An update on our 2024 social media trends

Earlier this year, we published a two-part series detailing upcoming trends forecasted by our fellow  social media experts, as well as some trends predicted by our team. As we’re now more than halfway through the year, let’s look back at the trends and see if or how they’re progressing. 

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Back in January we, along with many experts in the industry, suggested that AI tools and services would boom in 2024 continuing its growth from 2023. It’s safe to say that we were definitely right!

We’ve seen social platforms begin to integrate AI in a number of ways, but mostly keeping it behind paywalls. LinkedIn now offers Premium users the option to ‘rewrite with AI’ when creating a post, X (formerly Twitter) has integrated its own AI search assistant named ‘Grok’, and Facebook has been seen testing AI comment summaries. We’re just beginning to see how AI can be integrated in social media and expect there to be more additions to this list by the end of the year.

 

Subscriptions

Subscriptions for social media platforms have continued to be persistent in 2024, and it doesn’t look like they’re going away. 

Since our January blog, X has expanded its Premium subscription, and it now offers three levels: Basic, Premium, and Premium+. What’s more is that X has now locked its analytics behind the Premium subscription (which is currently £8.40/month), and as the construction industry grapples with difficult market conditions, companies may need to weigh the benefits depending on return on investment. We’ve pulled back from the platform and expect that others may follow.

While Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn don’t seem to have any subscription services that directly impact user experience as X has implemented, we’ll certainly be keeping a close watch.

 

Social search

Search engine optimisation (SEO) within social media platforms continues to be relevant in 2024. 

Take Instagram for example: we’ve noticed that hashtags which were once a key way to search on the app, have been separated in the search tab. Now, Instagram will prioritise search suggestions under the ‘For you’ tab first, then ‘Accounts’ and even ‘Audio’ before getting to the ‘Tags’ page. What we’re learning from this is that it’s more important than ever to make your original copy SEO-optimised, and research the right audio for your posts and reels!

 

Social commerce, sharing content and the creator economy

We couldn’t talk about social commerce and creators without mentioning TikTok – possibly the single biggest reason why social commerce has boomed in the past couple of years. The integration of TikTok Shop and its Affiliate programme where you can get paid to promote products has led to users being able to shop easily with one tap, and many day to day users have taken advantage of the monetary benefits of promoting products. 

The Affiliate programme has definitely boomed this year, though with this, the way content is being shared has changed. As every day TikTok users can sign up to promote the Shop, less organic product reviews and more paid ads are being seen than ever. Due to this, many users are complaining of too many ‘spammy’ promotional videos, and some even suggesting this has led to normalising overconsumption habits. 

We’ll be monitoring this one, as it could be a possibility that if the app is overrun with promotional material, users could look elsewhere for genuine reviews. 

 

Recommended content

While TikTok, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn and X all announced that they would be focusing more on recommended content in 2024, we’re yet to see any big changes.

On Instagram and Facebook, you’ll still see recommended posts and Reels from accounts you don’t follow and you’ll see Threads suggestions on Instagram too. These have been implemented for a while but it doesn’t look like they’re changing for now. Though on LinkedIn, our team agrees we have seen a slight rise in the frequency of recommended posts on our feed. 

 

Customisation 

We’ve seen a little in the way of customisation, but not too much. More features have been added to Instagram Broadcast channels, and it’s currently testing expanding the Notes feature to Reels and Feed posts. 

 

Short form video

It’s no surprise that short-form video continues to be king. Most platforms now prioritise this content and provide ongoing updates to give users more features and easier ways to create. 

While we can’t say for certain until the data starts rolling in, our social media experts have noticed longer videos on TikTok than Instagram Reels – as most Reels tend to revolve around trends (which are usually short and snappy) or use popular audios that seem to be shorter in length. And on TikTok, while users do behave in similar ways, they also seem to post a wide variety of other content which doesn’t use short trending audios or conform to a strict length but focuses more on getting the point of the video across (i.e. telling a story) rather than keeping it short and snappy. 

Are you struggling to keep up with all the changes? Our social media team keeps their ears to the ground and will take note of and implement the relevant trends your construction business can take advantage of. Get in touch to see how we can help.