The Future of Social Marketing in 2024
The social media space is constantly evolving, and while I don’t have a crystal ball, I’m beginning to see the tell-tale signs of a turn in the landscape.
Here are three important areas I’ve seen take momentum (and will keep a close eye) on:
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GenAI will continue to make content creation even easier. The rise of AI tools and features will enable even more people to enter the creator economy, while also inspiring more marketers to invest in their own social channels.
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The removal of cookies by Google Chrome will shake up where marketers invest. We’ll see marketers invest more in tried-and-tested channels that have a deep understanding of the audiences they are reaching, such as search, social media and influencer marketing. This also means more earning potential for creators.
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Social media SEO will become more sophisticated: Social platforms continue to invest in search engine functionality as consumer engagement and behavior on their platforms continue to be driven more by communities with common interests versus social relationships.
But that’s not all the change I’m seeing.
There’s no doubt that the landscape has drastically evolved since the early 2020s, meaning your strategy and investment need to change too.
Let’s dive into three core areas that’ll impact brands’ and creators’ approach to social in 2024:
Standing Out From the Crowd Will Be More Difficult (But Not Impossible)
The net result of 2024 will be an even more crowded social and creator landscape.
In fact, by the end of this decade, I believe that one in ten people will be creating content — either for a company or their own personal brand.
These content creators will show up in a multitude of ways, including part-time or full-time influencers, social media managers, agencies, brand ambassadors, employee advocates, or UGC creators.
Which means there will be a lot more noise online.
So for content to stand out and perform, it needs to be human-driven, credible, and have an emphasis on storytelling, regardless of the medium or topic.
This will ensure authenticity and trust remains at the center of your content.
Social and Influencer Marketing Need to Be Implemented Together
The businesses that will thrive in 2024 will be those who understand the need to connect the dots between their social and influencer strategies.
Yet, too many brands still have separate teams, tools and measures of success for these two strategies.
Here at , our social and influencer teams sit together; frequently collaborating on creators to work with, content to publish or boost, and learnings that can inform each others’ strategies.
The result? Less siloed teams; stronger results.
Measurement and Monetization Takes Center Stage
While followers, likes and views are nice-to-know, they no longer tell the full story, nor do they pay the bills.
In 2024, it’s imperative to create goals and content for down-funnel metrics like engagement rate, click-through rate, referring link in bio traffic, and sales.
Monetization is the name of the game, and we’ll see more brands keep a closer eye on partnership performance, as well as creators branch out into new revenue streams like paid newsletters, content subscriptions, and affiliate commissions.
Those who are more data-driven and lean into the full funnel — from social feed to cart — will succeed.
