to date on products and services (68%), the 2023 Index reveals a shift in what consumers want on social media and makes it clear that brands must prioritise personalised care and engagement, Sprout says.

Prioritise personalised care and engagement

Sprout Social, a provider of cloud-based social media management software, surveyed over 1,800 consumers and 900 marketers across the US and UK to see how social media’s role has evolved in today’s business landscape, what consumers expect from brands on social, and how brands are planning for the future.

“Our research shows consumer expectations continue to rise and shift year-over-year. Today’s consumers want brands to do more than jump on trends and social issues – they want to trust and truly connect with a brand, requiring them to be more responsive and personal than ever,” says Jamie Gilpin, CMO at Sprout.

Additional key findings from the 2023 Index include:

• Marketers have AI in their future plans, but not without some apprehensions. With over eight in 10 already seeing the positive impacts of AI, marketers anticipate AI playing a role in analysing social data (68%), content creation (66%), social media advertising targeting and campaign targeting (65%), and building chatbots (63%) in 2024. On the flip side, marketers rank job displacement as the #1 concern when it comes to AI. Furthermore, a third are concerned with maintaining a balance between AI and human touch in social media interactions, and 42% of consumers are apprehensive about brands using AI in social media interactions.  

• The social teams of tomorrow must make silos a thing of the past. Social’s role has expanded well beyond marketing, touching nearly every corner of a business. Today, 76% of social marketers say their team’s insights inform other departments and 65% say other teams inform their social efforts. Despite this, 43% of social teams still feel siloed from other departments, especially among mid-market (48%) and enterprise (44%) organisations in comparison to their small business counterparts (33%).

You can download the full report here.