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Social Media Marketing Trends 2024

By TechDogs Editorial Team

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Overview

Winston Churchill once said, “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” This is also true when it comes to creating content for your social media strategies and keeping pace with Social Media Marketing trends. In fact, we say truer words have not been said! Whilst perfectionism isn’t bad, its pursuit can creep into your marketing plans and stall progress as others move forward.

In the modern digital landscape, with platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube being adopted as powerful marketing stages for brands to interact with audiences, it is imperative to understand trends that will shape your digital campaigns. From the pervasive integration of AI-driven personalization to the captivating rise of the content economy and the growth of social commerce, every marketer wants to know the top trends that are reshaping the way businesses connect, share and engage over social media. The Social Media Marketing world is changing by the minute!

So, hop on and explore our diligently curated list of Social Media Marketing Trends in 2024 for a bird's eye view of the current Social Media Marketing landscape and what lies ahead!

Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge that took the internet by storm in 2014? We saw Barack Obama, Charlie Sheen, Bill Gates and many more celebrities who were nominated and completed the challenge to raise money for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) research.

Cut to the present day - from dusting off one’s dancing shoes and taking out Halloween costumes for an everyday Costco visit to making oddly satisfying videos of cooking food and the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend – it is clear that social media has a grip on our day-to-day activities and makes unimaginable things possible.

Today, we see a 91.56% social media penetration in the US alone and it is expected to close to 96% by 2028. From the total US population, 9.1 out of 10 people have an active social media presence! Moreover, the average person around the globe spends about 145 minutes on social media daily – close to 2.5 hours a day! Wow…that’s something.

As a marketer, how can you leverage this gold mine? Of course, by creating content on social media and staying relevant. Yet you cannot be ‘on’ 24 hours a day as it takes time, energy and the right knowledge. For businesses and marketers, having a social media marketing strategy is no longer optional, after all. Last year we covered trends such as social media ads, live video, customer service integration and more.

Now, dear marketers, read on and understand what will make waves in Social Media Marketing Trends in 2024!

Trend 1: Social Media Will Be The Future Of Ecommerce

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It’s no secret that consumers today are becoming more demanding in terms of their social experiences and expectations from brands. We live in an era where new brands are discovered on social media and the user journey no longer is dependent on traditional search engines and on-premises shopping. Social media is the new search engine and the old search engines are losing steam each day as consumers turn to social search!

Today, TikTok is the #1 search engine for more than half of Gen Z and more than 40% of online purchases were made because of social media influence. What’s the appeal? Speed, quality, and community. After all, marketing pioneer Don Schultz validates this trend of social commerce by saying, “Social media creates communities, not markets.”

People are captivated by bite-sized, hyper-specific, user-generated videos. Brands with an engaged social media presence will win in 2024 by creating audiences who are loyal and committed to the brand’s services and products. Hence, sharing content on social media channels will become important as it is key to building a business community. UGC (user-generated content) on social media fulfills the need for genuine reviews, sharpening consumer trust in the brand, and leading to more positive outcomes via social media.

TechDogs’ Takeaway: Invest in the right platform depending on your product and aim. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and more platforms cater to specific age niches and generations. Focus on building communities rather than a one-way monologue about your brand. Next, optimizing your social search is as important as SEO to ensure your content is easily discoverable on social media platforms. Hence, keywords will remain crucial to amplify your reach by optimizing titles/captions and using relevant hashtags. Lastly, work on quick optimizations on your social profiles to ensure a speedy checkout experience for when a follower finally becomes a customer.

Trend 2: Short-form Video Content Will Continue To Dominate

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Now that the average American is watching 80 minutes of TikTok every day, business leaders realize that it’s no longer ‘emerging’ - it’s here! Both brevity and authenticity are winning the day on social media, with short-form videos—typically less than a minute in length—capturing the attention of 66% of consumers. We bet you’ve seen and liked of few of them yourself!

Highly shareable, these bite-sized videos are 2.5 times more engaging than longer videos and 34% of consumers appreciate the more genuine nature of the shorter form. Here are general video length recommendations for the biggest platforms:

YouTube: On average, videos up to 2 minutes long perform best.
Instagram: Up to 26 seconds.
Facebook: No longer than 1 minute.
Twitter: Around 45 seconds.

Dan Patterson, who has worked in the media and entertainment industry for decades, says “Humans are incredibly visual and powerful, moving images help us find meaning… [and] video helps capture and contextualize the world around us.” Add to this that Gen Z loses active attention to ads after just 1.3 seconds —less time than any other age group. Hence, marketers aiming at the younger generations cannot stick to the 30-second ad mentality anymore and adopting shorter videos will be critical in 2024.

TechDogs’ Takeaway: Our top suggestion to marketers would be to adopt video marketing to capture a broader audience. This helps build a natural connection with your audience and share an organic flow and conversation. Apart from this, make short, shareable videos - the shorter your videos are, the more likely are they to earn views and more likely to be shared too. Lastly, make use of search engine algorithms. Do your keyword research, optimize metadata, include captions and transcripts in your videos. This will help you hone your website’s video SEO capabilities and land more views and visibility.

Trend 3: The Need For Social Media Sentiment Analysis Will Grow

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Marketers predict that in 2024 we will see the boom of a dynamic duo: social listening and sentiment analysis. Here’s what it means for social media marketing tactics!

Social listening is a process that analyzes, monitors and tracks social media conversations related to your brand. Social media sentiment analysis – also known as opinion mining - is the process of collecting and analyzing information on how people talk about your brand on social media. When your brand knows what audiences are saying on social media, you can craft better campaigns, ads and posts for engagement and brand awareness. As Zach Hendrix, co-founder of GreenPal says, “Listen to your customers or you will have none.” #GreatAdvice

With 80% of brands aiming to track brand mentions and 61% taking to social listening, the need for tools that help with the same has increased manifold. Listening to what your consumers are saying about you can help you understand your current campaigns in real-time and shape future strategies. Hence, we will see a rise in social listening in 2024!

TechDogs’ Takeaway: First of all, identify key insights with AI-powered social listening and automate responses to keep on top of customer queries and responses with effortless efficiency. Sentiment analysis can also benefit from natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) techniques to analyze online comments and reviews to determine the emotional intent behind them. Next, capitalize on organic love for your brand and product using social listening tools. You can capture brand mentions from engaged profiles and you can use that for user-generated content. Lastly, use AI for customer complaint analysis as its analysis enables businesses to use data from all over the web to understand what customers like and dislike about a product or service. This can be used alongside data collected from internal sources, such as customer service conversations and customer surveys.

Trend 4: ‘Edutainment’ Content Will Prevail On Social Media

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Edutainment combines education and entertainment. Think of posts you see on social media that combine informative content with an engaging, fun approach to help viewers learn while having a good time. A few select industries have tapped into the value of creating entertaining, informative content. Some of the reasons why edutainment content is appealing are that it provides value and relevance for digital consumers.

Users can also get new ideas, skills or information from edutainment content to help them in their personal and professional lives. Relevant edutainment content also helps users stay up to speed on opportunities, challenges and trends in their areas of interest. Businesses that deliver imaginative, compelling and relatable edutainment content can pique viewers' interest and curiosity. Moreover, short-form video’s rise in popularity (Trend 2) fosters the perfect conditions for fun facts, tutorials and explainers to thrive on social. No wonder educational content is on most marketers’ minds for 2024!

TechDogs’ Takeaway: To leverage this trend requires a fine balance between education and entertainment. First, take it as an opportunity to demystify a common industry misconception or provide the perfect life hack featuring your product. Comb through your FAQs and inbound social messages to find questions or discussion topics using sentiment analysis (Trend 3). Next, brainstorm how you might leverage TikTok or Instagram Reels for edutainment, making use of the short-form videos we mentioned in Trend 1. Finally, use tools such as AnswerThePublic and AlsoAsked as they can be invaluable in spotting edutainment opportunities to create a ‘how-to’ series and 101s of your industry, leading to maximum visibility and impact via social media.

Trend 5: The Creator Economy Will Continue To Boom

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While it’s grown by heaps and bounds already, the popularity of TikTok and Instagram will continue to grow in 2024. Data indicates that Instagram is predicted to increase its users by 50 million in 2024, to 1.4 billion. Whilst TikTok is expected to increase its user base by 8%, to 900 million. So, why does this
matter to social media marketers?

Both platforms thrive on creativity, entertainment and short-form content. 50% of Millennials place their faith in social media influencers’ product recommendations, surpassing their trust in their favorite celebrities, which stands at 38%. In 2022, influencer content was watched 13.2 times more than media and brand content. These numbers are huge for businesses looking to align their social media marketing plans with user-generated content effectively.

In 2024, marketers will look to leverage content from the creator economy to cross-post on their social accounts, leading to mutual benefit. As it feels less like a sponsored post and more like a truthful review by an actual user, brands see an uptake in site visits when social media content creators encourage followers to try a certain brand’s product or service. This year, thanks to a costly paid ad environment and declining organic reach, it will step into the spotlight.

TechDogs’ Takeaway: If you need help finding your next great creator partnership, start within your community. Search through your followers, superfans, customers and partners and chances are you’ll find a crop of individuals with growing audiences who will be thrilled to work with your brand. Next, focus on UGC created by your customers as they are your most authentic fans. They are your cheerleaders, critics and biggest supporters! Also, media from UGC is invaluable and a vastly untapped resource today, helping you stand out. Finally, another gem is to tap into your workforce for content as employee advocacy is a hidden social media marketing gem.

Parting Thoughts

As we always say, technology has so many wonderful benefits for marketers – as long as we remember the purpose of our digital media! Messaging and experience need to be at the top of the list for marketers. While trends come and go, we have identified these Social Media Marketing Trends to make a big impact in 2024. If you want to establish your brand and make your digital footprint stronger, embracing these trends will go a long way. Happy social media marketing!

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Social Media Marketing Trends Social Media Advertising Trends Latest Trends In Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing Social Media Media Marketing Sentiment Analysis Short-form Video Content Social Media Advertising Social Trends 2024

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