2024 Social Media Marketing Predictions
The entire social media realm has changed dramatically. For starters, social media usage has reached 4.89 billion worldwide. Additionally, social media platforms are now vital marketing tools for businesses. As such, small and established businesses should find ways of exploring the social media space to generate leads.
With multiple similar businesses vying for the same space and recognition, your business can only stand out if you employ the right marketing strategies. Below are social media marketing predictions for 2024 and beyond.
Social Media Will Become the King of Advertising
Small and established businesses are increasingly switching to social media for marketing. One key indicator of the increasing adoption of social media marketing is the amount of money businesses allocate to social media marketing.
Businesses spent more than $626 billion on digital ads in 2023. This figure will easily surpass $876 billion by 2026. More than half of social media marketers also agree to allocate over 50% of their marketing budget to social media ads. According to the GWI report, 28% of internet users find out about new brands, products, and services through social media ads.
On average, 80% of users use social media to learn about brands. A further 48% of customers buy products after coming across them on social media. Because of these metrics, businesses and digital marketers are making social media the king of advertising.
AI-recommended Content
Artificial intelligence has dominated most social media conversations in recent years. However, artificial intelligence in 2024 will go beyond being a topic of discussion. Contrary to most people’s expectations, social media users should expect to see more AI-recommended content on their feeds.
Doubling the amount of AI-recommended content is beneficial for brands and content creators. For content creators, there is a better chance of your content showing up in more feeds. However, this requires that you create authentic content. Digital marketers should also switch to short-form videos, memes, Q&As, and other content forms that encourage engagement.
Authenticity and Trust are the New Ways to Sell on Social Media
The days of brand-forward promotions and hard-selling on social media are long gone. Unlike before, people don’t connect with brands that talk only about themselves or their products. While you should talk about your products online, social media users are more interested and expect insightful information from brands.
They also look forward to connecting emotionally with brands. Social media users want businesses that are human and share human values. This explains why it is increasingly important for brands to tell genuine and authentic stories. Customers who feel emotionally connected to a brand willingly spend more.
The best way to build brand authenticity is to ensure that you have an active social media presence and join discussions on current events.
TikTok Popularity is on The Rise
While Facebook remains the most popular platform, TikTok is the preferred app for Gen Z. According to eMarketer, only 15% of Facebook users are below 25 years old. This greatly differs from the TikTok population, which has over 44% of users in this age bracket.
One-fifth of Gen Z (those between 10 and 25 years old) spend 5 hours daily on TikTok. TikTok videos are very effective for brands, especially businesses with products that target Gen Z. Furthermore, over 40% of Gen Z learn about new products and get brand recommendations from TikTok videos.
In 2020, only 16% of digital marketers used TikTok. However, the number increased to 68% by 2021. Marketing predictions suggest that TikTok’s ad revenue will surpass YouTube’s in 2024.
Endnote
2023 was a wild year for social media. Twitter rebranded to X, Meta launched Threads, and dozens of new platforms came up, splitting the market. Digital marketers should continue to find ways of exploiting these unpredictable changes for their benefit. With 2024 almost here, expect social media to be the king of digital marketing, TikTok’s popularity to continue to increase, and many more platforms to launch.