Elevate Your 2024 Social Media Strategy with These 5 Trends

Trend #1 Brands’ voices on social are mere whispers in the crowd

Our analysis shows that across all industries, brand-owned accounts contribute with just 1.51% of the posts that make up the discussions about their own brands on X (formerly Twitter) through their posts.

While the distribution of brand-owned posts varies by industry (see the last column in the table), such a low percentage signals an opportunity for brands to do more to raise their voices on social and build more brand visibility.

According to our research, two industries saw higher volumes of brand-initiated conversations: Financial services brands accounted for 6.4% of their industry conversations, and consumer tech brands accounted for 4.1% of the conversation — which is a lot more than the collective industry average of 1.51%.

What did these brands talk about on social?

It seems that finance and tech brands have understood that consumers want to be entertained (you’ll read more about it further down). 

Our analysis of finance and consumer tech brands surfaced brands’ posts highlighting collaborations with artists and entertainers, including Samsung and BTS, Mastercard and Harry Styles, and MetLife, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift. 

They also employed engaging strategies like launching social media contests and giveaways, sharing feel-good stories, and some brands opted to elevate women’s voices.

Trend #2 The power of positive brand associations

Building and maintaining brand awareness is crucial for brands, especially when the competition is fierce. 

Positive brand associations can be that differentiating factor, helping shape brand identity and consumer perceptions for the better. And what could be better than associating your brand with something that brings consumers joy, like entertainment? 

One of the bigger trends we saw on social media was brands partnering with influencers and entertainers for events and concerts.

The posts below generated high volumes of positive mentions and lots of engagement on X (Twitter) in the first half of 2023.

What if you are a smaller brand, and partnering with a big celebrity is not an option?

Playing on brand associations can also work. Here’s an example. 

Everybody knows that Coke has high contents of sugar. In fact, there’s precisely 39 grams in each can.

Now, imagine holding a computer mouse in your hand; that's way more than 39 grams, or is it?

According to this company, their UltralightX mouse weighs between 29–35 grams, depending on its size.

By tying their message to something relatable and familiar (and handy) – 39 grams of sugar in a can of Coca-Cola – Finalmouse was able to break through the online noise and generate lots of positive engagement.

Trend #3 Harnessing the influence of unprompted social proof

When consumers tag brands in their posts, they are often looking for a response or to build some visibility around their message. 

But there's nothing like unprompted social proof to help brands boost their visibility and improve their brand perception online.

While conducting our research, we spotted many untagged positive mentions that brands could engage with to maximize their visibility and increase brand awareness. 

Trend #4 Storytelling can evoke lasting positive emotions 

The average human attention span is just 8.25 seconds, and brands need to make those seconds count when building content and crafting campaigns for social media. 

One of the best ways to make an impression on your audience is by employing emotional storytelling (ensuring those emotions are positive).

Emotional connection is forged when people can relate to something, and in the context of IKEA, they masterfully captured the attention of parents everywhere with their new campaign. 

Emotional storytelling helps brands narrate simple, relatable messages in a memorable way. Remember Google’s Loretta ad that won the Super Bowl online conversation a few years back?

Presenting your brand message as a story shows consumers how they can use your product to improve their lives and creates a lasting impression that they are more likely to remember.

Trend #5 Sprinkle humor to be more relatable

Brands should always be looking for new ways to build brand visibility online and positively impact perceptions. 

How can marketers capitalize on what brings consumers joy besides expensive celebrity partnerships? 

Try incorporating humor. 

Executive GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen published a post celebrating Mother’s Day and encouraged his followers to buy their mothers a GameStop gift card as a present. Playing on the notion that most moms would probably prefer the more classical flowers or chocolates for Mother’s Day, Ryan was able to prompt lots of reactions online. 

This light-hearted joke generated lots of laughs on X (Twitter) and high volumes of engagement. 

A Sky Sports commentator got playful while reporting on a racehorse wearing sunglasses, finishing the report with, “If you can’t beat them, join them,” as he put on a pair of sunglasses of his own.