Social Media Trends to Watch in 2024
Social media success is a moving target, as technology constantly changes, necessitating organizations to revise and update their marketing strategy accordingly. What’s “hot” one year is definitely “not” the next. Social media’s rapidly changing environment requires mission-driven organizations to stay up-to-date with trends driving our increasingly hyperconnected world.
At Becker Digital, we have supported government agencies and nonprofit organizations in their social media-related needs for almost a decade. Adapting to unanticipated, fast-moving shifts in social media capabilities, features, and user behavior has been critical to our public sector client support. Whether short videos vs. long videos, filtered images vs. unedited photos, hashtags vs. no hashtags, the list of social media-related trends we've helped mission-driven clients weather goes on and on.
Our experience in the digital realm has left us with one certainty - the only thing constant about social media is that it's a dynamic - not static - operating environment. Organizations that wish to be resilient must update their approach to social media regularly. Given the sheer amount of constantly evolving social media-related best practices and trends that one can find on the internet, we've consolidated a few key priorities we're tracking for your ease of reference.
Here are five social media trends we're tracking in 2024:
Trend 1: Social Media User Behavior Has Shifted
The dynamics of social media user behavior are currently experiencing profound transformations. Users are increasingly gravitating towards meaningful interactions and personalized content. It's noteworthy that conventional engagement metrics, such as clicks, shares, and Likes, are no longer the exclusive benchmarks of success. Instead, the focus has shifted towards evaluating the quality of interactions and fostering community building, marking a pivotal shift in the social media landscape. Today’s social media user wants to foster long-term brand and community relationships with smaller accounts and organizations. Social media isn’t just for entertainment - it’s an integral part of our society that facilitates connections across multiple domains. What was once just a “teenage fad” has become a key element in modern life.
Overall, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for organizations to engage audiences through social media strategies that worked in 2023, 2022, and years prior. While more people are active on social media, they spend their time differently on different apps, thus necessitating organizations to adapt their online outreach approach accordingly. Social media users are becoming more intentional with their time on social media, quicker to “swipe” past content they deem irrelevant, and rapidly altering where they do what online. For example, in 2023, BeReal was one of the fastest-growing social media apps in the United States; however, users shifted their time and attention away from BeReal to focus on apps that allowed them more content over the user experience.
Additionally, we’re seeing more and more segmentation in terms of social media engagement patterns falling along the lines of generational cohorts. For instance, Generation Z (born 1997-2012) prefers social media platforms offering profile anonymity and hyperlocal emphasis. Concurrently, Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are leaning much more toward social media platforms that support identifiable content creation and worldwide distribution. Understanding the generational nuances of modern social media usage is critical for organizations seeking to increase impact in 2024. Micro-segmenting audiences in cohorts based on multiple variables, including generational affiliation, interests, and other demographic or behavior-based factors, will help organizations achieve higher returns on investment from their social media investments.
Trend 2: Social Media Content Accessibility and Inclusivity
Over 20 percent of the American population lives with a disability, thus, prompting an increased emphasis on ensuring social media content is both accessible and inclusive of the disability community. Disability inclusion practices across social media can include a variety of tools and strategies focused on increasing access, such as using alt text descriptions and closed captions for videos. Additionally, organizations should evaluate how they communicate about disabilities online and strive to ensure their copy and creative assets align with the respectful, dignified inclusion of the disabled community and caregivers. By doing so, organizations can increase awareness of best practices, community reach and relationships, and support diverse audiences.
At Becker Digital, our communications and outreach team possesses a vital skill set in disability-informed marketing. As a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, we recognize the importance of ensuring accessibility and inclusion of the modern disabled community. Our commitment extends to prioritizing Section 508-compliant communications, ensuring our content is accessible to all, and fostering a more inclusive digital environment. Disability inclusion isn’t just something we talk about - it’s something we live day in and day out. Our team understands firsthand the negative impacts of public sector organizations’ failure to incorporate disability-informed communications and outreach practices into their overall outreach initiatives.
For more information on improving accessibility and inclusion across social media, check out the following Becker Digital resources:
Trend 3: Rise of Augmented Reality (AR) Experiences
As technology advances, augmented reality (AR) becomes more integrated into social media platforms. This integration reshapes how users interact with content, heralding a new era of immersive and engaging experiences. Such innovative technology quickly moves from “exception” to “expectation” among today’s social media users. Organizations can incorporate AR to create immersive campaigns and interactive storytelling, providing users unique and memorable experiences. Many of us already use AR daily through filters applied to social media posts on Snapchat and Instagram!
AR overlays digital elements onto the natural world through the lens of a device, offering users an immersive online experience. Regarding real-world applications, we’re already seeing AR used as interactive gaming elements, virtual try-on experiences for products, virtual tours, and much more. A few examples of how AR has been utilized to support user engagement and marketing experiences include Pokémon GO, Home Depot’s Project Color App, IKEA Place App, and Netflix’s Stranger Things Experience. Utilization of AR transports social media users to a dynamic realm that transcends traditional customer experiences, empowering a level of immersive engagement that is unique and memorable. It’s “next-level” social media marketing.
Public sector organizations should be aware of the prevalence and possibilities of AR as it can significantly enhance the overall user/customer experience and marketing response when utilized effectively. AR allows social media users to transcend traditional physical barriers via digital empowerment. How can commercially available AR tools elevate your organization’s online presence and reach across popular social media channels?
Trend 4: Addressing the Dark Side of Social Media
Social media is no longer just funny videos, pretty pictures, and informative life hacks. Instead, this two-way communication platform has evolved into a multi-dimensional domain with positive and negative impacts. Over the past few years, social media's “dark side” has emerged, impacting many aspects of our communities, organizations, and individual lives. Destructive, inaccurate, misleading information - also known as “mis/disinformation” - has altered beliefs and behavior across the globe.
Mission-driven organizations, such as government agencies and nonprofit organizations, are poised to play a critical role in addressing the dark side of social media. Colleges and universities are being called upon to confront antisemitism and other forms of hate speech occurring on social media, healthcare companies are actively engaged in addressing medical misinformation that can be life-threatening, and civic organizations are working to counter weaponized narratives intended to foster mistrust and disillusionment in our electoral process. While none of these tasks were previously thought of as falling within traditional communications and marketing scope, 2024 is proving to be quite the year of social media-facilitated “digital fog” - a disorienting and sometimes dangerous electronic space that has a real-world impact on the real lives of real people.
At Becker Digital, we’ve been leading the charge on effective solutions to mis/disinformation for several years and anticipate this year to see an increase in both the prevalence of mis/disinformation online along with an uptick in the negative impacts of such weaponized content. A key component in combatting mis/disinformation is digital media literacy; however, the vast majority of social media users lack the skills necessary to identify, mitigate, and respond to mis/disinformation. Such lapses in our nation’s cognitive-based cyber defenses are likely to be exploited vulnerabilities by bad actors, enemy states, and terrorist groups, especially during times of crisis and emergency. Public sector organizations that support communities connected to social media will likely see an increasing need to address the distribution and subsequent impacts of mis/disinformation across social media platforms in the coming years.
To learn more, check out this on-demand webinar - “' Digital Chatter' — The Growing Challenge of Mis/Disinformation.”
Trend 5: Artificial Intelligence (AI) vs. Authenticity
The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the hands of social media users, influencers, and marketing managers was met with excitement and trepidation. How will digitally developed images, deep fake videos, and language models (like ChatGTP, Bard, etc.) impact the social media landscape? Only time will tell.
A word of caution: Increased technological capabilities can be a double-edged sword. Just because something is available and marketed as an “improvement” doesn’t mean it’s without risks or potential for negative impacts. In the United States, very few enforceable policies and regulations are in place to ensure new technological developments do more good than harm to our society, economy, and citizens, including many vulnerable children and youth who are reported to suffer disproportionately from the adverse effects of technology in its current use forms, including social media.
The emergence of AI-empowered tools will certainly change social media; however, it’s likely to have a paradox-like effect on social media users, increasing the long-term preference for authentic social media content over digitally-enhanced (to an extreme) AI-generated content. Modern social media users of all generations are likely to seek out and show a greater affinity for authentic, non-AI-generated, or enhanced content as the novelty of this new social media trend wanes. Additionally, due to the time and other resource investment that developing authentic content requires, there will likely be less and less circulating on social media. Thus, organizations that prioritize developing and distributing “real” social media content are likely to see more sustainable success across the ever-changing world of social media.
If you’re looking for more insights on creating authentic content that features real people doing real things in real places and making a real impact, check out the following blog posts:
Conclusion
In the ever-changing social media landscape, staying ahead of trends is crucial for organizations aiming to build a solid online presence. By adapting to shifting user behavior, embracing emerging technologies such as AI and AR in a responsible manner, prioritizing accessibility and inclusivity practices, addressing the harmful spread of mis/disinformation, and emphasizing authentic content and interactions, organizations can navigate the dynamic social media landscape in 2024 and beyond. Remember, change is the only constant in social media, so staying agile and proactive is vital to success!
Next Steps - Social Media Success in 2024
If your organization seeks a partner to support social media efforts, Becker Digital can provide consulting, marketing, and training services. We specialize in empowering public sector organizations to implement resilient digital strategies in a rapidly evolving multi-domain world. Contact us to discuss how social media can enhance your organization’s mission, operation, and team.
Becker Digital is proud to be a CVE-verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), SBA-certified HUBZone Business, and Virginia SWaM-certified (Micro, Small, and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned) Business.