It feels a little irresponsible for me as a digital marketing specialist and senior professional to share a trend predictions blog with you without a bit of a health and safety warning – or disclaimer of some kind if you like. Mostly as, although I work in the marketing industry, I don’t have a crystal ball or super magic powers and these are predictions based on my experience, trend spotting and data. They are not cast in stone and are subject to change for a number of reasons. Most of those reasons are people-orientated, as in people consume content and use social media and that along brings with it a level of unpredictability and factors out with a marketers (or business owners) control.
Secondly, I’m a big believer in the fact that your business objectives should drive your social media strategy and your target audience will determine where you spend your time online and what kind of content you create to support that strategy. For example, if I know my audience are on LinkedIn and like to read longform content like blogs, then I won’t spend my business-time on TikTok. Even though TikTok is a high-ranking social media platform.
That being said, bravery in marketing is cool and there is something around doing things differently …that’s a whole other conversation though and a further reminder that there is nothing linear about the marketing industry.
I do think it’s important as marketers and business owners to know what’s happening in the arena we’re working in though, because it does highlight (and impact) user behaviour and that will, over time, impact our target audience and results. So even if we don’t massively overhaul our strategy, which really we shouldn’t (see above disclaimer), it’s worth reading up on a few trend prediction blogs.
Like this one.
2024 social media trend predictions.
- Getting back to basics. When it comes to social media channels for 2024, one of the most important things you can do is check in with your marketing strategy and your target audience. Then visit your social media insights page and check they marry up. And check in with yourself and how you measure success with your social media marketing. User behaviour has evolved and conversations happen more often in private (think Instagram DMs) and in private communities. This is also the year to leave behind social media channels that are no longer serving our business or our target audience. So, get back to basics. What’s your ideal buyer’s journey? How does that fit into your social media strategy? Are you putting your time and attention where your customers are or where you are most comfortable?
- Quality over Quantity. Less is more. I can’t say this often enough, but the amount of times you post per week does not equal a high-performing social media strategy (and by “high-performing” I mean a social media platform that is meeting business objectives). 1 smashing post* a week (as in great creative, copy, CTA and totally relevant) will be worth way more than 7 half-assed ones. The algorithms haven’t changed in forever, the likes of META are not persecuting you because you are a small business; but users and your social media audience are overwhelmed and have proper content fatigue, so more of the same mediocre content and social media management isn’t going to be the winning formula. Quality over Quantity. *extreme example for content-sake only and not to be regarded as advice.
- Using social media as a search engine – ie using SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in your social media strategy. According to a recent report, roughly half of the world’s social media users say that they actively visit social platforms to learn more about brands and a business. And if you do still prefer a Google search you’ll already know that social media platforms pop up in the search results list. This means that your platform bio’s, caption copy and hashtags are all massive search / SEO opportunities – think strategic keywords here. This one can be tricky to navigate, so get in touch if you have any questions and we can organise a 1-2-1 session. But broadly speaking, make sure your keywords (think: what someone would type into google to find you) are used frequently and relevantly in your name, captions, hashtags and bio’s.
- AI is here. It has risks, but it is here. It’s like google on speed or like the AI-colleague you didn’t know you needed in the home office. Best thing you can do is spend a little time learning about it, then adapt and give it a go. Again, there are risks associated with it and the industry will need to do a lot to regulate that and work on it, but it is here and it is moving into the social media landscape and you would be wise to get to know about it. I wrote a blog on this already and you can read about it here. One of my copywriting-go-to-masters, Anna Handley, wrote this about AI in one of her recent newsletters and it sums it up beautifully: “AI is neither good nor bad. It just IS. Life is nuanced. People are nuanced. We can hold two opposing views at once, can’t we now?”
- Authenticity. It’s still here as a thing. Still misunderstood and underutilised. Marketers have been throwing this word around for a few years now and whilst we can probably all say what it means, actually creating authentic content seems to pass many of us by. Think less canva-time and more UGC (User Generated Content), real-time and real life photographs that are seasonal (smartphone snaps count alongside the brand photography and curated content), day-in-the-life moments captured via quick video or a behind-the-scenes selfie. Genuine interaction and realness are important for building trust online, particularly in the rising world of AI and the influencer market.
You and your social media strategy in 2024.
Like I said at the start, trend predictions are worth knowing about as they will, over time, start to filter down into small business marketing, they are based on real user behaviour over a period of time (the trend vs trending thing I have spoken about before) and are recurring things that we are seeing from a number of top-performing brand and business accounts.
But, if you wanted to read a blog that would tell you what to do or share insights that will make or break your social media marketing, then this isn’t it. Jump back to the start where I said that piece about a disclaimer and your strategy. That still stands.
Get in touch or message me on Instagram if you’re feeling a little social-media-2024-stuck! #BirdandEmmy
