Top 14 Social Media Trends for 2024

A brand becomes successful when it keeps experimenting with exciting concepts, ideas, and the most preferred platforms to engage with the audience, which ensures that the curiosity factor is alive. The biggest challenge social media poses is its uncertainty—what’s trending now could be outdated in the future.

To cope with a complete change in user behavioural patterns and customer habits, brands should be aware of the top social media trends. A good hold over these evolving trends is ideal for marketers, potential users, and connected business owners alike. We have compiled the major social media trends for 2024, which you should know to stay ahead of the competition.

Read further to learn the major social media marketing trends that help your brand adopt the right strategies to improve user engagement, experience, and conversions through social media management services. 

1. Short-Form Video Content Continues to Dominate

Short-form videos will continue their prominence in 2024, with major contributions from trending social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts. TikTok holds one of the leading positions in short-form video content trends, with over 2051 million users worldwide as of 2024 and 1.5 billion monthly active users. TikTok is also expected to hit 1.8 billion active users by the end of 2024.

The key reason is that users feel excited to consume short, engaging, and impressive content. As a business, your goal would be to offer value to the audience through the content. YouTube Shorts have hit a record of 2.5 billion monthly active users. Instagram reels are another significant short-video sharing platform with over 2 billion monthly active users, projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2024.

Concise and captivating clips are the all-time favourites of Gen Z and millennial users, which offer the quickest ways of consuming content. Since Gen Z is the fastest-evolving segment of consumers, focusing on short-form video content presents a golden opportunity for marketers. 

2. Disappearing or Ephemeral Content Like Stories 

With the emergence of ephemeral content, for instance, the well-known Instagram Stories feature has gained dominance across social media platforms. Businesses will benefit from the 24-hour lifespan of Instagram stories to create an urge among prospects and FOMO (Fear-Of-Missing-Out) among followers.

Short-lived moments create value among the users and kick up the engagement level. Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Snapchat use this feature to enable businesses to post flash sale reminders, limited-time offers, promotions, and behind-the-scenes glimpses to encourage users to engage with the content. Creative storytelling helps you establish a personal connection with the audience, which fosters a strong bond and a loyal follower base.  

Social media users use this content to support initiatives like promotions, brand storytelling, event coverage, and engagement. Followers usually engage more with the disappearing content as it is exclusive and time-limited. 

3. Playful Content Sets the New Brand Trend

Playful content is something that has become a new trend. Brands continuously explore creative methods to delve into meme culture and the Internet voice in ways that suit their voices. More and more brands have started to experiment with their visual content and voice to do it. A striking strategy is that of Auntie Anne’s pretzels, which created a unique social media strategy. This meme strategy focused on developing content that emphasises Internet culture without any change in the brand tone, colours or image.

Playful videos or a social media strategy that accommodates a blend of healthy memes and trends give the brand an edge. Imagine how your brand can turn playful across social media. You don’t need to do this in a way that shatters the voice and tone of your brand. Be clever and wise while using the content to deliver the brand’s intentions. 

4. Social Commerce Takes Over The Market

#TikTokMadeMeBuyIt is a popular hashtag that has been trending across TikTok, which implies the platform’s influence on consumers to persuade them to make a purchase. Social commerce is a growing trend to watch out for and consider as a strategy. Platforms such as TikTok turn this into a reality, and TikTok Shop has been officially launched in the US in late 2023 with ways to make in-app purchases much easier.

Live shopping events, interactive shopping experiences, and entertainment with instant purchasing options provide an engaging experience for brands to interact with consumers. If you have not experimented with selling social, there’s a ready-to-purchase audience on social. Offer them a way to purchase—whether opening up a TikTok shop, or Facebook or Instagram sales work right for your brand. 

5. SEO is Essential For Social Channels

The power of social media platforms as search engines is incomparable. Optimising the content for discoverability in search and via feed has become more important than ever.

Like optimising an article on the blog or a service page on your website for SEO, adopt an optimised approach to social content. Optimise your profile and posts to enhance discoverability by using the right keywords in the caption, appropriate hashtags, and appropriate keywords within the alt text.

SEO and social media marketing are complementary for any social media management agency since they are the channels for discovery. For example, users try discovering new recipes, fashion and life hacks, and more, across TikTok and Pinterest. YouTube is no longer a mere video platform, but one of the most popular search engines.

6. The Surge of Creator and Influencer Economy 

The present world belongs to creators and influencers—we just post it. In this age of authenticity, influencers and creators offer a human voice and an authentic user experience. Their position on brand accounts will only become important to connect with the audience. The dominance of TikTok shows the shift towards more unfiltered and authentic content.

Brands will increasingly use influencers and creators who can develop compelling stores and engage with audiences personally. Hence, these authentic voices are here to stay on social media trends for the future. It is always best when you consider having creator and influencer management platforms that can manage influencer partnerships and impacts effectively. 

7. Community Above Followers

Building a community is a must-have aspect and one of the ongoing trends in social media. Over 66% of branded communities expressed that the community greatly impacts customer retention. According to the Global Web Index report, about 76% of Internet users participate in online communities.  

The most significant thing about a strong community is where the brand’s most dedicated and loyal customers are. This could be forever customers, first to buy and support, ride-or-dies, etc.  

8. Targeted Advertisements and Promotions

Based on the PWC study, targeted advertisements have grabbed the attention of about 31% of the respondents, and out of them, Gen Z showed a high interest, accounting for 43%. About 37% of respondents prefer advertisements that link them directly to offers and promotions for the brand they like. About 34% stay attracted to sponsored ads across social media platforms.

Many customers get annoyed when targeted with an ad for a product or item they have already purchased. Broad targeting is ideal for brand awareness; however, you should be careful about the economic situation, oversaturated market, and budget.

Based on the PWC research on the permanent change that took place in consumers’ habits and values, five things that have a direct impact on buying behaviour:

• Amazing omnichannel experience
• Online security and protection of privacy
• Commitment to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance)
• Pricing considerations
• Local supply chain

While growing more digital makes your life easier, you should also build the overall user experience, while staying aware of the current market climate.  

9. Delegation of Social Media Tasks to AI

More than 80% of marketers state that AI tools have been a time-saver and make workflows efficient. In several cases, the number of marketers using AI applications has increased significantly in recent years. A Hootsuite survey reports that about 75% of social media marketers have sought to use AI to revise and rewrite content completely in 2024.

An example of a popular tool used for caption generation is Copy.ai. It helps social media marketers input a prompt, choose a tone of voice and generate captions. Copy.ai has different tools which focus on writing content for platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc. With platforms capable of creating images in seconds, it helps marketers save so much time and money.

TikTok users have been successfully celebrating Coca-Cola creations with the #CreateRealMagic hashtag. The brand’s “Real Magic” campaign encouraged users to generate the brand’s product images with AI.

Canva is another example, which has tools that are easy to use since they’re built directly into the platform. Users can perform image editing and design social media posts simultaneously.  

Besides images and text generation, AI also powers social media tasks such as content scheduling, competition research, social listening, data collection and analysis, and KPI reporting. 

10. Social Media Use Continues to Grow 

About 62.3% of the world’s population are social media users. Meanwhile, many brands have made significant decisions about the platforms they use for business and marketing activities. As per the Hootsuite Social Trends 2024 Survey, TikTok has been one of the most preferred platforms by businesses, with a 16%+ rise in use. While LinkedIn comes next with a 5%+ and Instagram with a 1%+ increase in users, Facebook and WhatsApp witnessed a drop in use with a 1% and 18% decline, respectively.

In 2024, organisations are getting ready to push back against all the unjustified expectations to be active across all platforms. They prepare to identify the top-performing channels according to ROI and pay attention only to them. If organisations feel confident, they could also abandon one or two channels. This is because winning a few core platforms is better than being adept at so many.  

11. Augmented Reality Content Will Be More Prominent

Augmented Reality (AR) has been a major trendsetter that social media management companies have begun using to create amazing business results. For instance, one way to make money on Snapchat is by leveraging AR features for advertising and product showcasing. According to Shopify, products advertised using AR/VR content witnessed 94% higher conversion rates than those without such content.

The survey also reports that two-thirds of customers find AI features helpful, enabling them to shop in the easiest way—about 80% of brands encourage AI lens and filter integration to extend brand awareness, engagement, and loyalty.

Another interesting example is a personalised AR experience by Adidas on Snapchat during the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. It enabled users to kick the official World Cup football and try on the Crazyfast boots virtually.  

12. Brands Will Begin to Integrate Voice-Optimised Content

Creating casual conversations in captions, focusing on long-tail keywords, and using accessibility features can help you win the social media trend.

Duolingo is the best example of a brand that leverages the power of voice-optimised content on social media. This language learning app posts small snippets of video lessons with detailed captions, making it perfect for hands-free learning and voice search. It uses a conversational tone and asks questions to engage the audience. 

13. Greater Emphasis on Mental Health and Well-Being

Instagram is a prime example of this feature. The social media platform introduced new features in 2021 to promote mental health. Allowing users to include mental health resources directly in their profiles is one of the key features. Also, Instagram makes a conscious effort to offer in-app guides and educational content by partnering with various mental health organisations.

Influencers and celebrities like Chrissy Teigenn and “The Rock” Johnson have expressed their experiences with anxiety and depression and normalised these conversations. Social media is a game changer and platforms are increasingly creating more supportive space by encouraging users to prioritise their mental happiness. 

14. Consumers Will Demand More Control Over Personal Data

Considering data control across social media, consumers have grown to be highly aware and demand authority over their personal information. In the recent App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature on iPhones, Apple helps block applications from tracking the user’s activity.

ATT update signifies a growing demand for consumers to have control over how the data gets collected and used. Social media should work with refined data privacy options and offer clearer ways for users to monetise their data. 

Learning and adapting to the latest social media trends is helpful for brands that aim to give an exceptional experience to potential customers and expand their outreach measures. The rise in AI-driven strategies, increased use of personalised content on social media platforms, and many advanced technologies have highlighted the importance of learning the trends in social media marketing.

Ultimately, as we place our foot into the future of social media marketing, staying aware of the impactful and new social media trends helps you drive great conversions, user engagement, and collaborations. Want to prep up your social media strategies or need to take your social media marketing initiatives to the ultimate success with the best social media management company in India? Let’s get started!