Social Media Trends You Need to Know About for 2024

Since social media has emerged as a dominating force in our world and an essential marketing channel, it has only grown in popularity and importance year after year. Today, almost 92% of marketers worldwide are using social media as a marketing tool. The fact that social media marketing is a must hasn’t changed.

What has changed, however, are the various trends that have come and gone in the social media world as different platforms, hashtags, challenges, and practices come in and out of style. As a business owner, staying on top of these trends is crucial, potentially making or breaking your ability to profit from the massive power of social media.

To help you continue to stay on top of things, we’ve put together a list of all of the social media trends that you need to know about going into 2023. Armed with these new strategies, you’ll be able to ace your social media marketing efforts in the coming year. 

2023’s Top Social Media Trends

Social shopping

In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, social shopping has become an undeniable force, with the value of global social commerce sales estimated to reach $992 billion in 2022. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest all allow users to make purchases directly from the platform, and you can expect other networks to follow suit. 

This capability has great promise for businesses, serving as a direct source of revenue from social media. So if your business isn’t already taking advantage of social commerce, now is the perfect time to start. 

Integrity, authenticity, and the human touch

As brands continue to find their footing and voice on social media, the use of a more casual, human approach is becoming more and more popular. Audiences demonstrate an increasing desire for integrity and authenticity rather than polish and professionalism. Brands can demonstrate this in several different ways, including:

• Posting user-generated content (see more on that below)
• Posting images and videos of “real” people rather than models
• Using a conversational tone and language

Note that video is an especially powerful content type for this trend, as it allows for a more intimate, personal touch than text or still images. 

Continued domination of (especially short-term) video content

As TikTok (and its imitators like YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels) continues to grow in popularity, the domination of short-term video content goes on. TikTok now reaches over 1 billion monthly users and continues to be a cultural leader, selling out products, skyrocketing songs up the music charts, generating new celebrities, and more.

As more and more audiences flock to this type of short, vertical, casual video content, it emerges as essential for any marketing strategy aiming to reach the young, the hip, and the current. 

In order to succeed on TikTok, it’s important to:

• Embrace the casual, quirky mindset and tone of voice
• Monitor trends in order to stay on top of the cultural conversation and not fall behind
• Focus on brand building rather than posting obvious advertisements

Promo tip: Promo’s online video maker allows you to easily adjust your videos to fit TikTok’s ideal specs with just a few clicks. 

Social awareness, D&I, and environmental impact 

The days of brands being able to ignore larger social issues are over. The modern consumer calls for the brands they follow and patronize to take a stand and show that they care about a variety of issues from diversity and inclusivity to climate change. 85% of consumers have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about.

In order to earn today’s social media user’s trust, businesses must demonstrate that they are listening to the larger cultural conversation and making a genuine effort to make a positive difference in the world. The important thing here is that it’s about more than just using the right buzzwords. It’s all about walking the walk as customers expect real action that shows that businesses mean what they say. 

Interaction over engagement 

Once upon a time, engagement was the hot topic in social media marketing. But today’s landscape goes beyond just comments, likes, and shares. Instead, the modern social media algorithm prioritizes interaction. This means a true, two-way conversation between brands and followers through a variety of features such as TikTok’s video duets and Instagram’s polls, Q&As, and quizzes. 

When planning out your content calendar for the next year, aim to encourage as much interaction as possible. This approach will benefit you two-fold: a push from the algorithm as well as an improved connection with your audience. 

User-generated content 

User-generated content (UGC), the practice of sourcing and posting content created by your audience, is a great way to integrate other important 2023 social media trends such as the human touch and interactivity. There are many ways to implement UGC, including:

• Influencer marketing
• Contests
• Giveaways
• Social media takeovers 
• Testimonials and reviews

Best of all, leaning more on UGC will allow you to potentially spend less on content creation, which may be appealing going into a predicted economic downturn. 

Personalization

The modern consumer is showing an increased preference for personalization, wanting to see content that feels relevant to them and interact with brands that understand their unique needs. Today, 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76% get frustrated when they don’t receive them. This all goes back to the feeling of personal connection that permeates 2023’s biggest social media trends.

There are many different ways to get started with personalization on social media, including:

• Retargeting campaigns
• Personalized video content featuring people resembling the target segment
• Chatbots 
• Direct audience interaction
• Personalized quizzes and polls
• Content created for a local audience

Embracing smaller platforms

As a small business running a tight social media marketing operation, it’s easy to focus on the giants like Facebook and YouTube. But in 2023, brands are actually pivoting their focus to smaller platforms like LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Snapchat. The advantage of marketing on slightly smaller social media networks (remember, they still reach hundreds of millions of users) is that you reach a more targeted audience who is more likely to be interested in the content you’re making. 

So if you’re selling to businesses or otherwise have a professional, authoritative brand identity, LinkedIn may be the best platform for you. If you’re trying to reach creative people working on visually-focused projects (think brides or home DIYers), consider getting on Pinterest. If you’re looking to target Gen Z, Snapchat is a must. 

Promo tip: Now you can schedule and post directly to LinkedIn through Promo’s online video maker.

Tight-knit communities 

Similar to the above point, another 2023 social media trend is focusing on micro-communities rather than huge ones. In the same way that marketers have wisened up to the fact that micro-influencers usually have more influence and higher engagement rates relative to their audience size than major influencers do, they’re now beginning to have the same realization about social media communities. 

Significantly more accessible and easier to penetrate than online communities with tens of thousands of members or more, micro-communities of a few hundred or thousand members deserve your focus. So seek out Facebook groups, subreddits, Discord chats, and LinkedIn groups relevant to your niche. But don’t just use them for advertising. Instead, become a genuine member of the community. Not only will this lend you credibility if and when you should choose to plug your brand, but it will also help you keep your finger on the pulse of what your target audience is thinking, wanting, and doing. 

Augmented & virtual reality

Finally, it wouldn’t be 2023 if we didn’t round out our conversation about social media trends by mentioning one of the hottest trends in tech today: augmented and virtual reality. Augmented reality is already in high use on social media platforms, with 62% of American gen Z-ers reporting that they use filters on their posts. Virtual reality is still behind AR, but with Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s full support, you can expect it to slowly trickle down to end users. In fact, content like virtual concerts and tours is already becoming more commonplace.

While it may be a bit early for the small business to be committing to VR as a social media marketing tool, it’s important to recognize that it is a growing trend, with vast potential in the years to come. If your audience seems to be interested in this type of technology, it might be worth thinking about ways to incorporate AR and VR in the future, such as by showcasing a product in 3D or creating your own social media filter.

Trend Today, Yours Tomorrow

As a small business owner, your resources are limited, meaning that it’s extra important to be strategic about how you allocate your time and budget. To get the most out of your social media marketing efforts, staying on top of the latest trends and developments is key. By learning about all of the trends we’ve mentioned above, you’ll be able to make strategic decisions about which you should, can, and will implement into your own social media marketing practices.