Social Media Trends for 2024: What to Watch Out For

Year after year, we witness new and intriguing trends in digital marketing, a sector that constantly evolves. However, within this realm, there is an area that undergoes even more renewal than others: social media. Dynamic, unstoppable, fast-paced, and demanding, it requires full dedication and constant updating to achieve results. If your plans for the new year involve ramping up your presence on these platforms, you can't afford to miss out on the social media trends for 2024 that we believe will thrive and determine whether a brand stands out against the competition or not.

TikTok Will Gain Even More Popularity

If you thought TikTok would be a passing fad, the data suggests otherwise. If it continues on its current trajectory, TikTok could follow in the footsteps of Instagram. It is believed that 2024 will be another year of expansion for this social network. As a brand, you shouldn't ignore it, provided you confirm that your target audience is active on the platform.

TikTok boasts one of the largest user bases globally, with the majority located in Asia and the Americas, particularly in Indonesia, the United States, and Brazil, with an age demographic typically under 35.

Themes such as football, TV series and movies, travel, cooking, or the LGBTQ+ community enjoyed great popularity in 2023 and are expected to trend on TikTok in 2024. Of course, we cannot forget about music, the soul of TikTok, which has also gained immense popularity.

In summary, TikTok is thriving. So much so that it promises to remain at the forefront as one of the leading social networks in 2024. Our recommendation is to keep a close eye on it and consider it a viable option for your marketing efforts. Moreover, it has the advantage of potentially achieving virality within seconds.

Reels Will Continue to Reign on Instagram

Reels were Instagram's counterattack against the rise of TikTok. As of today, this format has become one of the most viewed on Instagram, occupying 20% of all user time spent on the platform. In 2024, this trend is not expected to change much, making reels once again one of the most popular social media trends for 2024.

Whether you have already started creating these short and vertical videos or are planning to do so, here are three basic tips to help you maximize views and increase your chances of going viral:

• Use music, even if it's silent: Including trending music from the platform's music library in your reel can help you reach a larger audience, even if the sound is off. This is because the platform boosts the reach of reels featuring popular music at the time.
• The 5-second rule: The first five seconds of a reel are crucial for capturing audience attention, so make them attractive and captivating.
• Don't forget about subtitles: Many people consume reels when they are in public places and mute them. If a reel doesn't have subtitles, they might skip it, even if they find it interesting, as they cannot understand the content. In contrast, if it has subtitles, they will consume it even while muted.

Social Media SEO: Social Networks Will Be the New Search Engines

We still don't know if social networks will replace conventional search engines, but one thing is clear: searches on these platforms are skyrocketing. This will make 2024 the prelude to something that will happen sooner or later: social networks becoming another search engine. Nearly half of young people use Instagram and TikTok more than Google to search for information about products and brands, causing search queries on search engines to decrease by 14% since 2018.

This trend will inevitably lead to changes in SEO strategies on social networks, as one of the goals for brands on these platforms will be to appear among the top results when a user makes a query.

TikTok is already stepping up its game in this regard and has introduced Search Ads Toggle, a new feature that allows brands to display their ads in search results on the platform.

If you want to get ahead with social media SEO and capitalize on one of the most prominent social media trends of 2024, here are some tips that can help improve your rankings:

• Use hashtags.
• Encourage participation and interaction.
• Forge partnerships with other brands or creators.
• Utilize collaborative posts on Instagram.

But most importantly, do not lose sight of this trend because social networks may introduce changes to ranking factors by 2024 as searches become increasingly popular on these platforms.

Threads Is Here to Stay

Instagram introduced Threads to compete with Twitter (now X). This microblogging social network reached 30 million users in less than 24 hours and now has more than 150 million.

Many say that this social network enhances the experience offered by X; moreover, it can be linked with Instagram to share content between them. The downside? At the moment, access is not permitted throughout the European Union due to non-compliance with the continent's data protection laws. However, this does not mean that European citizens will never be able to access it or that brands cannot use this platform in the future as another marketing channel. It simply means that it is not allowed for now, but we recommend that you do not ignore this platform and try to stay reasonably updated on its operation and features.

This way, when access is permitted in Europe, you will know how to navigate Threads without falling behind the competition. Although user activity on the platform has decreased since its initial boom, Zuckerberg stated that "Threads has exceeded expectations" and they are now focusing on the basics and retaining users, as they do not plan to make money with the platform for a few years.

Social Listening Will Be an Imperative

Social listening is not new; brands have been practicing it for a long time, but it will be one of the social media trends for 2024 because it will no longer be an option but a key part of marketing.

Social listening involves analyzing what the public is saying about your brand on social media (and the internet in general) to understand the image it portrays and what the strengths and weaknesses of the company are according to consumers.

More and more brands are realizing that social media is a treasure trove of tremendously useful data to refine their strategies, and not taking advantage of it is a big mistake, especially when there are so many tools available for this type of analysis, such as Hootsuite or HubSpot. Most companies consider that social listening increased the value of their organization. In addition to this, here are other benefits that the information you gather through this practice can provide:

• Identifying new customers
• Gaining authority
• Understanding the competition better
• Finding potential collaborators
• Real reviews

Fostering Community Through Distribution Channels

Instagram's distribution channels are groups where only the person who created them (along with someone else they give permission to) can share content, making them one-way spaces. Members who decide to join the channel do not have the option to participate and are mere spectators. The only time they can interact is when the creator sends surveys or reacts to content with emojis.

For now, only creator accounts with a high number of followers can create these distribution channels, so personal and business accounts cannot use them yet. The social network has not made public what the exact threshold is for a profile to create a distribution channel, but it is assumed to be high.

These distribution channels are a useful tool to connect more closely with your audience by conveying more exclusive or intimate content. The secret is that what is shared in these channels differs from the content posted in stories or regular posts so that followers are curious and join. Many influencers have created their distribution channel on Instagram, and many more are expected to do so, as 2024 progresses. For now, creators use them for various purposes, such as:

• Announcing events or launches
• Sharing more private parts of their lives
• Speaking in a more relaxed and casual manner
• Sharing news
• Communicating specific or in-depth aspects about a particular topic

Chatbots on Social Networks

Chatbots are coming to social networks. Both Meta and Snapchat have released their AI-trained virtual assistants so they can have conversations with all users who want to ask them questions about any topic.

Meta has introduced Meta AI, another assistant you can converse with and ask a wide variety of things. It is available on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, and for its creation, the Large Language Model (LLM) has been used. It can generate both text and images and is associated with the Bing search engine. Additionally, you can mention it directly in chats shared with other people so it can respond to them. 2024 will be the year when these chats will be explored more deeply, but it's unclear whether other social networks will decide to launch theirs.