I came across an opinion piece on WIRED by Steven Levy from 2012 where he said that live video will come to dominate in ten years time. He’s not off by a lot and I firmly believe that 2023 will see the resurgence of live video in a big way. What started off with UStream, Justin.in, Periscope, Youtube Live, etc will finally become accessible and mainstream.
Users who aren’t influencers were averse to using live video as a format. The rise of authenticity-focused social networks like BeReal will make live video more mainstream this year. I was so excited about this, I wrote a thread about this on Twitter.
Today’s #morningfinds will focus on interesting finds around live video.
Shared viewing experiences will become more widespread
Consumer viewing habits are shifting, and one way social media platforms may respond is by seeking partnerships to drive reach and revenue on additional surfaces. According to one survey, shared viewing experiences, such as watching YouTube content on TV, are already a growing trend, especially among families. The survey also found that these shared experiences are a way for parents and children to bond while encouraging the development of digital skills.
Publishers can leverage this trend by seeking partnerships and collaborations with streaming platforms and mobile providers. For example, a publisher could create a YouTube channel optimized for TV viewing, focusing on family-friendly content.
The only new app that will matter will be BeReal
BeReal is a photo-sharing app that prompts users to post one unfiltered, unedited photo per day to a select group of friends. Photos taken outside of the two-minute time frame say how many minutes late they were posted.
The network launched in late 2019, but its popularity exploded in 2022. As of October 2022, it’s the top social networking app on the App Store and has been installed roughly 29.5 million times.
Google Trends also shows that global searches for “What is BeReal” and “BeReal app” exploded mid-year in 2022. Users skew female and young. The majority are below 25.
The app doesn’t have ads or features for businesses yet, which many say is part of the appeal. BeReal gives the feeling of the early days of social media when users mainly posted photos to show their friends what they were up to — before it became the highly curated, ad-heavy space it is today.
Even BeReal’s official communications sound like texts from your best friend. After a large outage on their app, the company simply tweeted “all good now.” This is the opposite of the highly professional communications strategies of other major social media networks.
Speaking of outages, the surge in popularity seems to have caught the company unaware. Glitches and outages are frequent (with most users opening the app and posting pictures at the exact same time) and threaten to hinder the app’s growth.
Users are also limited to 500 friends, meaning that your brand’s usual marketing strategy won’t work here.
Despite this, BeReal’s popularity has caught the attention of brands like e.l.f. Cosmetics, Chipotle, and Pacsun. And TikTok and Instagram have both released clones of the dual camera feature (but we don’t know anyone who’s using them yet).
This is why we’re making a big bet on BeReal’s importance in 2023. Even if the app doesn’t survive the year, its impact is already undeniable.
This is what Gen Z wants from social media: unfiltered, uncurated content that doesn’t ask you to buy anything or make you feel bad about your life. It’s a fun place to be. And at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-trends/#6_Gen_Z_will_redefine_UGC
In-the-moment content
Who doesn’t love authentic, unpolished, and realistic content? With TikTok still going strong and BeReal on its way to becoming a household name, Andy predicts more unfiltered and authentic content in 2023.
Andy: As one of the most downloaded apps in 2022, BeReal and what it represents is something we can’t ignore. While I personally remain unconvinced as to whether this is a lasting change to the social media landscape or whether it’s a novelty value as we saw with Clubhouse, I think that in the short term BeReal represents a very real cultural shift that is happening on social.
This shift demonstrates a desire for authentic, unfiltered content, and places value on people being their true selves. TikTok has already copied BeReal in providing such content under the guise of ‘TikTok Now’ prompting users to take a daily picture or video. I expect other social platforms will be monitoring this trend before potentially making the decision to introduce similar features to their own platforms in 2023.
Source: https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/social-media-predictions
Social media is looking more like 21st-century TV
Streaming video may have disrupted an entire industry, but social media has disrupted the whole world. By amplifying the most fundamental aspect of humanity—communication—social media has helped enable us to forge global relationships, collaborate beyond our geographies, attain the celebrity once guarded by Hollywood, and potentially wield influence over millions of followers. All from the palm of our hand.
Now, perhaps due to the impossible weight of content moderation, the looming regulatory guardrails coming to contain its business model, or simply the need to reinforce its value for advertisers, social media seems to be growing less social.
Communication and socialization will likely continue to shape the internet, just as it has shaped us before for eons. But in 2023 social media may look more like an open stage for performers than a social network.
Source: 2023 media and entertainment industry outlook (Deloitte)
Most popular content types in live video streaming
From live shopping to the rise of authenticity and just-in-time engagement, live video or parts of it will come to shape 2023 for us. I’m extremely bullish on the format but also believe that it will evolve to be more usable. Live video has traditionally suffered because a lot of us fear facing the camera unedited, unscripted and with an unknown audience.
Some of the ways I see live video being adapted:
Short-form live video where you’re able to summon an audience at short notice to do a 30-second or so live video with real-time engagement from your audience.
News organisations who don’t have feet on the street could incentivise local users to report short live streams so they could provide accurate, just-in-time coverage to their viewers.
Influencers could take their audience on a short shopping tour of what they’re buying, eating, etc with the ability to interact with them.
That’s all for today. Hope you have a great week ahead!