Social Media Trends for 2024 (Buckle Up!)

Social media is a messy and exciting place for brands to call home, and in 2023, we were frequently reminded of this reality. Fan-generated content such as #Barbenheimer created some unexpected (and fun) opportunities for brands to tap into viral user behavior. On the other hand, controversies on Twitter/X sparked some difficult brand safety challenges, to say the least. But certainly social media was never boring for marketing teams as they navigated their way through the year. Let’s take a closer look at the major news stories from 2023 that influenced how brands and social media interact with each other – and some of the questions that those stories raise for brands in 2024. 

1. TikTok: the Rise of the Influencelebrity

It’s impossible to discuss social media trends without mentioning TikTok, whose meteoric rise is one of the biggest business stories in recent years. But where to start? The company’s growth as an online commerce platform? The many viral trends TikTok spawned? Its ongoing controversies concerning user privacy? Here’s what impressed me about 2023: the convergence of increasingly sophisticated content creation tools and the rise of influencelebrities.

TikTok continued to launch features (including advanced editing and an expanded sound library) that make content creation slicker and more professional looking, which is ironic because many brands have created lo-fi content on TikTok in a bid for authenticity. At the same time, an entire generation of users raised on digital has emerged, who are comfortably taking advantage of these tools to amass large followings. These influencelebrities may not be as famous as Taylor Swift, but they’ve become big enough to secure partnerships with businesses, an example being Gillette’s partnership with Joe Mele.

As we look ahead at 2024,One of the biggest questions for brands is how they’ll strike a balance between creating their own content on TikTok and leaning on influencelebrities to help them meet their goals. Influencelebrities can help brands gain street cred and visibility with TikTok nation, but they can also create friction if the values of the brand and the influencer are out of sync or if the influencelebrity loses their cachet. Some brands have experienced spectacular problems when they’ve hitched their wagon with an influencer who does not connect with the brand’s audience. More brands will treat relationships with celebrities with scrutiny and sophistication. They will partner with multiple micro influencers who connect with different audiences based on carefully defined segmentation. Generative AI can help brands do this segmentation and alignment by A/B testing potential influencelebrities against AI-generated personas, which will ultimately result in more relationships created quickly and sun-setted once a campaign is over.

2. Brand Safety Takes Center Stage  

At the 2023 New York Times DealBook Summit, the owner of Twitter/X went on the meltdown heard around the world. In front of an attentive audience, Elon Musk cursed at business for putting their Twitter/X advertising on pause. For good measure, he name-checked the CEO of one of those brands, who was in the audience watching. The moment was the culmination of one of the biggest stories in social media: the Twitter/X brand safety crises.

Throughout the year, businesses paused their advertising as Twitter/X experienced one controversy after another, usually (but not always) related to content tweeted by Musk himself. This was not the first time brands have scaled back their involvement in social media owing to brand safety concerns, as they have with platforms such as YouTube. But in 2023, brand safety became an ongoing issue, not a one-time flare-up.

All of this raises some questions for 2024, such as:

• What’s going to happen to Twitter/X, especially in an election year that will be marked by deepening polarization? Will more brands flee, or will Twitter/X impose more content moderation to make businesses feel safer there?
• Will Twitter/X challengers such as Threads take hold? After a promising start, Threads has sputtered, and Twitter/X remains a formidable platform with a strong user base.

In an increasingly polarized world, businesses are going to continue to look very closely at where they spend their time and with what platform. Consumers and employees are increasingly pressuring brands to live their values, and this might include steering clear of platforms that pose a conflict. The onus of brand safety falls on platforms. In 2024, as an election year in the United States rachets up the intensity of social media polarization, every platform will be tested. Who will pass the test? Brands will decide.

3. AI: New Tools and New Questions

A lot of the conversation about AI in 2023 focused on brands creating content with generative AI. And they had a lot of help from social media platforms, whether invited or not. For example, Meta launched several tools that use AI to optimize images for advertising. If a brand manager didn’t want to use them, they had to opt out; otherwise, Meta would automatically optimize their visual content. This led to mixed results. Sometimes the resulting creative asset was on brand, and sometimes the outcome was very much off brand. Businesses needed to proceed cautiously as they applied these tools.

In 2024, businesses everywhere face many questions about the application of AI in social media, including the challenge of using it to enhance a brand rather than violate brand guidelines. Alternatively, AI could challenge a business to push the envelope with its brand identity by imagining new forms of expression. Brands also need to proceed very cautiously in how they use generative AI in the ideation and creation of visual and written content.

Relying on generative AI to create content will damage a brand’s authenticity and humanity. But generative AI can make a brand more authentic, too, by giving a business a means to A/B test copy and visual content for tone of voice and other attributes comprising a brand’s identity. The key to making AI work for a brand:
 

• Using AI to help people ideate and create instead of turning the keys over to AI completely. The human connection will ensure a brand keeps its emotional tie with all stakeholders.
• Being transparent about how AI is being used in the enterprise to create content. No audience likes to feel like they’ve been fooled. 

It’s going to be an exciting and interesting year.

4. Fandom: An Opportunity for Brands?

Everyone loves a fun viral campaign, and 2023 offered plenty of them. Between #Barbenheimer, the Grimace Shake, and #Traylor, social media fans took user generated content to a whole new level of impact and ingenuity – which challenged brands to decide whether to join in the fun.

For instance, the release of two wildly different movies at the same time in July, Barbie and Oppenheimer, spawned the #Barbenheimer phenomenon, a playful re-imagining of the two movies through clever memes and even fan theories about a hidden connection between the two films, with some speculating that Barbie’s world was a product of Oppenheimer’s imagination.

Hollywood studios were initially surprised and amused by the online buzz surrounding #Barbenheimer. Some saw it as a potential marketing opportunity, while others simply enjoyed the unexpected cultural mashup. Many theater chains saw #Barbenheimer as a chance to boost ticket sales and concession profits. They offered double features of Barbie and Oppenheimer, themed popcorn buckets, and even costume contests. Larger theater chains used data analytics to track audience preferences and adjust their scheduling accordingly. In some cases, this meant adding more screenings of Barbie or Oppenheimer based on real-time demand.

And #Barbenheimer had plenty of company in the world of fandom. When McDonald's released a limited edition shake to celebrate the birthday of McDonald’s character Grimace, an improbable TikTok viral sensation was born. TikTok users decided to subvert expectations and create a surreal, dark comedy trend. Users would wish Grimace a happy birthday and take a sip of the shake. They’d then dramatically pretend to suffer through various gruesome reactions – possession, poisoning, melting, existential crises, and even death. The videos often featured creative costumes, editing tricks, and comedic delivery. While seemingly mocking the shake, the trend generated significant buzz for McDonald’s, increasing milkshake sales and brand awareness.

McDonald’s responded to the Grimace shake challenge by simply letting the phenomenon play itself out. And the brand had good reason to stay on the sidelines. First, the fan generated videos were already boosting sales of the limited edition shake without the help of McDonald’s. Second, the shake had a limited shelf life, available only for June. Stoking too much demand could have disappointed customers.

In 2024, I think that more brands will respond to these trends but not always by participating in them. With better AI-fueled real-time analytics and social monitoring tools, brands will do a better job listening to audience behaviors and actually creating new products and services, as the Kellanova’s Pringles brand and The Caviar Co. did.  At the 2023 Coachella music festival, the two companies hosted an event featuring caviar paired with a variety of Pringles flavors – and people started reacting positively on TikTok and Instagram. So, the two brands decided to tap into the fan love by collaborating on a limited edition Crisp and Caviar collection. And with a bit of deft influencer outreach, they enjoyed an explosion of visibility on Instagram and TikTok.

This is the future of brands, fan love and social: generating something new and authentic by listening. Conceivably, brands can create integrated social media campaigns that lead to the purchase of products on social, thanks to the rise of social commerce on sites such as TikTok. Netflix already does this by listening to social signals and then creating products for sale on its own ecommerce platform based on the popularity of Netflix’s programs. Brands are just scratching the surface.

At IDX, we help businesses build stronger brands and strengthen trust with their audience through social media. Learn more about our social media services.