Top 10 social media trends in 2024you need to know
The most important social media trends of 2024 are as versatile as the way we use social media. Included in our list are micro-communities, entertaining content such as memes and vertical videos as well as helpful solutions like offering customer support through social media. In 2024, social media will still be a source of entertainment, but it will also increasingly be used for practical purposes.
An overview of the current social media trends
- Customer service on social media
- Shopping on social media
- Interactive content
- Video
- BeReal
- Vertical (video) content
- Memes
- Social games
- Artificial intelligence
- Micro-communities
With the rise in popularity of social media channels, social media marketing has become a staple in many companies’ marketing mix. The speed with which social media channels develop and how people use them means that social media marketers need to be on their toes to stay relevant. Companies should constantly educate themselves on the needs of their target audiences and make sure to adjust their marketing messages accordingly.
Top 10 social media trends in 2024: How we’ll be scrolling this year
In 2024, the way we use social media will be shaped by different factors. These trends will definitely be interesting and relevant for individual users and companies alike. The trends listed below are not necessarily relevant for all social media platforms however.
Customer service on social media: Establishing contact directly
An important social media trend to take advantage of in 2024 is offering customer support through social media. Your clients won’t need to contact you by filling out a form or writing an email. Instead, they can reach out to your company’s customer service team via platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Customer service via social media not only enables more direct contact and exchange with your customers, but it can also positively impact your visibility online. Other social media users will see how quickly you respond to your clients and how you react to questions or problems in general. Moreover, it can help to strengthen customer loyalty and your chances of gaining even more customers. Offering customer support directly via social media channels especially appeals to younger consumers.
There are many ways to offer customer support on social media. Some companies, such as the music streaming company Spotify, even go so far as to create their own social media account(s) for their customer support:
Shopping on social media: A social way to shop online
Selling products on and via social networks, also referred to as social commerce, has been growing in popularity and will continue to be a major social media trend in 2024. Linking one’s online shop and other landing pages with social media channels is an important marketing tool. Companies can also take advantage of popular platform-specific features such as Instagram Shopping and Facebook Shops. One of the newest additions is Pinterest Shopping, which enables users to save product pins and discover similar items.
TikTok also offers merchants and content creators ways to monetize their TikTok presence via TikTok Shop.
Would you like to start selling your products on social media platforms? Then install a Social Buy Button from IONOS and synchronize your online shop with the social media sites of your choice.
Interactive content: Enabling people to engage with your content
Interactive content such as surveys, competitions and interactive infographics continues to be a current social media trend. But it’s not just a social media trend: interactive content has proven so successful that it’s also become an email marketing trend.
An example of interactive content on social media is poll stickers, which can be used on Instagram Stories. They allow you to add a question with multiple answer options that your followers can choose from. Such an interactive element is eye-catching and encourages people to pause and engage with your content by voting. The results can then be collected and shared. Beyond sharing the results through social media channels, you can also consider publishing them in a blog post on your website to extend your reach.
Video content: Still the most popular type of content
Videos are still widely favored and used across platforms. They bring the best click-through and view rates, so it’s no wonder that they are not only a social media trend but also an online marketing trend. TikTok and popular Tik Tok alternatives as well as YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels will keep us publishing and consuming more video content than ever.
In 2024, the most important thing when it comes to creating videos is to make them as accessible as possible. This means you should always add subtitles to your video clips, no matter what language it’s in. Not only do subtitles let people who are deaf or have hearing loss enjoy your content as well, they are also ideal for listening to videos in public spaces where sound isn’t ideal.
BeReal: Share real moments in two minutes or less
The photo-sharing app BeReal has brought about another social media trend that is becoming more and more popular. Founded in France in 2020, BeReal has distinguished itself from similar apps like Facebook or Instagram by taking a different approach to how photos are shared.
On BeReal, you don’t have the option to post whenever you like. You can only post when the app sends a notification to your phone. This notification can come at any time of the day. Once you receive it, you only have two minutes to upload a photo. And not just any photo: The point of BeReal, as the name suggests, is to be real and to share exactly what you are doing at that moment. The app uses both your front and back cameras, so you can post what you are currently doing as well as your reaction to the task at hand.
You can still, of course, post a photo after the two-minute window has passed, but your friends will know that you were late. Users can also choose if they want their post to be seen by all BeReal users or just their friends.
At the moment, BeReal doesn’t offer a lot for companies, but that might change down the road. Nevertheless, the social media trend BeReal appears to be a welcome alternative to TikTok as the quest for authentic moments and content amongst social media users continues.
Vertical content: Content for the 9:16 format
Since we mostly consume social media on our phones, content needs to be vertical. The optimal format for content on phones is 9:16, meaning that the height of the content is greater than its width. This is especially important for video content, otherwise users might need to turn their phone on the side to watch videos that don’t fit their screens.
A big reason for the rise in popularity of the 9:16 content is of course TikTok. Due to the wide-spread use of the video app, many companies are now creating videos on the platform. The new, narrower format might pose some difficulties at first, but its better user experience makes it a worthwhile content investment for companies. The format offers a lot of possibilities to showcase products in all their glory, especially products that have an elongated shape.
Memes: Communicating with images isn’t slowing down any time soon
A social media trend that keeps on going strong year after year is the use of memes. And there is no stopping it either as using memes is an integral part of today’s pop culture. So essential, in fact, that using and creating memes and GIFs is a crucial part of the social media strategy of many companies.
Using memes, like the ones featuring Kermit the Frog, can showcase that a company has its finger on the pulse of what is currently trending. And being in tune with current trends in society is important on social media.
Social games: Online games on social networks
Remember the days when you used to have your own restaurant or farm on Facebook? Well, those times aren’t gone yet. In fact, social games or playing online games on social networks is one of the social media trends of 2024. Facebook and Facebook alternatives still offer a lot of games that can be played online, either individually or with friends.
Below is a list of some popular games on Facebook:
- BINGO Blitz
- Angry Birds Friends
- Candy Crush Saga
- FarmVille 2
Artificial intelligence: Creating effects and content with the help of a machine
It’s 2024, so of course we have to mention artificial intelligence in our list of social media trends. Artificial intelligence has developed massively in the last couple of years and it should come as no surprise that it has found its way into social media.
The TikTok filter “AI green screen” is a popular example of this trend. It’s a text-to-image generator that creates background images based on words or short sentences entered by users.
Micro-communities: Fewer members, but a greater bond
Last but not least, micro-communities, i.e., online communities with fewer than 30 members, have also emerged as a social media trend of 2024. Following the trend of authentic content, people prefer to connect with like-minded people in smaller circles. This enables closer ties and more regular exchanges, which in a group of hundreds or thousands of members would be otherwise impossible.
One suitable social media platform for establishing micro-communities is Reddit. Registered users can set-up their own communities and determine specifications for them. These could include, for example, whether the community is open to all or private. It’s also possible to set-up communities where members need to be at least 18 years of age.
Social media trends in 2024 are a combination of old and new. While, on the one hand, social media will continue to provide entertainment in the form of memes and social games, it will also be used for more practical tasks such as shopping or contacting customer support. With interactive elements and video content, there is also a visible overlap with the current web design trends of 2024. One thing’s for sure: In 2024, we definitely won’t get bored with the world of social media.
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