New year, new social trends and a whole new batch of predictions coming fresh off the Grasp press. Get your client decks and GANTT charts out, it’s planning season.
All Aboard, the Authenticity Train
In 2024, we’re getting realer. FR. This doesn’t just mean more tears on your Instagram stories, but more authentic advertising content. Brands will stray further from professional ads, opting to utilise more user-generated (or influencer) content rather than highly produced visuals. Over the past few years, it's become clear that this content performs much better in terms of reach and conversions, but some brands are yet to be convinced… 2024 will change that. Organics will follow suit, as more brands and creators seek to create more authentic and relatable content. Think irreplicable, unique content that only you could make.
Long Form Videos
Our attention span is recovering? Not quite. But users are beginning to understand the different needs short and long-form content fill for both the creator and consumer - thus the desire for long-form content is likely to increase. We’ve already seen some signs of this trend with TikTok’s new users plateauing but also their introduction of 10 minute-long post capabilities. Don’t get me wrong, short-form content will remain just as popular, but it may have hit its peak, just like static posts did years ago.
More Paywalls
As social media platforms become hungrier to make money, as ads alone are no longer cutting it. Following in X’s suit, social platforms are likely to increase the amount of paywall affordances they’re offering; allowing content creators and brands to create more content you have to open your wallet for. We’ve already had a taste of this with Meta’s pay-to-play blue check marks. Instagram has also already moved in this direction with its Creator Subscription service. Although the platforms stand to make a pretty penny here, we can also see this as an avenue to empower influencers to generate a more robust form of income. We may see platforms introduce pay-to-message services for in-demand creators, ad-free platforms for a fee and advanced analytics at cost.
Larger AI Integration
To make platforms more user-friendly, they’ve begun anticipating your every need. We think we’ll see more in caption suggestions, auto-posting and automated features. Take Instagram’s AI Stickers for example, a brand new feature that creates custom story stickers based on your prompts. It allows you to tailor the experience to your every need. Another example is Tik Tok’s algorithm, learning your interests and only serving you content it knows you’ll love. These elements keep users in the app, making their user experience as easy and positive as possible. We think we’ll continue to see innovation in how AI is used to enhance the social platforms.
Greater Homogeneity
With more brands delegating caption writing and idea generation to AI bots, we’re likely to see more uniformity in posts across the platform. This means that if you have a human behind your socials you’re in a great spot. Human perspective and creativity will become even more valuable, allowing originality and greater authenticity throughout all posts.
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