Social Media Marketing Trends that will Dominate in 2024

Social media is a dynamic and volatile digital space.

Social media trends and strategies change in the blink of an eye. As businesses move towards brand promotion on social media platforms, business owners and marketers are understanding that staying updated with the latest social media trends is of utmost importance.

Studies show that there are more than 4.62 billion social media users around the globe, which accounts for more than 50% of the global population.

The aforementioned data is more than enough to know why brands are prioritising social media marketing services.

Most effective social media platforms for businesses:

Source: Hootsuite

As an award-winning social media marketing agency in Ahmedabad, we have an in-depth understanding of the ongoing social media marketing trends. That’s why our experts have encapsulated the top 7 social media trends of 2024.

So without further ado, let’s begin…

1. Influencer Marketing Continues to Flourish

Influencer marketing takes word-of-mouth marketing to a whole new level. It is one of the most efficient methods among new trends in social media marketing.

The potential of influencer marketing is limitless and yet overlooked by many brands and businesses. Boost your brand’s outreach beyond your audience by utilising millions of followers through influencers and content creators.

Brand endorsement, increased customer engagement and brand awareness are just a teaser of what influencer marketing is capable of. It is a rapidly growing industry with an almost $14 billion valuation already in 2021, and the creator economy is now worth over $100 billion.

Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube are the biggest platforms for influencer marketing. Choosing the right celebrities or influencers that mirror your brand’s image is the key to successful influencer marketing.

9 out of 10 marketers claim that influencer marketing is one of the most lucrative methods of marketing with amazing ROI. And 8 out of 10 consumers have made their purchase decision through influencer recommendations.

Relevant content: Instagram Marketing Strategies

Here are some examples of influencer marketing through content creators and celebrities:

2. Priority Shift Towards Cultivating a Powerful Brand Presence

With the increased awareness of the power of social media, business owners realised that it is capable of much more than just product promotion.

Earlier, the main use of social media was just to advertise products, convert traffic and increase sales, but social media trends are evolving. Businesses are realising that they haven’t been reaping the full benefits.

Social media can be used as an immensely effective platform to connect with the audience and create a resonating brand presence.

That’s why the primary goals of social media marketing are shifting towards the following:

• Increasing brand awareness and recognition
• Increasing outreach towards a new audience
• Increasing customer retention
• Enhancing customer service
• Cultivating meaningful relationships with consumers and boosting brand loyalty

Brands are using more interactive and engaging content like live videos, Q&A sessions, polls, user-generated content and more…

3. User-Generated Content (UGC) Continues to Thrive

User-generated content has been around for a while now and it is the easiest way to increase user engagement and brand loyalty without expending any effort or money at all.

Your audience promotes your products for you!

Any reputed social media marketing agency would know the power and impact of this social media trend.

Encourage your followers to send you pictures or videos that showcase your product or service and in return, tag or mention them in your content.

This social media marketing trend is encouraged and adored by the users because the tags and mentions give them recognition and more followers.

Also, this is one of the new trends in social media marketing that keep your brand relevant and authentic as well as keeping your followers involved with your brand simultaneously.

Here are some UGC examples from Starbucks, Loews Hotels and Apple (left to right):

4. Augmented Reality Marketing Enters Social Media Trends

Social media marketing trends are continuously evolving and producing forms of marketing that feel closer to science fiction. Augmented reality or AR is emerging as a successful immersive method among other latest social media marketing trends.

Marketing with augmented reality is done by merging the real world and a virtual world with real-time interactions and precise 3D registration of virtual objects. It is most commonly implemented through mobile cameras or augmented screens.

Recently, businesses have started merging Snapchat and AR tech to uplift retail experience and boost sales at the same time, making it one of the most lucrative types of social media marketing trends.

Snapchat has over 500 million monthly active users and 63% of online consumers believe that AR will uplift their retail experience.

Relevant content: Digital Marketing Trend

Here’s an example of AR used in Snapchat by American Eagle Outfitters to promote their products during the pandemic:

IMAGE SOURCE: Bloomberg

5. Growth of Social Selling & Shoppable Posts

For many years, social media platforms have been a middleman between audiences and brands. Social media presence was solely used to convert traffic to a brand’s website or mobile applications.

But that’s not the case anymore.

Business owners are prioritising a direct sell approach on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and TikTok. This is one of the most useful methods among the current social media marketing trends.

According to eMarketer, the social commerce industry is projected to reach $80 billion by 2025, accentuating the significance of social selling.

For instance, brands are creating Instagram Store Profiles and posting shoppable posts/stories with product tags to directly sell to their followers. Businesses will continue taking full advantage of social commerce to increase sales and revenue in 2024.

Social selling facilitates a seamless and streamlined online retail environment where consumers can easily browse content and directly purchase products at the same time.

Examples of Instagram Shoppable Posts:

6. Consumers Gravitate Towards Snackable Content

The influence and impact of short-form snackable content were unmissable in 2021, and it will keep growing on social media platforms. Among other social media trends, this type of content is visible in brand promotions and influencer profiles.

Types of short-form content:

• TikTok videos
• Instagram Reels/Stories
• Facebook Reels
• Snapchat Stories
• YouTube Shorts

Snackable content can be utilised to create product release videos, product promotion videos, brand story videos and so on…

The attention span of humans is decreasing every year and users tend to scroll through their feed endlessly. This form of snackable video content unlocks a wide scope of benefits like more user engagement, brand awareness, organic traffic, better online presence and more. Even though brands undermine the power of ephemeral content (disappearing posts) at times, Instagram and Snapchat stories continue to be effective for business promotion.

In 2024, we will continue to see more creative short-form content from influencers and brands alike. Also, this type of social media marketing trend can make use of memes, and as we all know already, memes are the ultimate form of spotlight-stealing content.

7. Increasing Importance of Social Listening

Social media is a gold mine for social listening tools, facilitating extensive insights and data to determine consumer behaviour. The demands and behaviour of online consumerism are always changing, that’s why it is important to track them at all times.

This is one of the most useful social media marketing trends that help you optimise your content to resonate perfectly with your audience.

Types of social media analytical tools:

• Facebook Insights
• Instagram Insights
• Twitter Analytics
• Pinterest Analytics
• LinkedIn Analytics
• YouTube Analytics

Metrics that you can track via social listening tools:

• Profile visits
• Website clicks
• Average content likes/comments/shares
• Audience demographics
• Daily interactions
• Total impressions

And much more…

These social listening tools let you meticulously examine your consumers’ behaviour and their reaction towards your content. Understanding the perception of your audience helps you to create a flawless social media presence.

You can gain a deeper insight into the impact of your campaigns, branded hashtags, regular posts and more, allowing you to better serve your customers.

Final Thoughts
Social media marketing trends are always evolving, influencers and brands are coming up with innovative and creative ways to attract the audience.

That’s why it is necessary for business owners and marketers to stay up-to-date with the latest social media marketing trends.

From influencer marketing to social listening, these were the 7 hottest social media marketing trends of 2024, we hope this blog will help you create an impactful social media presence.

Here at Communication Crafts, we thoroughly understand the significance of social media marketing services in this all-new digital era.

With 16+ years of hands-on experience, we’re a social media marketing company in Ahmedabad that can create a custom-tailored marketing strategy that increases your brand’s exposure, resonates well with your audience, achieves all your marketing goals, and most importantly, give your brand the grand presence it deserves.

Let’s make your brand the next big thing!