2024 Social Media Trends to Explode Your Growth

We are saying goodbye to this year and hello to the next. What do you expect will happen in the social media marketing world this coming year? Based on the trends I’m seeing now, I have some expert predictions that will be coming soon! Here are the 2024 social media trends to explode your growth.

As we know, social media is always changing. While this can be stressful, I actually love that it’s always changing. It shows that it’s adapting to the consumers. We, the users, are constantly changing as well and the social media industry knows it needs to adapt in order for it to stay relevant to us. It runs through this cycle of change and as content creators, we can embrace it. We don’t need to be scared of what’s to come, and we can even be prepared by making predictions and testing things out.

Social Media Trend Prediction #1: Tricks are out and value is in.

I’ve seen reels where people share a 7-second video with 1-2 hooks in the video and when you think they are about to give you the value, the video is over. The creator tricked you into thinking the value was coming, but there was none. This is NOT a good strategy. While they may have another view on their reel, they are not getting more followers with this type of content.

Value has always been appreciated by consumers. We can add value to our content through education, entertainment, engagement, or empathy. Value has always been around, but reels/short-form content has not. Since reels have only been around for a couple of years, we get to see their evolution.

Right now the 7-second videos with trending audio are super effective. Lots of creators use this trend and it draws people in. I for one use them too and I will continue to use them until I see they are not effective anymore.

However, while these 7-second reels are impactful, they should not be the only type of content you are creating. You need to create other content that nurtures your audience. The reels attract new people, but if you’re only attracting then you aren’t building a tight-knit community that will trust you and eventually buy from you. Click HERE to learn more about the attract, nurture, and sell content strategy that will round out your content and grow the community you’re aiming for.

Social Media Trend Prediction #2: Social media will be an even bigger search engine.

Remember when TikTok came along and surpassed Google as the place where people searched? We are going to see more and more of that happen. This should matter to you because people will start coming to social media to search for answers, product reviews, etc. and you want your content to be at the top in those related searches.

But how do you make your content show up at the top of these searches? Brainstorm the type of questions your target audience has and create content answering those questions. You can even use keywords in your content that match what your audience would search for. This would help you show up at the top as well. Check out my post HERE that shows you all the places to enhance the SEO (search engine optimization) on your Instagram to help you get found by more people.

Social Media Trend Prediction #3: Longer videos are going to see an emergence.

We are seeing this happen a little bit already. TikTok and Instagram are increasing the length of videos you can create. The whole goal of these platforms is to keep people on the app. And if people show interest in longer videos (I’m thinking 1-3 minutes) that are super value-packed then the platforms will continue to push this trend forward.

I encourage you to produce some longer videos and see how it goes. Take some of the questions you created in your brainstorming session in the last section of this post and create a video answering these questions. You can later look at your analytics and see how long users stay and watch your video and other stats that would help your content creation going forward.

Social Media Trend Prediction #4: AI is going to be our friend.

This year AI came in full force and people were completely afraid of it. By the end of the year, we’ve all warmed up to it a bit because we can see how it can benefit our business and audience. However, I don’t think we are using it to its capacity yet.

The other day I was on a Zoom call with my team and an AI bot took minutes for the meeting and emailed them to all of us who attended. I could click on a certain task it listed and it would take me back to that point in the video call. What? I didn’t have to pay anyone to do that? It was completely free and super helpful. I see AI more integrated into our daily lives and businesses in this manner and other ways as well.

Have you used ManyChat yet? This is another form of AI and it’s one of my biggest growth tools of this year. ManyChat is an automated DM and comment software that you connect to Instagram. This is a MAJOR game changer for content creators because we no longer have to say, “Link in bio!”, we can just tell our audience to comment a certain word and they will have an automatic response sent to their DMs that you set up. ManyChat speeds up this process tremendously and has helped me more than double my email list (which means more sales!). If you want to give ManyChat a try, use code MICHELLE at checkout to get your first month free!

Social Media Trend Prediction #5: DMs are going to play a huge role.

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said that most of Instagram’s growth has been in DMs. This makes sense because our feed isn’t full of our close friend’s and family’s posts anymore. So if you’re not connecting with the people in your feed, where are you connecting with them? In your DMs. I know you have a group chat with friends or family where you share funny reels, right? Adam knows that too, and Instagram will be using this trend as part of Instagram’s strategy going forward.

If DMs will have a higher emphasis across marketing, then we need to have a DM strategy. Again, ManyChat is your answer. This will automate your process to engage with your followers and grow your community. Plus, it’ll get people to your DMs which is what you want.

In addition, we need to start building a DM list. A DM list is where you can send one message to a bunch of people all at once. I started implementing this strategy a few weeks ago and I’ve already seen great results.

Social Media Trend Prediction #6: Video is going to be more important than ever.

I know some of you either love or hate this one. It’s OK if you hate creating video content, but I want you to think about what content you consume, save, and share. I bet the majority of it right now is video. We need to embrace this trend and get used to being in front of a camera. I know it’s hard, but it only gets easier.

The only way to get better at video is to do video. I can’t take that away from you, it’s just how you learn. Commit to doing videos and getting good at it. It will feel awkward at first, but push through the awkwardness and keep moving forward!

Social Media Trend Prediction #7: People are going to start building bigger than social media.

I’ve seen so many people build these giant audiences on TikTok, and then they do the same thing over on Instagram. And then they realize they don’t have an email list, so they start growing there too. I predict more people are going to see the value in building bigger than social media. As part of that, blogging, email lists, Pinterest, and YouTube will start to grow even bigger too.

Social Media Trend Prediction #8: Your personal brand is going to be more important than ever.

Do you know what Miriam Webster’s word of the year is? Authentic. More people are searching for authenticity than they ever have because of all the fake information out there. People want to connect with real people. With that being said, your personal brand is going to be more important than ever.

When you show up in your stories, reels, etc. you are building a personal connection with your audience. While AI is an amazing automation tool, it can never create authenticity and connection for you. You bring that by showing up as your true self to your people and giving them an inside look at who you are as a person and the one who represents your brand.