As another 12 chaotic months draws to a close, we can reflect on what has been a big year for social media platforms. Meta continues its gradual decline, TikTok continues to grow and then there’s Twitter, who right now, is amidst a volatile change of management that could veer off in any direction.
With all that in mind, let’s look ahead and try to predict social media marketing trends 2024. Could TikTok overtake Meta, and which new creatives will occupy our screens over the next year that marketers will need to adapt to?
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Facebook Trends in 2024
As TikTok’s short-form approach continues to change the way we consume online content, Facebook continues to fall into the abyss. Mark Zuckerberg continues to invest in the platform, and along with his cohorts, there is a plan in place to get things back on track.
Enhanced AI Recommended Content
AI recommended posts are expected to infiltrate Facebook feeds. The push for more content from Pages and people that you don’t follow is expected to give Facebook a much-needed boost. Zuckerberg’s view is that 40% of the content in your main Facebook feed will come from sources that you don’t follow. The trend of AI selected content derives from TikTok, which focuses on showing users the best content from across the platform based on their in-app habits.
Zuckerberg believes that Facebook has the upper hand in this respect. On Facebook, users aren’t restricted to just short-form video content, images are served along with text posts, links, news updates and more. The belief is that this will give Facebook a firm advantage if it can refine its content recommendations.
Avatar Integration
Avatar integration is another of Facebook’s largest projects. Meta are desperate for people to get excited about the metaverse. By promoting the use of avatars as a form of digital identity, Meta hope to encourage people to engage through their avatars, which spells a key element of metaverse engagement.
Whilst we’re on the metaverse, posts from VR are also expected to appear on Facebook. These posts will highlight the range of experiences available within the VR environment.
Brand and Consumer Engagement via DMs
As the number of engagements happening within DMs continues to rise, Meta is looking to highlight more tools to help brands tap into this shift.
Meta recently highlighted the growth in Click-To-Message ads, across Messenger and WhatsApp, hoping to drive further engagements. Marketers should expect additional ad options that align with this new form of engagement.
Whether users actually want to engage with brands in their private DMs is yet to be seen. However, It could be a great way of building a more direct line of communication and understanding between brand and consumer.
Instagram Trends in 2024
Similarly to Facebook, Instagram is leaning towards more AI content recommendations to improve user engagement, a feature that hasn’t been too well received in the past.
New and Improved Creatives
Instagram is also keen to establish stronger creative systems for its creators. With this in mind, new forms of content such as AR and 3D posts, NFT art integrations and other new content formats are expected to appear on the platform.
Investment in Live Shopping
Live shopping is on the radar too. While it hasn’t taken off just yet, Instagram continues to experiment with live-stream shopping, attempting to replicate the big boom in other markets. Instagram could look to capitalize on this with the launch of a standalone tab enabling users to access live shopping directly.
If you want to learn more about the capabilities of live shopping, download our live shopping education deck here.
TikTok Trends in 2024
More Live Shopping
Live commerce is the key earner in the Chinese version of the app, it makes sense that TikTok is going to roll the feature out to other regions. The US is currently in preparation for TikTok’s live shopping push. Expect this to become a much bigger, much more promoted element in the app in 2023, as it looks to make live-stream shopping a thing.
Changes to the Creator Fund
Creator payments have often been subject to scrutiny, with the Creator Fund offering little incentive to creators to continue to develop content. TikTok is testing new models to get its creators funded more effectively. The platform could test a similar payment process to YouTube’s Shorts program, which pays the top performing videos a percentage of all ad intake, based on views.
Twitter Trends in 2024
Predicting the future of Twitter is liking finding a needle in a haystack. At present time, things are too uncertain. However, some of the things that could come to fruition involve:
Launch of New Subscription Service
A bigger subscription push, which will include monetizing verification statuses and possibly charging commercial and government users to use Twitter.
A Refined Twitter Algorithm
The Twitter algorithm has been another project for Musk. It’s understood that he wants to gain a better understanding of how algorithms dictate the Twitter experience. The ideas around this are interesting, but the bigger challenge lies with getting people to select and implement algorithmic modifiers. Most people want to log in, see what’s happening without the added fuss.
There could be a way to simplify and enhance this in the app, but trying to get users to engage in increasingly technical elements, in order to define their experience, doesn’t seem like a path to UI improvement.
Snapchat Trends in 2024
Snap’s main challenge ahead of 2023 is appealing to older audiences. To shift away from its younger demographic, Snap are investing in multiple areas, including:
Augmented Reality
AR Glasses, which could be the first on the market, as both Apple and Meta’s developments are, well, still in development. If Snap can beat its competitors to the podium then this will help with the platform’s quest for mature audiences.
More Avatar Integration
Avatar fashion and digital items are two more of Snap’s key features coming into 2023. Snap has been making its Bitmoji avatars a more centralized focus, with new fashion partnerships to help people customize and personalize their virtual identities.
Pinterest Trends in 2024
Pinterest encountered many ups and downs over the course of the years, though it seems to on a steady upturn now. There are significant opportunities lying ahead, if the platform can execute with precision.
Investing in Live Shopping
Although Pinterest is improving in its key markets, it still has growing room in other territories.
The platform’s income outside of North America wanes insignificantly. Pin ads are still not available in all markets, and while Pinterest continues to grow, it must enhance its ad opportunities to maximize its potential.
Pinterest will shift its focus to wider international markets, building out its advertising tools to fit the profile of local opportunities.
Refined Search and Discovery
Discovery is the fabric of Pinterest’s success. With a former Google chief now driving the reins, it should be expected to remain a key focus. New opportunities in highlighting the most relevant products through improved search tools and processes are likely to be imposed.
With the addition of more personalized discovery tools, Pinterest continues to refine its processes, as it strives to align product discovery with personal usage habits and preferences.
Improved AR creative and display offerings
AR continues to crop up across varied social networking platforms, and Pinterest is no exception.
Pinterest is currently developing AR Try On tools for home decor products, and at some stage it will roll out a better capture process that will allow merchants to create 3D copies of their products. By leaning into an improved process for items, Pinterest could be in with a chance of driving product discovery trends.
Another Spoonful of Live Shopping
Like Instagram and TikTok, Pinterest is also testing live shopping features on its platform. Should the trend snowball into the wider platform audience, Pinterest can make a big statement by integrating live shopping into the app.
Live commerce fits on Pinterest better than some other networks, due to the nature of product discovery and purchase intent of the users within the app. Expect to see more live-stream display options in the app during 2023 including a potential full-screen live shopping tab.
LinkedIn Trends in 2024
The professional social platform has posted record levels of engagement across 2022, which now includes more posts from non-professional users. LinkedIn remains focused on growing its offerings. In 2023, expect to see the platform develop enhanced data elements and more linkage to LinkedIn Learning courses.
More data insights to help guide jobseekers
LinkedIn has the largest database of career insights than any other platform of its nature. It is integrating more ways to use this to help users maximize their career opportunities.
LinkedIn Learning is expected to be promoted a lot more throughout 2023. This offering offers information on what people should do to land their dream role.
LinkedIn could virtually map out a user’s entire career, starting from schooling, all the way up to career progression. This is achieved by assessing the skills and developments from other users and using that data to offer guidance into roles that match individual profiles.
Which also works on the flip side, by highlighting the optimal candidates to recruiters. LinkedIn plans to incorporate more data insights into job listings, as the platform seeks to merge more predictive and assistance insight into its tools.
Improved video connection tools
Like most platforms, LinkedIn has seen a rise in users consuming video content. With this in mind, LinkedIn is expected to add in more video tools, expanding on its existing introduction video and video chat options.
LinkedIn is expected to build on its Event features with more advanced tools, with Zoom-like video meeting options and topical live-streams amongst the processes to link job seekers with employers.
Facilitating virtual meetings in-stream could help enhance LinkedIn’s offering as a business tool, and with so many professionals engaging in the app, its vital for LinedIn to offer additional options for topical engagement.
That brings to a close our predictions for social media marketing trends 2023. Could next year see the continued decline of Meta, and the anticipated surge of TikTok? Only time will tell.
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