The year 2023 has become one of the periods of prosperity of social networks. Over the past year, social platforms have confidently consolidated their position as one of the main marketing channels for various businesses, brands and influencers. All in all, this is not surprising. 

Judge for yourself: if you have a minute of free time, most likely you’ll devote this time to the networks - scroll through the news feed, watch new funny videos or what you like. Social resources have become a habit of billions of people around the world - there are both bad and good sides to this. But we must admit that this is an ideal state of affairs for business development and the formation of a personal brand. 

However, creating a strategy that will further attract the target audience and allow you to improve your online presence requires involvement in the process. Plus, it's not enough to just use your work tools and focus on what was relevant to your company a year ago.

Trends in the world of social media are changing at the speed of light. Therefore, brands and influencers, setting themselves the goal of creating an effective marketing plan, should be one step ahead and predict trends for the current year in advance, gradually including them in the strategy for further implementation. 

In today's article, we’ve collected the 5 best social media trends to watch out for in 2024. Let's get started!

1- Social Media Algorithms Adapt to The User Experience

Do you remember the days when likes and reposts were a guarantee of success and prosperity in almost all social networks? Forget it, those days are over.  Such interactions today play a secondary role and  are an "auxiliary element" to attract attention to publications and increase visibility. 

What has changed? Algorithms now work differently and focus on the user experience more than ever. We can say that users rule social platforms today, and it will be true. 

What Exactly Are the Algorithms Focusing On? 

• Engagement. Now, when recommending certain content to users, algorithms give preference to meaningful interactions. This is done to make the user experience better and provide the reader/viewer with high-quality content according to their interests and needs.

•  In other words, now, to make the publication more visible, brands need to focus on other types of interaction with the audience: high-quality comments, reposts with personal messages and reply threads. This doesn’t mean that more "simple" and usual interactions (likes and views) have gone into the sunset, but now they are less significant in terms of increasing visibility and expanding the audience. 

• Personalized content feed. Resources have become smarter, and now they are based not on global trends, but on the personal preferences of a particular user. They take into account many factors - interactions, interests, and even online time. As a result, a unique feed is created for each user. 

Relevant content is more important. Now priority is given not to the content that has received more views and likes, but to the one that is more interesting for a particular user. 

It’s important to understand :  this trend will only develop in the future. Therefore, business owners and influencers should adapt these features to the marketing plan and focus on the best content. In the current realities, high-quality and niche, but rare posts will be more relevant for high-quality business development.

2-  Tiktok's Popularity Is Growing

The video platform beloved by Generation Z continues to gain momentum. To make sure of this, it’s enough to study the latest statistics about TikTok: at the moment, about 1.7 billion users are registered, which is 390% more than in 2018. 

This means that the platform continues to attract more and more users from all over the world. Predicting the further development of the network, we can confidently say that in a few years there will be no fewer users here than on Instagram or even YouTube. It’s expected that in 2025 the platform may have more than 2 billion users. 

Plus, the resource is actively used by businessmen and businesses - about 5 million brands in the United States use TikTok as a marketing channel. This clearly shows the effectiveness and relevance of this platform on the modern online space. 

Therefore, from the point of view of promotion, the youth application can become an excellent additional channel of interaction with current and future customers. Last but not least, it’s wise to strive for virality and get as many likes as possible.

Of course, this can be a difficult task at first. But remember that you can always delegate some marketing tasks and direct the budget in the right direction. As an example, you can see what advertising incentives Viplikes offers - buying some interactions can contribute to increasing the visibility of content, and as a result, strengthening business positions on the online market.

3-  Nano-Influencers as A Way to Gain Trust

Before we move on to the new trend of marketing with nano-influencers, let's look at what types of influencers there are.

• Mega influencer has 1 million+ followers. 

• Macro Influencer has about 100.000 - 1 million subs. 

• Micro Influencer has 1000 - 100.000 followers.

• Nano Influence less than 1000 subscribers. 

The first thing that comes to mind when we see different types is that cooperation with mega-influencers is an ideal option. In fact, everything is not as clear as it might seem at first glance. Over time, users lose trust in overly popular creators. They seem inaccessible to them, and thus the creator loses some connection with the audience. 

Then micro and nano influencers come on the scene, which are less popular than mega influencers, but have a strong connection with their fans. According to recent research, they generate 60% more engagement and are able to increase loyalty to a particular brand. 

What is more important: cooperation with such bloggers will save companies a significant part of their budget. Usually, creators who don’t have a large follower base tend to cooperate with brands on the most favorable terms, sometimes it’s enough to offer a product as payment for mentioning the brand in their content. Such cooperation won’t bring businessmen many followers, but they’re more likely to be more active consumers.

Be sure to consider this trend - it's a cost-effective way to grow a business.

4- Authenticity Is the Key to Success

The variety of different content and the multitude of business accounts on the web forces entrepreneurs to adopt new rules of the game. Previously, when users were not yet spoiled by aesthetic content, a strong tone of voice and a friendly approach to interaction, it was easier to grow a business online. But this won’t be the case in 2024 - in order for the commercial account to continue to grow, it’s important to focus on authenticity and originality.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that brands will have to reinvent the wheel - companies don’t need to stage a revolution to pay attention to a product/service. How to be original? It's simple - don't be a copycat. In other words, you shouldn’t copy the content of other accounts, much less follow their example.

Each brand is unique, and this should be obvious to users. As an example, the ideal option is to share the history of the company's creation, introduce followers to employees and be frank.

Users love it when they are taken care of and given the opportunity to trust. That's why stories about failures, ups and downs so often become popular and bring great marketing benefits to companies.

Communication with customers (current and potential) is also an integral part of creating originality, and this step shouldn’t be missed on the way to authenticity.

5- Short Videos Are Still Trending

What hasn't changed in the last few years is the users' love of video content. Such formats are more understandable and convenient for absorbing information, which is why text publications and photographs become less demanded by the audience. But convenience and clarity are not the only things that make video king in today's online world. 

Videos are inherently a more lively format. Through clips, companies have the opportunity to showcase a lot more live content or attract a new audience through relevant memes/funny situations. Interestingly, more than 2.3 billion Insta users interact with Reels every month. This fact implies the following: clips get 22% more interactions than other content. 

It's the same with YouTube shorts (a direct competitor to Reels and TikTok), they get 50 billion views a day, and today they are more relevant than long videos. That's why your strategy this year should definitely include short videos for various platforms.

Final Thoughts

Having an idea of what social trends will be popular in the new year is always a great option to improve interaction with the audience, navigate the online space, and understand what customers will expect in the future.

At the same time, it’s not necessary to change the marketing strategy - it’s enough to correctly integrate trends into the existing base. Good luck!