Birnbach Communications, Inc. (www.birnbachcom.com), a PR and social media agency focusing on thought leadership, today issued its 21^st annual list of top media and marketing trends for the upcoming year.

“We’re seeing the evolution of artificial intelligence apps that could change how companies develop content, potential legislation that affects how social media platform moderate user content, and the impact of demand of electric vehicles on electric infrastructure,” said Norman Birnbach, president, Birnbach Communications. “By identifying these trends, we can help uncover media and business opportunities for clients across industries, such as tech, biotech and life science, AI and robotics, STEM and education.”

Here are five of the agency’s top predictions for 2023:

1. AI-app ChatGPT will be a hit while Lensa AI will pale in comparison. Artificial Intelligence powers two apps launched in November: ChatGPT, a natural-language bot that can write marketing content and essays, debug and code programs, answer open-ended questions and carry on conversations, and Lensa AI, an AI-based image generator that enables users to create colorful, custom cartoon images of themselves. While Lensa AI was the Apple Store’s most popular app in December, we expect that ChatGPT will be a game changer, despite limitations, but ChatGPT’s potential as a useful tool is already being embraced and feared because of possible misuse in think pieces.
2. Twitter and TikTok will survive amid much speculation. The Twitter brand is tarnished, and some think its future is in doubt because its revenue has dropped due to an exodus of users and advertisers and to an increase of trolls and misinformation. (Due to concerns about content moderation, we’ve been advising consumer and nonprofit clients to focus more on Facebook, and for startups and B2B clients to focus on LinkedIn.) Meanwhile proposals in Congress could limit or outright ban TikTok in the U.S. Our bet: both Twitter and TikTok will survive 2023 but their uncertain future will generate a lot of coverage. We believe Twitter will survive because many users still depend on it and there’s no true successor yet.
3. Section 230 should survive but may not. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act allows social media sites to conduct content moderation while shielding them from legal liability for user-generated content. It’s under attack from a range of Congressional proposals plus a current Supreme Court case because social media content moderation is important and imperfect and often generates complaints of perceived bias. We think Section 230 should survive but won’t in its current form. Tech companies may try to enact a compromise before SCOTUS makes an unfavorable ruling or before Congress revises the Communications Decency Act. Either way, it’s a big deal and we expect lots of coverage.
4. Despite the spectacular collapse of FTX, crypto and bitcoin will continue to capture the media’s attention. Some of the major business publications report on crypto in every print issue and more frequently online. Despite the collapse FTX and a possible trial of SBM (former CEO Sam Bankman Fried), and huge drops last year in the value of bitcoin, we expect significant media coverage in 2023 as the market tries to sort things out.
5. The country’s electric grid is not yet prepared to support the shift to electric cars. By 2030, electric vehicles (EVs) are projected to represent more than 52 percent of the U.S. market, which is why we expect a lot of coverage about the need to support all those EVs. For one thing, the current availability of charging stations is sparse even as the government has set a goal of 500,000 charging stations by 2030. We expect the media to report on the country’s aging infrastructure that has trouble handling current demand, and it’s getting worse dur to climate change – systems in California and Texas are already stretched beyond capacity. Meanwhile, the increasing use of digital technology to manage the grid makes it vulnerable to cyberattacks and last year’s physical attacks at a power substation in North Carolina spotlighted concerns for physical safety. The New York Times and other top media have strengthened their climate coverage and will cover news about electric grid failures and other infrastructure issues.

“In addition to our top trends, we expect a continuation of the trends we saw last year, including fallout out at streaming services and layoffs at media companies that will reshape the industry as well as layoffs at Big Tech, a likely ad slump, plus concerns about the economic impact of the war in Ukraine and climate change,” Birnbach added.

These other trends will be rolled out on the agency’s blog, PRBackTalk: birnbachcom.com/PRBackTalk.

About Birnbach Communications

Boston-based Birnbach Communications, an independent PR and social media agency, partners with its clients to strategically navigate the complex and ever-changing communication landscape. The agency enables its client base of growing technology-driven and life science companies to achieve leadership in a crowded business market by helping them launch products and services; establish new product categories; and drive market demand through media and influencer relations, social media, and thought leadership campaigns. Founded in 2001, Birnbach Communications brings flexible senior-level intelligence and a proven, pragmatic approach to solving clients’ business challenges. Connect with Birnbach: Web: www.birnbachcom.com, Twitter: twitter.com/#!/birnbachcomm; Blog: http://birnbachcom.com/PRBackTalk/; Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirnbachCommunications | Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/birnbach-communications.