Social Media Trends 2024

Current Social Media Trends Driving the Future of Social Media

Video is king… and long-form content is making a comeback

Short-form content will always be around especially as part of your day to day social media strategy, but long-form has become the building block of creating human connections and authenticity. During a creator event last year, TikTok revealed that users spend half their time on the app watching videos exceeding 60 seconds. In response, TikTok is testing an extended video length limit of 30 minutes, reflecting a potential shift away from its current one-minute format.

The expansion of social commerce remains a trend to watch and use

We’ve all seen the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend…or bought something after seeing it on TikTok or another social platform. This is more than a fleeting trend—social commerce is a continuing trend to watch and consider for your strategy.

Consumers in UAE are among the most likely globally to embrace social commerce. When asked if they had purchased through a social media site in the previous 12 months, 59% of consumers said they had, according to a survey conducted by RetailX Consumer Observatory. This is above the 54% global average but a long way behind the 82% of Chinese consumers who are the most eager to shop in this way.

Live streaming and interactive shopping experiences are only expected to expand. Live shopping events, combining entertainment with instant purchasing options, offer an engaging way for brands to connect with consumers.

SEO is important for social channels too, not just your site

Not everyone turn to Google to search for information. People do search hashtags on social media, and a study showed that nearly 40% of Gen Z preferred using Tiktok as a search engine over Google. This makes optimizing your content for discoverability, both in feed and via search, more important than ever before.

Authentic content resonates across platforms

Authentic, non-promotional content is one of the top things consumers like to see from brands, and brands featuring authentic voices, from creators to employees, shine against those that don’t.

While the rise of artificial intelligence has created a growing excitement and is impacting society amongst others, it is only driving this desire for more authenticity. Consumers will be yearning for authentic experiences on social media.

Social media for customer support

Social media platforms have become valuable tools for customer support as brands recognize changing consumer behaviors and expectations. Customers increasingly prefer using social media for immediate communication and anticipate quick, responsive brand service. A survey found that 75% of Twitter, 59% of Facebook, and 34 % of Instagrammers engage with brands on social media. About half the time, it is used to address customer service issues..

Marketing and customer care teams use AI regularly…and monitor it closely

The use of AI to streamline workflows remains one of the current social media trends that will stretch into the many years to come.

According to The 2023 Social Index, over 80% of marketers have already seen the positive impact of AI on their work. Also, beyond scaling content creation and customer care responses, AI will likely play an even larger role as a marketing tool and in personalizing user experiences. AI can analyze user data to provide highly tailored content recommendations, enhance customer service with more responsive chatbots, and drive more effective targeted advertising. This trend aligns with the increasing efficiency in content production, as AI tools become more adept at understanding and replicating human-like interactions and creativity.”

Social data is key—beyond the marketing team

One of the biggest social media myths is that social data is only relevant to social or marketing. On the contrary, social media data has the power to inform every area and team of your organization and improve your entire business, from product, to customer support to PR.

According to the Index, 76% of marketers agree that their team’s social insights inform other departments. Companies that don’t use social to inform their wider business will undoubtedly fall behind. Not to mention, getting deep into the data is one of the best ways to identify trends in social media in your owned content.

As social teams become more sophisticated, so will their use of data beyond their team…as long as social teams know how to communicate that data with other departments.

To conclude, the social landscape around us is constantly changing. Although we think we know what to expect with social media, this list of trends is likely not exhaustive of what we'll see in 2024.