The number of social media users is increasing every day, and this train is not going to stop in the foreseeable future. With ever-evolving technology, regular feature updates, and varying consumer behavior patterns, marketers are always trying to guess which trend will be the next big thing.
While there is no universal answer to this question, many marketing experts with massive practical experience already know what to expect from this year. The GBC Time team reviewed numerous predictions from these pros and selected seven opinions that seemed to us the most significant.
TikTok will become an even more popular platform
Even though the past year has been a breakthrough period for TikTok, experts believe that the popularity of this platform will grow even more rapidly in 2024. They attribute this to several key reasons. On the one hand, the social media market is going through some serious turbulence right now, and the players that used to lead this area no longer dominate here. Meta and its major brands have suffered serious reputational damage in 2022. Twitter is in a rather chaotic state after the deal with Elon Musk. Therefore, TikTok is becoming a superb alternative to these and other outdated social media resources.
On the other hand, as virtual and augmented reality formats spread on the Web, TikTok has a unique opportunity to lead in this segment.
According to Insider Intelligence, this social platform will be able to grow its user base to over 800 million this year. So, given the factors mentioned, marketers should not ignore this channel in the coming months.
Diversification of content strategy will become even more significant
While marketers have tended to focus only on certain text-oriented platforms until recently, the volatility of Twitter shows why this approach does not work. Professionals who plan to use new social networks this year will need to rely on diversified content to be successful.
Instead of trying to achieve their goals through all available social media channels, every smart marketer will carefully choose the network, target audience, and content they will share with it. For example, Angie Nikoleychuk, Content Marketing Manager at SEJ, believes that those who are interested in building authority can use SlideShare for this purpose. YouTube can help them improve their product awareness. And email marketing can turn into an excellent channel for retaining more customers.
Of course, the use of new social networks requires significant investment. But experts believe that marketers will be able to offset this financial risk in the next 12 months.
Viral marketing will become a competitive advantage
To achieve terrific results in 2024, marketers will need to promote their products online in a more viral way. Although ads, social media, and websites allow you to introduce a particular brand to potential customers, all professionals use these channels. As a result, getting your product noticed has become much more difficult in recent years.
Viral marketing will help you overcome this competitive obstacle and engage with your audience on a more sensitive level. The effectiveness of viral pieces can be measured through comments, shares, and likes. The more of these social reactions you get, the higher brand awareness you will achieve.
If you want viral advertising content to maximize your marketing efforts, you will need to learn how to use it in digital advertising, social platforms, and web pages.
Building healthy communities will be a priority for brands
In addition to paid and organic traffic, marketers should count on the social factor and build digital communities. While this is a fairly common thing on Facebook, platforms like Slack and Discord will also be used for this purpose more often this year.
It takes quite a long time to cultivate a community around a certain product. However, when you have access to a loyal audience that is willing to discuss your ideas, you also reap numerous benefits.
Contrary to popular belief, many customers want to interact with brands (online casinos, betting platforms, and other companies) more closely. So, every marketer who wants to achieve great heights in 2024 should consider creating an engaged community.
Adapting to new social media resources will be an essential success aspect
Even if a marketer already has a fully built and structured social strategy for familiar platforms, it does not mean that their work in this area is over. Basically, they are in their comfort zone, and 2024 will force them to go beyond their limits.
Since new social networks appear on the market much more often than in the past, marketers must adapt to these realities and leverage all the tools available to them. The only nuance is not to try to jump into any niche without detailed preliminary research.
Before you start working on any platform, you must make sure that it really suits your goals. If other marketers rely on some network in their strategy, you should not blindly follow their example. Instead, analyze your options and add another platform to your marketing mix only if you have the time and resources to handle it.
B2B marketing will benefit from current social media trends
B2B marketers believe that LinkedIn will remain the top social channel for them in 2024. They also note that Twitter may face some significant changes this year. And if the platform decides to improve its targeting solutions, it will attract more B2B marketers.
Another important prediction is that traditional B2C-oriented networks like Pinterest and TikTok will expand their functionality to be of interest to B2B professionals. TikTok will also become part of the search strategy for numerous B2B brands as the platform dominates the industry when it comes to Generation Z searches.
Short vertical videos will be the main content format
Short videos that are convenient to watch on smartphones have already taken the market by storm. However, specialists expect that this format will experience an even more tangible growth spurt this year.
After the incredible rise of the TikTok app, marketers had no doubt that YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels would also be approved by millions of users. Twitter is also starting to prioritize short videos in its feed. So, other platforms will notice the success of this idea and will produce content in line with this trend.
Considering the shift towards vertical video content, marketers need to capitalize on this format regardless of platform. And to do this, they need to focus on the web environments where their customers like to spend the most time.
Conclusion
It seems that 2024 will be a breakthrough year for social media marketing and will provide professionals with more opportunities to promote digital and other products. While no one can know exactly what lies ahead for the industry in the coming months, it is obvious that the experts agree on many factors. So, if you do not want to come to the marketing party too late, you’d better start mastering the mentioned assets as soon as possible.
